“It’s like, what are we going to have left in our community?”

While one alderman wept, others grew angry with the mayor, demanding to know what her strategy was to stop the violence that began in earnest late Saturday.

The call provides a snapshot into the city’s response as of midday on Sunday to the most widespread and damaging unrest since the uprising after the murder of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the police riots after the Democratic National Convention in 1968.

The recording begins with Ald. Michelle Harris (8th Ward) wondering how she could convince businesses like Walmart and CVS to rebuild on the South Side after the destruction.

“It’s like, what are we going to have left in our community?” Harris asks her colleagues before answering herself. “Nothing.”