Alex Nitkin is The Daily Line’s reporter covering Cook County and Chicago land use policy. He came to TDL from The Real Deal Chicago, where he covered Chicago real estate news. He previously worked at DNAinfo, first as a breaking news reporter, and then as a neighborhood reporter covering the city's Northwest Side. Nitkin graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a bachelor’s degree.
Bio
Solutions reporter, @IllinoisAnswers/@BetterGov. Formerly of @thedailylinechi, @trdchicago & @DNAinfoChi. Amateur baker. Tips: [email protected]Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady [right] disagrees with a proposal drafted by Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33) and backed by more than half of the City Council to reopen shuttered public mental health clinics.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is pushing back hard on a proposal from the City Council to reshuffle mental health spending to reopen city-backed clinics, saying the plan would veer the city off its existing path to widening psychiatric outreach.
Arwady clashes with City Council on mental health clinics amid gush of budget amendments
Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference Thursday. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]
E-scooter companies officially got the greenlight on Thursday to come back to Chicago with the City Council’s approval of a citywide program for the controversial two-wheeled modes of transportation.
Scooter program approved; budget watchdog peppers critiques amid ‘overall support’ for Lightfoot’s 2022 plan
Leaders from the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications are scheduled Friday to brief aldermen on the office’s 2022 spending plan. [OEMC]
The City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations is scheduled on Friday to ask the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, water department and aviation department to defend their proposed 2022 budgets, which together come out to more than $1.6 billion. Friday’s three department budget hearings will close out day six of the 11-day marathon of budget committee hearings on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed spending plan.
OEMC, water and aviation departments set to defend proposed 2022 spending plans
Ald. Michele Smith (43) [left] and Ald. Leslie Hairston [5] during a City Council rules committee meeting on Friday.
Members of the public would still be allowed to virtually speak their minds at City Council and committee meetings even after the danger of the coronavirus pandemic subsides and meetings return to City Hall under a proposal set for a City Council vote on Sept. 14.
City Council set to enshrine permanent virtual access for public comment
Glenstar wants to build a 297-unit apartment complex at 8535 W. Higgins Rd. in the 41st Ward. [Glenstar/Chicago Plan Commission]
Despite opposition from the area’s alderman, a seven-story, 297-unit housing development near the Cumblerland CTA Blue Line station scored key approval Thursday from the city’s Plan Commission.
Apartment complex near O’Hare gets key approval from city commission — despite aldermen’s opposition
Aldermen during the June 23 City Council meeting [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]
A modified plan to expedite business permits, approval of a $4 billion mega-development on the Near South Side and a years-in-the-making civilian police oversight plan are among dozens of items set for consideration by the City Council on Wednesday during its last meeting before the council’s August recess.
Aldermen retain sidewalk permit veto power under agreement set for City Council vote Wednesday
Hacked emails offer a rare glimpse at the grinding process by which civilian police oversight went from a lofty campaign promise to an ordinance on the brink of passage to a political dead end, leaving the issue open for more than a year. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]
Aldermen over the weekend appeared within striking distance of a deal with Mayor Lori Lightfoot on a blueprint to establish civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department, an agreement that has eluded the parties for more than a year.
Lightfoot’s campaign promise on police oversight comes tantalizingly close, 16 months after the last deal fell apart
Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough is ready to start calculating property tax rates after initially refusing to do so, her office announced. And City Council committees are set to take up ordinances on a range of issues, from remote administrative hearings to car impoundments.
News in brief: Yarbrough backs off threat to hold up property taxes; rules on administrative hearings, car impoundments set for committee consideration
Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown during an August 2020 news conference [Chicago Police Department]
Updated Wednesday 12:54 p.m.: Nearly half the City Council used a legal maneuver on Wednesday to trigger a special meeting designed to probe Chicago Police Department leaders about their plans to head off summer violence ahead of the July 4 weekend.
The virtual council meeting, now scheduled for 11 a.m. on Friday, follows through on a letter signed on Tuesday by 25 aldermen threatening to convene the special meeting if a powerful committee chair did not act this week to schedule a wide-ranging meeting to review police policies.
Aldermen move to force special meeting to put Brown ‘on the stand’ over CPD summer plans
Aldermen agreed to spring two-dozen measures out of the City Council Committee on Committees and Rules, putting them back on track. And Cook County commissioners signaled they’re moving full-steam on a plan to ask county voters to raise their own property taxes to fund the Cook County Forest Preserve District.
News in brief: Ride-share ordinance, other measures sprung from rules committee; county commissioners unanimously endorse Forest Preserve District tax hike
From left: former Chicago alderman Bob Fioretti, former Cook County commissioner Tony Peraica and fired former Cook County Board of Review staffer Todd Thielmann are looking to run as Republicans for top countywide posts.
Attorney and former Chicago alderman Bob Fioretti is turning to Cook County Republicans to stamp his ticket for his sixth political campaign in seven years as he tops a full slate of familiar faces hoping to work their way back into elected office.
An increasingly thin presence in solidly Democratic Cook County, Republicans are regrouping and hoping to seize on a favorable political environment this year to win back some of the territory they’ve lost over the decades. The effort includes fielding a full roster of candidates running in citywide and district-level positions across the county.
They’re back: Fioretti, Peraica, Thielmann seek top Cook County spots on Republican ticket
Ald. Leslie Hairston (5), left, and Chicago Department of Housing Asst. Comm. Will Edwards speak during a meeting of the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate Tuesday.
A $15 million loan fund pilot to help longtime South Shore condo owners stay in their homes won’t insulate most of the neighborhood from displacement pressure, but it will salve a nagging problem that has been festering for decades, city housing officials and the area’s local alderman said Tuesday.
A vocal group of local organizers is calling for more, saying the fund is well-intentioned but shows misplaced priorities by the city as South Shore faces a crush of real estate interest rippling from the coming Obama Presidential Center.
South Shore condo program ‘one piece of the puzzle,’ but organizers want more action to stem gentrification
Residents of condo buildings including the Lake Terrace complex at 7337 S. Lake Shore Drive would be able to apply for grants or loans to renovate their homes under the South Shore Condo Preservation Pilot Program. [Eric Allix Rogers on Flickr]
South Shore condo associations will be allowed to apply for city-backed grants for maintenance and repairs under an ordinance under consideration Tuesday that aims to protect longtime homeowners from displacement in the South Side neighborhood.
The proposal (O2022-2004) by Mayor Lori Lightfoot on behalf of the Chicago Department of Housing is one of more than a dozen ordinances set for consideration by the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate during its 10 a.m. meeting on Tuesday, including city financing for a new woman-centered supportive housing development in Uptown.
$15M loan fund for South Shore condo preservation, Uptown supportive housing up for approval
Cook County leaders laid the groundwork Monday for annual spending talks and late tax collections in an unusual budget year. And Chicago transportation officials unveiled plans to give away 5,000 bikes through 2026.
News in brief: Cook County looks ahead to budget season; CDOT details plans to give away 5,000 bikes
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office sent out reassessment notices this month to property owners in Norwood Park Township, which includes the villages of Norridge and Harwood Heights. [City of Chicago]
The first round of new assessments for the 2022 tax year hit mailboxes in Norridge and Harwood Heights last week, and they offer an early signal that landlords may be spared of the sticker shock that has confronted them the last three years.
But the timing of the new valuations — five months after they’re typically sent out — has set off warning bells that the delay could cascade into next year’s collections, extending a headache for suburban municipalities and school districts with no clear end in sight. Kaegi's office is downplaying the threat of a future delay, saying the same technology update that contributed to this year's pile-up will speed up assessments now that it's been implemented.
North-suburban reassessments point to tax cool-down for landlords, but no end in sight to calendar crunch
Second-installment property tax bills will be mailed out by Dec. 1 this year instead of in July per the usual schedule, officials said Thursday.
Cook County will launch a competitive fund offering loans of at least $20,000 each to suburban municipalities, school districts and other taxing bodies that are bracing for revenue shortfalls from an expected four-month delay in property tax bills this year, county President Toni Preckwinkle’s administration announced Thursday.
The county’s Local Government Bridge Funding Program, set for official launch by the county Board of Commissioners later this month, will make up to $300 million in “one-time…short-term operational cash flow” loans to taxing bodies most hurt by the late bills, officials said.
Cook County to launch $300M loan fund to ‘bridge’ revenue gaps from late property taxes
Dan Pogorzelski, left, was leading Elizabeth Joyce Thursday in the race for a two-year term on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. [provided/Facebook]
Nine days after the June 28 primary, just one Chicago-area race remained too close to call on Thursday, but a late batch of mail-in votes tilted the result toward a clean sweep for the Cook County Democratic Party’s candidates for the $1.2 billion agency responsible for wastewater treatment and flood mitigation all over Cook County.
If Daniel Pogorzelski clings to his nearly 2,000-vote lead over Elizabeth Joyce through the end of ballot-counting next week, party-backed candidates will have successfully beaten back an insurgent slate led by an ousted former commissioner who argued he and his allies are more diverse and qualified than the party picks.
Pogorzelski vaults into the lead in tight MWRD race to pad victories for Dem party slate
The COVID-19 pandemic brought on unprecedented hardships for restaurant owners and employees, resulting in shuttered restaurants, job losses, and shattered dreams for countless owners and industry employees. I am lucky that Yolk, the restaurant I work for, did not suffer a similar fate.
This is certainly not to say we didn’t face our own set of challenges or were able to get through these difficult years unscathed. Like so many others, when the pandemic began and we were forced to shut our doors to indoor dining, we had to make the devastating decision to lay off hundreds of employees across our locations and even permanently closed two of our locations altogether here in Chicago.
Third-party delivery apps aren’t just a passing pandemic fad — they are here to stay
Brian Urbaszewski, center, of the Respiratory Health Association joined ComEd leaders including Michelle Blaise, right, to unveil a new charging station in Bronzeville Wednesday. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]
The mega-utility firm ComEd will dedicate $100 million annually for the next three years to a host of efforts designed to speed Illinois through its transition to electric cars, leaders of the company announced Wednesday.
The spending commitment was the topline goal of the “Beneficial Electrification” plan that ComEd submitted to the Illinois Commerce Commission under a new state law and unveiled during a ribbon-cutting for new charging stations in Bronzeville on Wednesday. The rollout comes as state leaders push toward a goal of seeing one million electric vehicles on Illinois roads by 2030 and as ComEd faces pressure to get a handle on price hikes.
ComEd to pour $300M into EV charging by 2026 as CEJA deadlines loom
A disgraced former Chicago alderman was sentenced to four months in federal prison on Wednesday as a judge denied his request for probation. And a Chicago police oversight agency launched an investigation into a Park Ridge incident allegedly involving a Chicago Police officer who pinned a 14-year-old boy to the ground.
News in brief: Lightfoot urges sympathy amid Thompson sentencing; COPA launches investigation into CPD officer who allegedly pinned Park Ridge teen to the ground
Ald. James Cappleman (46) at a City Council meeting in February 2020. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]
Ald. James Cappleman (46) will not run for a fourth term in the City Council next year after more than a decade at the helm of Uptown’s radical transformation, he announced in a note to constituents on Tuesday.
The news comes as three contenders have already lined up to succeed him — including one challenger who came within a hair’s breadth of unseating him in 2019.
Cappleman to call it a career after 12 years as Uptown’s alderman as crowded field emerges to replace him
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42), right, talks to Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38) during an April 2022 City Council meeting.
A new proposal backed by a cluster of powerful Chicago aldermen aims to crack down on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration’s semi-regular habit of introducing new legislation for an immediate vote with little or no notice.
Proposed ordinance would add transparency rules for last-minute ‘emergency’ legislation
Real estate appraiser Samantha Steele, left, appears to have unseated Cook County Board of Review Comm. Michael Cabonargi in one of Tuesday’s biggest upsets.
Updated July 1, 9:45 a.m. For the first time in decades, voters have simultaneously ousted two sitting members of the Cook County Board of Review — an earth-shaking blow to the county’s tax assessment orthodoxy that could have far-reaching consequences for property owners from Barrington to Calumet City.
But one of the incoming commissioners has little time to celebrate as she works to fend off an explosive lawsuit from a fired campaign strategist that has already cast a cloud over her victory.
Cabonargi’s ouster heralds Board of Review shake-up as his challenger gets embroiled in legal fracas
Ald. George Cardenas (12) speaks during the Cook County Democratic Party slating event in December 2021.
More than a half-dozen Chicago elected officials asked voters last night for promotions that would have lifted them out of city government and given Mayor Lori Lightfoot the power to heavily reshape the composition of the City Council and its committees.
The candidates went one-for-seven. Few of the races were close.
Chicago aldermen suffered defeats up and down the ballot Tuesday — but Cardenas’ win gives Lightfoot another opening
From left: Metropolitan Water Reclamation District candidate Patricia Theresa Flynn, judicial candidate Tom Nowinski, judicial candidate Diana Lopez, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, judicial candidate Rena Van Tine, judicial candidate Tracie Porter and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle speak at a Cook County Democratic Party news conference and voting event in Kenwood on Tuesday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]
Fritz Kaegi declared victory Tuesday night in his bid for a second term as Cook County Assessor, calling his modest but decisive win against challenger Kari Steele a sign that voters want him to stay on his mission to recalibrate the county’s property tax burden from homeowners onto downtown businesses.
Meanwhile, Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt (D-1) and Comm. Michael Cabonargi (D-2) both appeared on paths to defeat, heralding a shake-up on the appeals board charged with checking Kaegi’s math.
Kaegi declares victory as Preckwinkle cruises to reelection and Board of Review incumbents stare down defeat
Anthony Quezada gives a victory speech at a watch party in Portage Park after winning a five-way race for Cook County Board of Commissioners 8th District. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]
The Cook County Board of Commissioners’ left flank is set to be shored up next year as Anthony Quezada, a Northwest Side political organizer and longtime right hand to Chicago Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), jumped ahead of a crowded field to unseat two-term Comm. Luis Arroyo, Jr.
At the same time, a dyed-in-the-wool conservative took his place as the Republican Party’s nominee to succeed the retiring moderate Comm. Pete Silvestri (R-9), setting the stage for deeper polarization on the Democrat-dominated board responsible for setting the county’s $8 billion budget.
Quezada trounces Arroyo Jr., giving Democratic Socialists a foothold on Cook County Board
Clockwise from top-left: Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and her challenger Richard Boykin; Assessor Fritz Kaegi and his challenger Kari Steele; Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt and her challenger Chicago Ald. George Cardenas (12) [Facebook]
Midterm elections can be low-profile affairs in Chicago, especially without a competitive gubernatorial primary at the top of Democratic ballots. But Tuesday’s election will mark a critical juncture for Cook County, offering a referendum on its controversial public safety strategy and its messy tax assessment regime.
Some powerful county executives, like county Clerk Karen Yarbrough, Treasurer Maria Pappas and Board of Review Comm. Larry Rogers (D-3), will face no competition in the polls this week. Neither will 10 of the 14 incumbent Cook County commissioners who are running for reelection.
Still, the range of competitive races could set the stage of a potential Republican resurgence on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. And the results will offer the latest indication of the Cook County Democratic Party’s power to swing races up and down the ballot.
Cook County primary guide: the races that will decide how courts are run and taxes are collected
From left: Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown, Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady and Ald. Jeanette Taylor speak during Friday’s committee hearing.
The leaders of Chicago’s police department, parks system and public school district have plenty of ideas in place to quell an expected wave of summer violence, and no shortage of funding to turn them into reality, they told aldermen Friday. But the City Council was skeptical on Friday that the institutions have the staffing power and the communication prowess to execute.
The council convened a joint hearing of its committees on public safety, education, health and special events to probe senior officials from the Chicago Police Department, Chicago Park District and Chicago Public Schools about their plans to keep young residents safe this summer. The special Friday afternoon meeting lasted more than three hours.
Lifeguard recruitment push, vacant lot cleaning, truant outreach part of ‘all-hands-on-deck’ summer violence strategy, officials say
Clockwise from top-left: Luis Arroyo Jr., Anthony Quezada, Natalie Toro, Rory McHale and Edwin Reyes are vying to represent the 8th District on the Cook County Board of Commissioners.
Cook County Board of Commissioners’ races often nab little public attention from voters. The 17 members on the county board don’t administer services or approve new real estate developments like aldermen do, and they don’t get to negotiate torrents of capital spending and navigate landmark legislation like state legislators.
But in an especially low-profile year, when just three Democrats and one Republican on the board are facing challengers from their own parties, Comm. Luis Arroyo, Jr. has attracted four primary challengers — more than all his colleagues combined. The challengers vary widely, but they agree Arroyo has failed in his role on the board responsible for setting the $8 billion budget that funds the county’s courts, jail, two public hospitals, tax collection offices and more.
Arroyo Jr. faces army of primary challengers after father’s conviction: ‘They smell blood in the water’
Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6) spoke during a pair of back-to-back news conferences introducing new public safety proposals Wednesday morning. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]
Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6) and a handful of his City Council allies are pushing to reshuffle tens of millions of dollars into a new regime of public safety programs that emphasize non-police community outreach, saying existing structures have failed to tamp down violence.
The proposals were among more than a dozen new citywide ordinances and resolutions introduced to the City Council on Wednesday, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s long-awaited “Connecting Communities Ordinance” to boost development near transit. They come as the city braces for a surge of summer violence, and less than a month after Sawyer announced a run for mayor.
Sawyer pushes public safety ordinances amid summer violence: ‘We want long-term solutions’
Bio
Solutions reporter, @IllinoisAnswers/@BetterGov. Formerly of @thedailylinechi, @trdchicago & @DNAinfoChi. Amateur baker. Tips: [email protected]