The Metropolitan Planning Council will host a virtual event at 11:30 a.m. on May 24 titled “Calculating Impact: A Roundtable on the Policy, Participation, and Tools Reshaping Equitable Transit-Oriented Development.” Speakers will include Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning executive director Erin Aleman, Metropolitan Planning Council associate Jordan Bailly, CRG vice president Ciere Boatright, Metropolitan Planning Council CEO Darlene Hightower, Garfield Park Community Council executive director Mike Thomas and Metropolitan Planning Council director of equitable & sustainable communities Drew Williams-Clark.  

Chicago remains in the “medium risk” category for COVID-19 and would have to see a doubling in its hospitalization rate from 4.9 new admissions per 100,000 residents per week to 10 admissions to move to a “high risk” category — a circumstance under which “Chicago could reinstate indoor mask requirements or other mitigations to protect the health care system,” according to a Friday announcement from the Chicago Department of Public Health. “Thankfully, many fewer Chicagoans are being hospitalized right now with COVID-19 than in prior waves, mostly thanks to vaccines and boosters,” public health department Comm. Allison Arwady was quoted as saying in the announcement. “We want to keep it that way and see our case numbers trend back down, so we ask everyone to do their part.”