Ald. Carrie Austin (34) and Bureau of Forestry Deputy Comm. Malcolm Whiteside during a virtual committee hearing on Monday

Aldermen on Monday approved the creation of an advisory board to boost the city’s tree-planting efforts, sending the measure to City Council for final approval later this month. 

Members of the City Council Committee on Finance also heard during Monday’s meeting from three city commissioners on how they handle and plan to reduce legal claims brought against their departments.  

An independent advisory committee is hoping to submit a new ward map to be considered by the City Council.

Members of an independent ward remapping commission hoping to submit their own proposed Chicago ward map are scheduled to be announced this week, days after Gov. JB Pritzker’s signing of new General Assembly, state Supreme Court and Cook County Board of Review maps.

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) introduced a resolution last year calling on the City Council's finance committee to review strategies to reduce legal claims against the city.

Aldermen are set for discussion on Monday of how the city can avoid legal claims against the city. They’re also on track to approve the creation of an Urban Forestry Advisory Board, but a long-debated police transparency ordinance will remain on hold for now.  

The City Council Committee on Finance is set to meet at 10 a.m. Monday to take up the two agenda items. 

From left: Ald. Howard Brookins (21), Chicago Department of Transportation Comm. Gia Biagi and Ald. Michele Smith (43) during a hearing on e-scooters on Thursday

Representatives of e-scooter companies argued on Thursday that a permanent citywide scooter program would ease car traffic, reduce pollution, open new transit options and add a much-needed new stream of revenue for the city. 

But many aldermen aren’t so sure. 

Members of the Chicago Health Equity Coalition, including Jitu Brown, gathered outside City Hall last month to make demands of Mercy Hospital’s new owner.

The new operator of Mercy Hospital has signed onto covenants that appear to meet some of the demands of a coalition pushing to keep the Bronzeville hospital open for the foreseeable future, but community members remain concerned about the transparency and equity of the deal.

CTA president Dorval Carter, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Mike Quigley participate in a ceremonial groundbreaking for the second phase of the Red Purple Modernization project [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Chicago’s Far South Side is likely still about a decade and $1 billion in secured funding away from being able to claim a piece of the CTA Red Line, but state lawmakers brought the vision a step closer to reality this week, just as a similarly massive overhaul of the Red Line’s north branch takes a critical step forward.  

The Illinois General Assembly sent Gov. JB Pritzker a bill (SB1822) on Monday that would give Chicago leaders more legal leeway to establish a tax-increment financing district around the 5.6-mile path of new Red Line track planned between 95th and 130th streets. The city in 2016 created a similar “transit TIF” to open up funding for the $2.1 million Red Purple Modernization project now underway on the North Side.

Ordinances in the City Council Rules Committee remain stuck for the time being. Aldermen will participate in a hearing on e-scooters on Thursday. Mayor Lori Lightfoot enlisted a “working group” to reduce carbon emissions from buildings. And the Chicago Cultural Center reopened.

Aldermen have mixed responses to the title of “alderperson.”

Chicago elected officials aired mixed reactions to an omnibus election bill (SB 825) on its way to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk that is set to change all official references to municipal elected officials from “alderman” to “alderperson.”

Cook County leaders will face ramifications from two major bills passed by state lawmakers on Monday.

A bill approved by state lawmakers on Monday will likely stretch the timeline for Cook County’s decennial remap, relieving pressure on commissioners to approve new district boundaries while census data remains in flux. But an overhaul of the state’s ethics rules, also approved Monday, cast new doubt on a long-baked effort to updated the county’s ethics code.

Downtown Oak Park. The Cook County Board of review granted nearly $56 million in tax assessment breaks to Oak Park commercial landlords this year. [David Wilson/Flickr]

The Cook County Board of Review this year has already scrubbed more than $1.6 billion in taxable value from retail, office, apartment and industrial properties across the county, once again shielding commercial property owners from the bulk of assessment hikes that would have otherwise been handed down by Assessor Fritz Kaegi.

Existing boundaries (left) for the Cook County Board of Review’s three districts, and a new map approved by state lawmakers [Cook County; Frank Calabrese]

Illinois Democrats will take advantage of shifting political winds in Chicago’s suburbs to effectively lock Republicans out of power in the three-member Cook County Board of Review under a new map approved by Illinois General Assembly on Friday.

Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday signed off on two bills lawmakers approved earlier this year.

A total of 28 newly introduced measures were banished last week to the City Council’s Committee on Committees and Rules, but 23 of the mostly perfunctory proposals are scheduled to be resurrected Wednesday and sent to the “appropriate” committees during a rules committee meeting.

Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6) and Ald. Leslie Hairston (5) speak during a news conference Thursday.

One day after Mayor Lori Lightfoot formally introduced her long-awaited proposal for civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department (O2021-2143), proponents of a competing community proposal think they still have enough votes to get their ordinance approved.

Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) and a rendering of a 2017 proposal by Glenstar to build nearly 300 apartments near the Cumberland CTA Blue Line station [DNAinfo/Heather Cherone; Glenstar O’Hare]

A suburban developer is resurfacing its 4-year-old bid to build nearly 300 apartments near the Cumberland CTA station, opening a new front in an intensifying City Council battle over aldermanic prerogative.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot cemented her “comprehensive plan” to honor Du Sable Thursday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposal to honor Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, the city’s first non-indigenous resident, pulls out all the stops with multiple statues, public artwork, a new festival and a renamed downtown Riverwalk. But it leaves out the proposal some aldermen and advocates have been pushing for 18 months: renaming a portion of Lake Shore Drive after Du Sable.