Chicago News
-
SEP 29, 2020
UNLOCKED
Staffers at 1540 Bar & Grill in Bucktown watch as Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces new coronavirus guidelines that will allow bars without food licenses to reopen for indoor service starting Oct. 1 [HANNAH ALANI/BLOCK CLUB CHICAGO]
City leaders said the city is making enough progress to contain the spread of coronavirus to allow for looser restrictions on dining out and in-person activities beginning Thursday.
CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot is easing coronavirus restrictions on bars, restaurants, salons and fitness centers, saying the city has made sufficient progress in fighting the pandemic.
Bars can reopen for indoor service starting Thursday, the mayor announced Monday. Restaurants can allow up to 40 percent capacity, up from 25 percent. Both can serve customers until 1 a.m. -
SEP 29, 2020
UNLOCKED
Dust runoff from Hilco Redevelopment Group’s April 11 demolition of a smokestack near Little Village. [YouTube/Alejandro Reyes]
The city would have an official framework to revoke property tax incentives it’s awarded to so-called “bad actors” and developers whose projects have negative impacts on the health and safety of residents under a proposed ordinance (O2020-3395) from Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22).
The ordinance is set to be considered at 2 p.m. Tuesday by the City Council’s Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development, three months after the council approved a non-binding resolution (R2020-353) as an opening salvo in the effort to establish a process to rescind tax incentives from irresponsible developers. -
SEP 28, 2020
Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois president Carol Portman and Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett during a City Council Finance Committee hearing on Friday
Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett and a panel of policy researchers floated a plan to collect money from large non-profits but warned against relying on new borrowing to fill the city’s $1.2 billion budget gap for next year. -
SEP 25, 2020
A proposed series of tweaks to Cook County’s ethics ordinance backed by county board President Toni Preckwinkle would add rules to crack down on nepotism, improper gift-giving and sexual harassment but would not place limits on outside employment the way the county’s Board of Ethics proposed earlier this year.
-
SEP 24, 2020
The Affordable Requirements Ordinance is one of the city’s most important tools for chipping away at endemic racial segregation, Department of Housing Comm. Marisa Novara said during a hearing on Wednesday.
Developers had a message on Wednesday for aldermen and city housing officials who want more deeply affordable and accessible housing units to be included in high-end new developments: don’t expect us to pay for all that by ourselves. -
SEP 24, 2020
The Cook County Board of Commissioners is set to renew Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s emergency COVID-19 budgeting and procurement powers through December, accept a proposed $3.4 billion 2021 budget plan for the Cook County Health system and lay the groundwork for choosing a successor to Independent Inspector General Patrick Blanchard during its regular board meeting on Thursday.
-
SEP 23, 2020
City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy chair Ald. George Cardenas (12) and Department of Assets, Information and Services Comm. David Reynolds during a committee meeting on TuesdayComEd must implement ethics reforms, end late fees and non-payment disconnections and commit to drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 as preconditions for the city to sign a new franchise agreement with the utility giant, according to a letter Mayor Lori Lightfoot sent to leaders of the company on Monday. -
SEP 23, 2020
A long-promised amendment to the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance is on track to come before the City Council later this fall.
Aldermen on Wednesday will offer ideas on how to rewrite the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance, a months-in-the-making project to stamp Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s imprint on a controversial and evolving housing policy. -
SEP 22, 2020
Chicago Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Lisa Morrison-Butler speaks during a committee meeting on Monday.
The city’s overwhelmed network of homeless shelters is ill-prepared to handle the long-term fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting economic devastation, a top city official warned aldermen on Monday. -
SEP 22, 2020
A report commissioned by the city found last month that it would be “financially infeasible” for the city to take control of its electric utility system.
Aldermen will get the chance on Tuesday to ask city officials and researchers for more details about a recent report that threw cast doubts on the idea of wresting control of the city’s electric utility away from Commonwealth Edison. -
SEP 22, 2020
Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett speaks during a meeting of the City Council finance committee on Monday.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot will propose raising the city’s tax on computer leases but likely won’t budge on her opposition to two progressive business taxes as potential tools to bridge the $1.2 billion budget shortfall the city faces heading into 2021, the city’s top financial official told aldermen Monday. -
SEP 21, 2020
A floor plan for NuEra’s proposed dispensary during a virtual meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday.
Cannabis firm NuEra on Friday became the first company to score city approval for a new dispensary since March, beating out competitor Dispensary 33 for the right to sell pot on a coveted block in the Fulton Market district.
