Chicago News
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Mayor Rahm Emanuel continued his fight to reduce the number of teens vaping, announcing a new round of legal action. The Chicago Teachers Union will hold its first mayoral candidate forum Nov. 19 — but don’t expect to see nearly two dozen candidates at the forum. Aldermen have a full slate of committees set for Tuesday, and will consider a new management agreement for the hotel on the grounds of O’Hare International Airport.
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Landmark designations for Tribune Tower and the historic YMCA/YWCA building on the city’s West Side both easily passed the Zoning Committee Friday, as did a zoning change in East Andersonville designed to prevent pricey three-story condominiums from replacing two-flats and pricing out renters.
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Cook County commissioners will start an extended business week by honoring several of their own during Tuesday’s meeting, including Medical Examiner Dr. Ponni Arunkumar and retiring county fixtures — Assessor Joe Berrios, Deputy Assessor Thomas Jaconetty and Clerk David Orr.
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Two female volunteers collecting signatures outside a West Side polling place Friday accused a man associated with 28th Ward Ald. Jason Ervin’s organization of assaulting them on Election Day and stealing signed nominating petitions for one of the alderman’s challengers.
Justina Winfrey, left, a candidate for 28th Ward alderman, and Loukessa Hawkins, said a man associated with 28th Ald. Jason Ervin's campaign assaulted Hawkins and another volunteer and stole signed petition sheets. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
At a City Hall news conference, Loukessa Hawkins said she was collecting signatures for 28th Ward aldermanic candidate Justina L. Winfrey outside Spencer Technology Academy, 214 N. Lavergne Ave., when a man grabbed a half-filled petition sheet from her and several completed sheets and pamphlets from another volunteer.
“I put my clipboard and things I was holding to my chest and he began to snatch them out of my hand,” Hawkins said. “So, we were wrestling and I was like you’re not going to take my stuff and he said, ‘Gimme this ‘s’ and he snatched it down, hurting my thumb, and took it.”
Hawkins filed a police report after the incident that took place at noon on Tuesday.
“This was a direct violation of my rights,” Hawkins said, adding that she wants to see the man who assaulted her charged with a crime — as well as anyone who directed him to interfere with her efforts to get Winfrey on the ballot. “This is not how politics in Chicago should work.”
Everyone who works for Ervin’s “organization is routinely directed to be respectful and dignified in their dealings with the community,” said Tom Bowen, a spokesman for Ervin’s campaign. "We have no idea what happened here, we do not condone any violence of any sort in politics."
Hawkins posted pictures of the man who assaulted her on her Facebook page, and Bowen said the man worked for Ervin’s organization more than two years ago.
“He has not [worked for the Ervin organization] since and won't be in the future," Ervin said.
Hawkins and the other volunteer called police and filed a report, which alleges “that as they were getting petitions signed for candidates, an unknown male offender took their petitions from them and fled scene,” according to a statement from Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Laura Amezaga. “Officers toured the area to locate the offender with negative results.”
Winfrey said she was appalled that her volunteers were assaulted.
“This was a violent act toward two women in front of a school while students were in the building,” Winfrey said. “I want justice to be served.”Also running for 28th Ward alderman are Beverly Miles and Miguel Bautista. Bautista joined Winfrey at Friday’s news conference to decry all forms of political intimidation. -
State Rep. LaShawn Ford — who just won re-election to represent the West Side of Chicago in the Illinois House — announced he will run for mayor. Already announced mayoral candidate Gery Chico marked the start of the municipal election campaign in earnest, with the cycle’s first ad. In addition, the Rules Committee will try again to find a home for three questions aldermen would like to see on February ballots. With Judge
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City Council’s License Committee approved a new wine and dessert bar in Ald. Danny Solis’ 25th ward, a virtual reality bar in the 47th Ward, beer sales at a new craft brewery incubator on Milwaukee Avenue in Ald. Proco Joe Moreno’s 1st ward and packaged liquor sales at the new Twisted Hippo brewery in Ald. Deb Mell’s 33rd ward.
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Abdelnasser Rashid, the young Our Revolution member and only Muslim candidate to run for the Cook County board, acknowledged Wednesday morning that his bid to unseat Cook County Republican Party Chairman Comm. Sean Morrison (R-17) had fallen short.
Cook County Board Comm. Sean Morrison (R-17), left, defeated challenger Abdelnasser Rashid. [Submitted] -
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Secretary of State Jesse White, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough led the night for overall voter turnout, as did three countywide referenda on a mandated minimum wage, paid sick leave and gun control.
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Mayor Rahm Emanuel Wednesday signed an executive order aimed at Target, which is planning to open a new Mayfair store — in a development that will get a $13 million city subsidy — while shuttering stores in Chatham and Morgan Park.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel Wednesday signed an executive order aimed at Target, which plans to close two South Side stores while opening a Northwest Side store with a city subsidy. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
The order — which can not be applied retroactively to force Target to change course, officials said — is designed to “better guard against a lack of good-faith commitment and actions by outside parties to the city's detriment.”
The order requires developers of large shopping centers getting assistance from any of the city’s Tax Increment Financing Districts to sign an affidavit declaring that it has no plans to close any stores in other parts of the city.
“If you are going to call yourself a Chicagoland store, you should be in all parts of Chicago,” Emanuel said. “Not some. It is not right.”
If the developer violates that agreement, the city “shall have the right to declare the developer in default and terminate the TIF transaction,” according to the executive order.
The order is designed to force firms getting city subsidies to tell planning officials about plans to close other stores in different parts of Chicago, Emanuel said.
“Seeing this weakness, I signed an executive order that tightens up the city’s regulatory enforcement,” Emanuel said.
Emanuel’s action comes after Target’s decision to close two South Side stores as of Feb. 2, just as construction gets underway on a new store in Mayfair, which is part of a new $58 million development at Foster Avenue and the Edens Expressway. The City Council approved $13 million in TIF funding for that development in May, which will be built at the former site of Sunstar, a dental company which moved its operations to Schaumburg.
“To say the mayor is not happy with Target's decision would be an understatement,” said Adam Collins, Emanuel’s spokesman. “And he's also not shy. He's been on the phone at least five times with the CEO of the company since early last week trying to save the two stores Target is planning to close on the South Side and trying to save those jobs. He has offered the company millions in TIF assistance to keep the stores open. He'll keep at it, but it's a long shot.”
A Target spokeswoman said the South Side stores are among five stores nationwide picked to close because they’re not profitable.
The Chatham store, which opened in 2002, is 126,000 square feet. The Morgan Park store, open since 2008, is 128,000 square feet.
The Chatham store employs about 120 full- and part-time workers. There are about 115 in Morgan Park, according to the Tribune.
Earlier this week, mayoral candidate Bill Daley, the one-time U.S. commerce secretary of brother of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, urged city officials to pull out of the Mayfair TIF agreement.
Eight city, county and state elected officials signed their names to a letter addressed to Brian Cornell, president of Target Corporation. In it, they voiced their “concern, dismay and disappointment” over Target’s decision to close the two South Side stores. -
Tribune Tower. [Flickr/Luke Gordon]
A polling place in March 2018. [A.D. Quig/The Daily Line]
