City workers filling potholes. Chicago residents can submit service requests including graffiti removal and tree plantings on the city’s CHI 311 website and app. [Quinn Ford/DNAinfo]

Upgrades made two years ago to the city’s 311 system could soon be reviewed in an attempt to make the service request system more accurate and helpful for residents and city officials. 

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) and advocates laid out their arguments for the "Water for All" ordinance, which would codify a permanent end to water shutoffs.

The lead sponsor of an ordinance that would make permanent a ban on city water shutoffs and expand the city’s affordable billing program says he hopes his proposal, which aldermen were supportive of on Friday, is passed by the end of the year.

Chicago Budget Director Susie Park speaking during a budget engagement forum on Aug. 12

The City Council’s 2022 budget season is set to kick into a new gear on Monday, when city finance officials brief aldermen on this year’s balance sheet and kick off a discussion on how to fund the Chicago Police Department during the next year.

The Chicago Plan Commission during its Thursday meeting approved Onni Group’s multi-tower proposal for Goose Island.

With little discussion and ample support from the local alderman and city officials, the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday gave an initial green light to Onni Group’s proposal to transform a portion of Goose Island into a five-tower mixed-use development, complete with public open space and a pedestrian bridge over the Chicago River.

Workers prepare to install a water main in West Englewood. [Jamie Nesbitt Golden/Block Club Chicago]

Chicago would codify a ban on residential water shutoffs, expand its affordable water bill payment program and head off any future privatization of its water system under a proposal set for preliminary consideration by a City Council committee on Friday.

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.

DCA Developments received approval from the Plan Commission Thursday for a 213-foot building with 288 apartments at 1217 W. Washington Blvd. [Department of Planning and Development]

The West Loop building boom is not slowing down.

DAC Developments received approval from the city’s Plan Commission Thursday for a 213-foot, 19-story building at 1227 W. Washington Blvd. 

Members of the Plan Commission on Thursday will consider Onni's proposal for a massive development on Goose Island.

A massive mixed-use development that would bring Goose Island its first residential units in decades and a 300-key hotel is expected to get an initial OK from the city during Thursday’s Plan Commission meeting.

A rendering of Glenstar’s proposal to build a 297-unit apartment complex near the Cumberland CTA Blue Line station [Department of Planning and Development]

A long-brewing plan to build nearly 300 new apartments near the Cumblerland CTA Blue Line station is set to face a key vote on Thursday, setting up a test of whether city planning officials, developers, interest groups and affordable housing organizers can overcome the opposition of the neighborhood’s alderman.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a vaccine mandate for city workers, but some of the city's largest labor unions are resisting. And the city's mental health emergency response system is set to launch Monday.

Ald. David Moore (17) (left) and attorney Colette Holt. As vice chair of the Committee on Contracting Oversight and Equity, Moore became acting chair upon Ald. Carrie Austin’s (34) resignation from the role.

Ald. David Moore (17) presided on Tuesday over an informational meeting of the City Council Committee on Contracting Oversight and Equity, saying he was leading in his capacity as committee vice chair because chair Ald. Carrie Austin (34) was “not available at this time” to lead the discussion of the city’s construction contracting rules.

But by the end of the meeting, Moore was promoted to the committee’s acting chair.

Signs posted in Logan Square urge the city to stop the use of ShotSpotter. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

The ShotSpotter technology the city of Chicago uses to detect where guns are fired is not “effective” in “developing evidence of gun-related crime,” a report published Tuesday by the Office of Inspector General found. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and city finance and budget officials gave a forecast on the 2022 budget earlier this month.

The Kroll Bond Rating Agency on Tuesday upgraded Chicago’s general obligation debt from “negative” to “stable,” but analysts remained wary about effects of the COVID-19 Delta variant and the city’s reliance on “non-recurring revenue.” 

City officials may not directly raise money to pay off legal fees or else risk crossing the city’s ethics ordinance, a city board ruled Tuesday. [Stock]

City officials and employees are not allowed to directly raise money to pay off legal expenses unless the help is coming from “relatives or personal friends,” a city board ruled in an advisory opinion issued Tuesday.