Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) and 16 co-sponsors (including fellow members of the Veterans Caucus) are backing the expansion of the city’s Business Enterprise Program to include businesses owned by veterans [O2017-938]. “Many of those who served honorably in our nation's military forces forewent opportunities for professional and financial advancement in serving our nation, and at times incurred pain, suffering, and disability while in service,” the preamble notes, while noting this program wouldn’t step on the toes of other programs for minorities or women.

A proposal to build a five-story story storage facility near the Jefferson Park Transit Station was temporarily held in Zoning Committee Monday after a quorum call made nearly seven hours into the meeting found the committee lacking sufficient numbers for a vote.

Though it is rare for the 18-member Zoning Committee to have nine or more members present at regular meetings, Ald. Ed Burke (14) used the issue to block a development Monday that has been subject to pushback from a vocal segment of the neighborhood. The committee received 120 letters in opposition and several witnesses referred to an online petition that has garnered more than 4,000 signatures.   

The City Council’s Zoning Committee meets at 10:00 a.m. today to approve all items that went through the Plan Commission earlier this month ahead of the full Council meeting Wednesday. The agenda includes a controversial five-story storage facility for Jefferson Park, which garnered more than two hours of public testimony in the Plan Commission hearing.

Chicago’s Commissioner of Planning and Development, David Reifman, joined our publisher, Mike Fourcher for a fast-paced and far-reaching conversation about Chicago’s development future: potential changes to affordable housing rules, Transit Oriented Development incentives, and major developments in the pipeline–an overhaul of the city’s 26 manufacturing districts (PMDs), the Michael Reese site, and the Old Main Post Office.

Starting April 10th at 5:00 p.m., surge parking rates will take effect around Wrigley Field. And depending on its success, the program could be replicated around the city, increasing rates at meters located near any major Chicago event that prompts a significant amount of foot and vehicular congestion. An amendment clarifying the boundaries of the surge pricing plan was advanced out of the Council’s Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Thursday and is scheduled for a vote by the full Council next Wednesday.

Under the pilot program, which was first announced and approved by the Council during the budget process last fall, hourly rates at parking meters around Wrigley Field would double from $2 to $4 an hour. Though, when the pilot was first revealed, the city’s Budget Office had projected surge pricing at 820 meters around Wrigley Field and 670 parking meters around Soldier Field would generate $2.4 million. Eventually, at the behest of the local Ald. Pat Dowell (3), the administration agreed to delay implementation at Soldier Field.

Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown told aldermen Thursday the annual revenue projections have been reduced, from $2.4 million to $1.5 million, while the number of affected meters around Wrigley increased to 1,148. The pilot zone includes Irving Park Road to the North, Southport on the West, Belmont on the South and Broadway to the East.

A report produced by a coalition of community organizations says interviews with more than 1,650 Chicago residents included accounts of “a long history of disrespect, abuse and humiliation that marginalized communities have suffered at the hands of police.” The “Citywide Community Conversations” report conducted by the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) collected comments from 19 meetings held across Chicago intended to “begin to develop and advocate for plans to improve police accountability and community-police relations.”

The report illustrates frustration under-privileged and minority communities have with the police. “At the end of the day community members want to be safe,” said GAPA Coordinator Mecole Jordan, who oversaw the production of the report. “They want to live and thrive and walk up and down the street in their community. Holistically.”

But, many community members feel a disconnect with police that leads to distrust. “Understand, [community members] ask for police officers to really be a part of their community, not just people who come in to do a job. To be a part, to say hello, to understand and to have relationships. Not just to come in, do a job and collect a paycheck. You protect things you care about, generally speaking. We want people to take the time to understand our culture,” said Jordan.

When there’s distrust, community members don’t feel like they can turn to the police, making the police’s job harder as well, said Jordan.

The ten-page report mirrors many suggestions made by the March 2016 Police Accountability Task Force report and January’s Department of Justice report. But perhaps because GAPA’s report is entirely made up of community comments, it puts a high priority on increasing police-community interaction. “There was an overwhelming belief that in order for police to work more effectively to keep communities safe, they need to spend substantially more time deliberately building relationships and trust with local residents,” said the report.

The GAPA organization, an umbrella group of community groups loosely organized since last summer and funded by philanthropic organizations including the Woods Fund, Chicago Community Trust, the MacArthur Foundation and others, was tapped by Mayor Rahm Emanuel last fall to conduct a survey to determine the best way to devise a community police oversight board. Emanuel had promised to create such a board when he introduced his police reform legislation last October, but held off introducing community oversight legislation so GAPA could conduct its outreach and research.

In an interview Wednesday, Jordan downplayed the imprimatur given by Emanuel last fall. “Our hope is through the community engagement process, whatever we come up with the mayor will be able to adopt. But there has been no agreement there,” Jordan said.

Last October, when GAPA announced their plan, some police reform advocates voiced concern it was just a way to sidetrack accountability efforts. But today, Frank Chapman, an organizer for the Community Police Accountability Council (CPAC) plan that was introduced in City Council last October, told The Daily Line he likes the report.

“I think it’s good. It’s very constructive. I don’t see any major points of disagreement in terms of specific ideas or policy positions,” said Chapman. “But, in terms of the policy suggestions, I have a question: How do we get to implementation?”

Black Lives Matter organizer Kofi Ademola also liked the report, but was concerned the outcome. “My concerns are around some of the ideas presented the roles of officers and what that looks like in communities and how they think they can leverage and balance the different roles of how police engage in so-called ‘fighting crime’,” Ademola said. “As police officer, I might be involved in a peace circle one day, and then the next day me pulling him over asking him to snitch on his friends about dealing drugs. I wonder how an attorney might look at that.”

Dean Angelo, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, was not supportive of the report. “This document is yet another, albeit nicely formatted, incredible approach to what a limited group of non-police continue to use a self-protecting mechanism into an arena that they have zero clue about, let alone any idea of what to offer as a solution,” he said in an emailed statement. “I would suggest they spend their time on solutions to end the non-stop killing of innocent children. Groups like GAPA continue to seek support (whether it be financial or political) to thwart proactive policing.”

Jordan says the group will begin to create a second report with specific recommendations for how police oversight might be managed in Chicago, and what responsibilities such a group should have to be effective.

Correction and clarification: An earlier version of this story described Ann Kalayil as the second chief of the Bureau of Asset Management in the county's history–she is the third, but the second to be confirmed by the Cook County Board. The Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Chief Information Officer's name is Bridget Dancy, not Bridget Daney. We apologize for the error.

After 15 months of wrangling, the Cook County Board finally approved changes to the county’s tax break system– “a step in the right direction,” according to sponsor Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia. Commissioners also punted on consideration of a $36 million contract for Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s 40-year-old mainframe, and okayed the launch of a new internship pilot program for at-risk youth in the county’s South and West suburbs the same day it was introduced.  

In addition to mostly routine liquor license items, the Council’s License Committee approved an ordinance from Ald. Tom Tunney (44) and Ald. Rod Sawyer (6) that would allow those under 21 to serve liquor at restaurants. Sponsors have framed lowering the age threshold to 18 years as a way to address youth unemployment in Chicago, which is especially high among minorities.

The Committee on Special Events approved financing for a new park and the expansion of several community gardens, playlots.

With the threat of a strike looming, the Council’s Workforce Committee will consider a resolution calling for Gov. Bruce Rauner to “renew good faith negotiation” with state employees represented by AFSCME Council 31. The resolution introduced by Ald. Howard Brookins (21) has 45 co-sponsors.

A plan to turn a vacant CPS annex on the South Side into a tech incubator and a new satellite office on the northwest side for the city’s Department of Finance are up for consideration by the Housing Committee, as is the appointment of Anthony Simpkins to the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund Board. Simpkins is currently serving as the Managing Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development’s Housing Division. He’s already been before the committee several times in the past year, briefing aldermen on the department’s quarterly housing reports.

Correction: An earlier version of this story included a misspelling of the name of the Cook County Assessor's legal director. It is Khang Trinh, not Triph. We apologize for the error.

A $36 million software contract for the Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown’s office is up for consideration in committee today, but will likely face questions over reports the technology is “so awful it's getting people wrongly arrested”. Long-delayed changes to the county’s property tax incentive system are also up, despite lingering reservations from some commissioners, municipal leaders, and Assessor Joe Berrios’ office.

A hearing asking for the Chicago Police Department to mail notices to neighbors if gun or sex offenders are living within a block of them turned into an hour-long airing of grievances over the police department’s tracking of offenders, coordination with other city departments, the ease of using the registry website, and whether the 2,000 convicted and released gun offenders and 2,250 sex offenders living in the city is a vast underestimation. Three hours later, a virtually empty Council chamber heard testimony from the Department of Family and Support Services and the Chicago Police Department on improving community-police relations.

Using development data from the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, we created a map of major developments in Chicago over a 19-month period. There are a number of things that stand out:

A preview of our map of Chicago Development.

Spurred by our upcoming discussion with Department of Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman and a desire to look at the big picture of Chicago development, we’ve created a 19-month overview of major developments across Chicago in an interactive map.

“Printing issues” have delayed the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 runoff elections an additional two weeks, FOP representatives said yesterday in a press release. “Completed ballots are due on April 11th and will be counted on April 12th. The date change is due to a printing issues that caused a delay in mailing out the ballots.”