There will be one official candidate on the ballot in the race for 1st Ward Democratic committeeperson, but it is not clear whether any votes cast for him will count.

Aldermen would no longer have the power to unilaterally approve signs on city sidewalks under a measure introduced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot as part of her effort to strip them of the final say on ward-level issues.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot campaigned on a promise to reverse decades of disinvestment on Chicago’s South and West sides — and when she took office, she found a nearly $57 million pot of money earmarked for just that purpose.

Stung by accusations that Chicago’s neighborhoods languished on his watch, Mayor Rahm Emanuel created the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund in 2016 in an attempt to capitalize on the boom Downtown and in the West Loop by giving developers the green light to build taller and denser projects — for a price.

 

The first day to cast a ballot in the Democratic presidential primary and a slew of Cook County races will be Feb. 19 — at a new location and on new equipment, elections officials said Friday.

Aldermen will consider declaring a climate emergency in Chicago on Monday, citing “catastrophic lakefront erosion, citywide flooding and severe unseasonable weather.”

Jonathan “Yoni” Pizer was appointed to the Illinois House of Representatives amid a cloud of controversy on Sunday, as several other candidates running to succeed former Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) cried foul over what they called a scheme to tip the upcoming primary election in Pizer’s favor.

Aldermen advanced a measure Thursday that could send fake ride-hailing drivers to jail for six months and fine them $20,000.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi and his allies in the Illinois House of Representatives are poised to introduce a revised version of a bill he says is designed to improve how the county’s millions of commercial properties are assessed.

Aldermen are set to consider a measure Thursday that would crack down on imposters posing as ride-hailing drivers.

A tight group of North Side Democratic Party leaders is set to choose Sunday among seven candidates who want to be Lakeview and Lincoln Park’s next representative in Springfield.

Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20) vowed Wednesday to block a proposal crafted by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to prevent longtime residents from being pushed out of gentrifying parts of Woodlawn near the planned Obama Presidential Center that she said was totally inadequate.

In a fiery news conference at City Hall, Taylor said the mayor’s proposal would not protect Woodlawn residents from being pushed out of the area around the Obama Presidential Center, set to be built in Jackson Park. In addition, the freshman alderman accused Lightfoot and housing officials of disrespecting the largely Black and low-income community by crafting their own proposal, rather than endorsing the plan backed by a coalition of community groups.

“I was never told they were going to write their own ordinance,” Taylor said. “We are very smart, competent folks. We can come up with our own plan for our own community.”

A measure introduced by the mayor but opposed by the alderman whose ward it affects would be unlikely to pass, as aldermen would follow the unwritten but deeply entrenched practice of aldermanic prerogative.

Don Terry, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Housing, said the Lightfoot administration was committed to "an inclusive approach to creating well-rounded legislation that will preserve access to housing for low- and middle-income residents in the area and ensure equitable, inclusive growth."

The mayor’s proposal would apply only to census tracts within three-fifths of a mile of the Obama Presidential Center. The proposed community benefits agreement backed by Taylor and the Obama CBA Coalition, which comprises seven groups, wants protections to apply to all properties within a two-mile radius of the center. While Woodlawn would be included in the mayor’s plan, most of South Shore and Washington Park would not.

Related: City unveils scaled-back plan for preserving affordable housing near Obama Center; Coalition blasts scaled-back plan for preserving affordable housing near Obama Presidential Center

The coalition’s proposal is designed to ensure that housing built on land now owned by the city is affordable to families earning $40,000 a year or less.

In addition, any new housing developments should be required to set aside 30 percent of their units for low- and moderate-income residents, according to the coalition’s proposal.

The coalition also demanded that the current proposal be expanded to include not only Woodlawn but also South Shore, Grand Crossing, Hyde Park, Washington Park and Kenwood.

“This is not what the community asked for, and they’ve said it over and over and over and over and over again,” Taylor said. “This doesn’t protect anybody.”

A majority of aldermen have endorsed the coalition’s proposal for a community benefits agreement.

The Obama Foundation and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel rebuffed the coalition’s demand for a community benefits agreement, but Lightfoot promised during the 2019 mayoral campaign to back legal protections for residents near the Obama Center.

Taylor said city officials had failed to take the demands of Woodlawn residents seriously because they are Black and low-income.

“If this was anywhere else there would not be a conversation,” Taylor said.

Taylor called the Lightfoot’s administration’s draft report outlining guidelines for development in Woodlawn near the planned Obama Center released Jan. 30 at a community meeting “a sham.”

“I don’t feel like this process has been fair,” Taylor said. “I’ve been told one thing, and another has been happening.”

The city must act immediately to stop gentrification and displacement, Taylor said, adding that she would “meet in the middle” to reach an agreement with the mayor.

Taylor said Lightfoot had given commissioners too much power as she works to end aldermanic prerogative.

“She thinks she does not have to listen to me and she does not have to work with me,” Taylor said. “So I’m going to fight her and everybody else on making sure that this doesn’t pass. It is either get right, or get right out of office.”

A federal judge will aim to set a trial date for indicted Ald. Ed Burke (14) in spring or summer of 2021, accommodating defense attorneys who said they need more time to sift through a “voluminous” trove of evidence in the corruption case, the judge said on Tuesday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot moved Wednesday to tighten the rules permitting funds from Chicago’s tax-increment financing districts to be used to subsidize private developments.

Former state Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to bribery charges, delaying by at least six weeks a potential plea deal with federal prosecutors in their widening corruption investigation.

A DuPage County lawmaker introduced a measure Tuesday designed to strip Chicago aldermen of decision-making power over ward-level issues, saying state lawmakers should limit city officials’ ability to block new developments as part of an anti-corruption push.

State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Westmont) told The Daily Line Tuesday the executive order issued by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to end aldermanic prerogative on her first day in office  is “a good start,” but that state oversight is needed.

“People should be able to come to Chicago and get a fair shake and not a shake down,” said Mazzochi, who is running for a second term representing the 47th District. “This is an opportunity for a fresh start.”

HB4484, which Mazzochi dubbed the End Aldermanic Privilege Law, would order city officials not to reject “any approvals under the Zoning Division … because of an aldermanic hold, objection, extra-judicial or extra-legal request.”

The proposed law would give the city a year to approve a development after first receiving the proposal.

If the measure passes, and an alderman blocks a proposal, the city could be forced to pay a “$5,000 civil penalty and other damages” as a result of a future lawsuit brought by the stymied development.

Mazzochi said she was moved to act by the 14-count indictment of Ald. Ed Burke (14), which alleges that Burke repeatedly — and brazenly — used his powerful position at City Hall to force those doing business with the city to hire his private law firm. Burke has pleaded not guilty.

The sort of “shady back room deals” Burke is accused of must be stopped, Mazzochi said.

“This is one very small step in protecting people’s property rights,” Mazzochi said.

While Mazzochi said she informed Lightfoot’s Springfield lobbyist that she planned to introduce the bill, she has not spoken with members of the Chicago delegation about the proposal.

A bill scaling back Chicago’s home-rule powers would be unlikely to pass without support from lawmakers representing the city.

Lightfoot’s efforts to root out aldermanic prerogative have advanced only in fits and starts during her first months in office, pushed to the back burner by a strike by a teachers strike, the search for a new Chicago Police superintendent and a massive budget deficit.

Lightfoot has said she remains committed to changing the city’s zoning code to strike at the heart of aldermen’s power.



The zoning code is the ultimate authority on what can be built on each street in Chicago. The code, which runs to hundreds of pages, is designed to set rules for developers and builders while allowing city officials to reject requests for changes that they decide are a bad fit for neighborhoods or could hurt property values.

Aldermen exercise their prerogative at every committee meeting and at every council meeting on items ranging from sign permits to liquor licenses. But most of aldermen’s historic clout comes from the fact that they alone have had the power to approve — or veto — proposals for new housing complexes or commercial developments.

Any proposal to change the zoning code would need the approval of the City Council.

Supporters of aldermanic prerogative tout it as the best way to ensure that Chicago residents live in neighborhoods governed by one of their own: someone who lives near them, understands their issues and is not only accessible — but also accountable to them on Election Day.