A measure designed to keep liquor from being sold within 100 feet of places of worship, schools and hospitals as well as homes for the aged, indigent and veterans is up for a vote at the meeting of the Committee on License and Consumer Protections set for 11 a.m. Thursday.

As Mayor Rahm Emanuel prepares to leave office, he will ask aldermen to burnish his environmental legacy by promising to transition the city to clean, renewable energy.

Chicago voters overwhelmingly elected Lori Lightfoot mayor Tuesday after a roller coaster campaign in which the former attorney and federal prosecutor vowed to dismantle the Chicago Machine and “reinvent” the city.

With Lightfoot’s victory, Chicago became the biggest U.S. city to elect a black woman to the top job. Lightfoot will also become Chicago’s first gay mayor, and Chicago will become the largest American city with a LGBTQ+ mayor.

Lightfoot won approximately 74 percent of the vote — and all 50 wards — against Toni Preckwinkle, according to early returns Tuesday night.

Precinct level results, via the Chicago Board of Elections
Board of Elections results
Chi.Vote results

Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22) spent close to $37,000 from the political action committee fund of City Council’s Progressive Reform Caucus on “questionable” expenditures, according to filings with the state board and caucus Chairman Ald. Scott Waguespack (32).

That included $13,160 he took from the committee’s fund for himself.

Muñoz, who was dropped from the caucus in January after being charged with misdemeanor domestic battery, has repaid $24,900, Waguespack said in a statement, and is expected to reimburse the committee in full.

Members of the caucus discovered the discrepancy in January and notified the state board of elections on Monday. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx was also altered by aldermen “of this inappropriate use of our funds.”

"It was all a misunderstanding," Muñoz told The Daily Line, adding that he had apologized. Aside from a brief visit to City Hall to testify in favor a tax break for Hilco Development, Muñoz has been largely absent while undergoing rehabilitation.

"I will be paying it back,” he said before hanging up.

Ed Mullen, the Progressive Caucus’ PAC’s attorney, said Muñoz was the only person with access to the account, according to a letter to state officials.

After Muñoz was voted out of the caucus in January after his wife told police he struck her while intoxicated, no one else could access the committee’s bank accounts, and after “repeatedly” contacting Muñoz, they received access on March 19, 2018.

After a review, “it became apparent that unauthorized expenditures were made,” Mullen wrote. The committee has amended its reports to state officials and is “sending a letter to Alderman Muñoz demanding full reimbursement to CPRC PAC for personal expenditures.”

“He has been removed as an officer of the Progressive Caucus PAC, and we are working with our bank to remove him from having access to our account,” Waguespack said. “Ald. Leslie Hairston (5) is now treasurer of our political action committee. In the new term beginning in May 2019, Caucus members will elect new officers, in compliance with our bylaws. We will also work together as a group to implement stronger new financial controls to ensure full compliance and transparency for all funds related to the Progressive Caucus.”

Besides the $13,160 he paid himself, and $2,800 he improperly transferred to his “Citizens for Muñoz” committee, amended state reports indicate the following “unauthorized expenditures” made by Muñoz:

• $14,800 for Alta Vista Graphics in May 2018


• Roughly $1,800 at Nuevo Leon Restaurant in June 2018


• $1,070 to Cesar Campa in October 2018


• Close to $550 to Southwest Airlines in November 2018


• Approximately $400 at La Scarola Restaurant in September 2017


• Approximately $290 at the Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Airport in November 2018


• More than $250 at Eddie V's, a seafood and jazz restaurant in Pittsburgh, and close to $150 at Saputo’s in Springfield

CFO Compliance, the Rhode Island-based firm that was supposed to audit the committee’s accounts, has also been fired, Waguespack said, “as it remains unclear why they did not notice or proactively alert us to this problem.”

Waguespack, whose name has been floated as a potential chairman of the Finance Committee should Lori Lightfoot win on Tuesday, said he “should have monitored this situation more vigorously, and I regret having placed too much trust in my longtime colleague Ald. Muñoz and CFO Compliance to handle these matters.”

“I have always prided myself on a high level of integrity, diligence and attention to detail when it comes to our City finances, and I take responsibility for not having applied the same level of meticulousness with the Progressive Caucus PAC,” Waguespack said.

Municipal election turnout through Monday. [Source: Chicago Board of Election Commissioners]

Go vote, Chicago. The weather is still going to be on the chilly side for April, with a high of 54 degrees and a 20 percent chance of rain, according to the forecast, so grab a jacket and an umbrella as you head out to your polling place. Not sure where to vote, or for whom? Check chi.vote, which has you covered.

• Early vote still trailing — Chicago Board of Election Commissioners Chairwoman Marisel Hernandez said officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the early vote rates meet or exceed February and April 2015 levels, even though they have so far fallen short. Those who plan to vote by mail should ensure their ballots are returned and postmarked by April 2, or turn it into election judges at their polling place, Hernandez said. In the first round of voting, 2,060 ballots were rejected, most often for being postmarked too late. Nearly 60,000 voters applied to vote by mail in 2019, compared to 42,000 voters in 2015, according to election data. Chicago has 1.59 million registered voters, 10.47 percent more than in April 2015 runoff. Although voters age 25 to 34 make up the biggest chunk of voters, they have the second lowest turnout in early voting in the city. Voters age 55 to 74 lead in early voting and voting by mail, officials said. A total of roughly 564,600 Chicagoans would have to vote to exceed February’s turnout, Hernandez said.


• What’s next for Vallas — Former Mayoral candidate and former CPS CEO Paul Vallas has been elected to the board of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, which is rolling out a new program for students on news analysis and literacy in 2020. Board Chairman Larry Wert, Tribune Co.’s president,  said Vallas “will lend his expertise and resources to further our goals of reaching students and teaching them the intricacies of the media and news,” according to a statement. “It is a privilege and a pleasure to be joining the board of such a revered enterprise,” Vallas said. “I look forward to helping advance the Museum’s mission and contribute to its growth.”

Concerned that next year’s Census will miss Chicago’s hard-to-count populations, including African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, immigrants and non-native English speakers, homeless individuals, children younger than 5 and the elderly, Mayor Rahm Emanuel formed a new committee to keep tabs on the effort. Meanwhile, alderman OK’d two 11th Ward tax breaks.

Chicago will make history Tuesday, as voters choose between Toni Preckwinkle or Lori Lightfoot, the last two candidates standing after the free-for-all touched off by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s announcement he would not run for a third term.

With an African American woman certain to win only the fourth open-seat contest for mayor in the last century, Chicago is entering a new epoch — one full of challenges that promises to put an end to business as usual at City Hall.

Here’s what the The Daily Line team will be watching as results roll in after the polls close at 7 p.m.

Were the polls in the mayoral race accurate?

Since the first round of voting, public polls have told a consistent story: Lightfoot is set to cruise to a convincing victory over Preckwinkle and become Chicago’s first gay mayor.

That prompted the Tribune’s editorial page to encourage voters to turn out for Lightfoot by a convincing margin to give Lightfoot a mandate to make good on her promises to fumigate City Hall, even as a federal corruption investigation continues behind the scenes.

Related: Dump aldermanic prerogative, clerk, treasurer, infrastructure trust: Lightfoot

If Preckwinkle does lose on Tuesday, she won’t be out of a job. Instead, she’ll keep her  position as Cook County Board president and the chair of the Cook County Democratc Party — potentially forcing the two former rivals to work together for much of the next four years.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson may have had that outcome in mind when he pressed the two to agree to a post-election unity event — which will no doubt be tense after the deeply negative and bruising runoff campaign in which Preckwinkle cast Lightfoot as a wealthy corporate lawyer and Lightfoot painted her rival as a compromised product of the Chicago political machine.

Whomever wins will face a city budget swimming in red ink — thanks to the city’s massive pension debt — and new contracts to negotiate with teachers, police officers and firefighters.

What will the mayor’s relationship look like with the new City Council?

Although Chicago’s City Council was designed to wield the lion’s share of power at City Hall, it has served as a rubber stamp for decades — first under former Mayors Richard J. Daley and Richard M. Daley and then under Emanuel, who has given his aldermanic allies several hundred thousand dollars in an attempt to shape the city’s political future after his departure.

Related: Aldermanic alliances mapped

Regardless of whether Preckwinkle or Lightfoot emerges victorious Tuesday night, the new mayor will have to quickly figure out the new political landscape at City Hall — and prepare to figure out how to push her agenda through.

Both Lightfoot and Preckwinkle have said they will not pick committee chairmen but will work with the council to suss out new leadership. The two part on other ethics reforms — Lightfoot has said she will work to end aldermanic prerogative, which she blames for fostering the culture of corruption that has convicted 30 aldermen of corruption since 1973, ban aldermen from holding outside employment, and enforce term limits.

Preckwinkle, a former alderman, has leaned toward keeping the system much the same.

The next mayor will also have to cope with a police department under a consent decree to reform, as well as an activist community — nearly all of whom who endorsed Preckwinkle over Lightfoot, the former head of the Chicago Police Board — demanding rapid change.

Treasurer’s race: Conyears-Ervin v. Pawar

In the runoff for treasurer, Ameya Pawar, who served two terms as 47th Ward alderman, faces state Rep. Melissa Conyears-Ervin.

Pawar’s proposal to create a public bank has dominated much of the conversation around the race. Under his proposal, the bank would be limited to “refinancing student loans, funding affordable housing and banking cannabis.”

By contrast, Conyears-Ervin’s campaign has focused on a message of “accountability, transparency and efficiency” while highlighting the support of the Chicago Teachers Union, the Chicago Federation of Labor as well as Secretary of State Jesse White, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and more than two dozen aldermen.

Conyears-Ervin is married to 28th Ward Ald. Jason Ervin, who won re-election in April. He is the vice chairman of City Council’s Budget and Government Operations committee.

If Pawar wins, he would be the first Asian American elected to citywide office — and the first non-African American since 1999, when former Treasurer Miriam Santos resigned in disgrace as part of a corruption scandal. If Conyears-Ervin wins, Chicago will have three women of color serving in citywide office. Clerk Anna Valencia's bid for a full term was uncontested in February.

Pawar’s decision to leave the City Council after two terms set the stage for a runoff between Michael Negron, who has the support of his former bosses Emanuel and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who tweeted her support Monday, and Matt Martin, an attorney in the Illinois Attorney General’s office who has the backing of the Chicago Teachers Union.

Political dynasties in flux

As the Laurino era ends jn the 39th Ward — where Ald. Margaret Laurino (39) will retire and be replaced by Samantha Nugent or Robert Murphy — a new dynasty may take root in the 30th Ward.

Jessica Washington Gutiérrez is challenging Ald. Ariel Reboyras, a close ally of Emanuel.

Gutiérrez, the daughter of former U.S. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, has promised to be a more progressive alderman would be one of a number of millenials that could be elected to the City Council on Tuesday.

In the 33rd Ward, Ald. Deb Mell — who replaced her father, former Ald. Dick Mell — is facing Rossanna Rodríguez-Sánchez, who could be one of five members of the Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America to join Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) on the City Council.

Veteran aldermen, Emanuel allies at risk

In addition to Reboyras, who as chairman of the Public Safety Committee helped shepherd the mayor’s police reforms through the City Council after the dashcam video of Laquan McDonald’s murder roiled the city, several of Emanuel’s other allies faced tough run offs.

In the 40th Ward, Ald. Pat O’Connor faces a runoff against DSA-endorsed Andre Vasquez — the first since he was elected to the City Council in 1983. O’Connor has benefitted from more than $225,000 in spending by Super PACs aligned with Emanuel, charter school backers and Realtors.

Super PACs formed by charter school backers, Realtors, Rahm’s allies spending big bucks in last days of campaign

Other Emanuel allies at risk are:

 

• 5th Ward Ald. Leslie Hairston, who faces activist Will Calloway


• 6th Ward Ald. Roderick Sawyer, who faces accountant Deborah Foster Bonner


• 15th Ward Ald. Raymond Lopez, who faces Chicago Police Officer Rafael Yañez


• 21st Ward Ald. Howard Brookins, who faces retired city inspector Marvin McNeil


• 43rd Ward Ald. Michele Smith, who faces former Emanuel aide Derek Lindblom


• 46th Ward Ald. James Cappleman, who faces scientist Marianne Lalonde

 

20th, 25th Wards set for new aldermen after corruption allegations

Two wards at the center of corruption allegations will get new aldermen.

In the 20th Ward, DSA-endorsed Jeanette Taylor faces Nicole Johnson to take the seat left vacant in March when former Ald. Willie Cochran pled guilty to wire fraud after he was indicted for extortion and bribery.

In the 25th Ward, DSA-endorsed Byron Sigcho-Lopez faces nurse Alex Acevedo, whose father is former state Rep. Eddie Acevedo.

Progressive aldermen in 16th, 31st Wards face challenges

In the 16th Ward, Ald. Toni Foulkes faces Democratic Committeeperson Stephanie Coleman, the daughter of former Ald. Shirley Coleman.

In the 31st Ward, Ald. Milly Santiago faces Felix Cardona, a former aide to former Assessor Joe Berrios. In 2015, Santiago defeated longtime Berros’ ally Ald. Ray Suarez by 79 votes.

Veterans exit

Chicago City Council lost 132 years of combined experience in retirements and defeats in the first round — 155 years if you count 23rd Ward Ald. Mike Zalewski's early exit and replacement by Ald. Silvana Tabares.

Aside from younger members like Ald. John Arena (45), Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1), Ald. Ameya Pawar (47) and Ald. Willie Cochran (20), more senior members like Ald. Margaret Laurino (39), Ald. Danny Solis (25), Ald. Joe Moore (49), and Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22) are also exiting.

City Council has several senior members still standing. Aside from a weakened Ald. Ed Burke (14), first elected in 1969, Black Caucus members Ald. Carrie Austin (34), first elected in 1994, Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27), first elected in 1995, Ald. Anthony Beale (9), first elected in 1999, and Ald. Emma Mitts (37), first elected in 2000, have the most seniority. Other senior members Ald. Pat O’Connor (40), first elected in 1983, and Ald, Leslie Hairston (5), first elected in 1999, are facing stiff challenges.

Essential reads as Chicago votes

Issues facing the next administration:

• Is Chicago’s legacy of segregation causing a reverse Great Migration? [Reader]


• Why Chicago Police Reform Could Hinge On This Expired Contract [WBEZ]


• Emanuel Soft on Chicago Polluters Despite Tough Talk [BGA]


• Diagnosing Chicago’s affordable housing shortage [The Daily Line]


• Chicago police solve one in every 20 shootings. Here are some reasons why that’s so low. [Tribune]


• My house is worth how much? Fixes to tax assessments bring dramatic changes for Chicago homeowners [Tribune]


• Chicago spent more than $113 million on police misconduct lawsuits in 2018 [Reporter]


• With CPS poised to release 2018-19 enrollment data, ‘astronomical’ decline expected to continue [The Daily Line]

Where Lightfoot and Preckwinkle differ:

• Lori Lightfoot And Toni Preckwinkle Want An Elected School Board — But The Similarities End There [WBEZ]


• The Candidates Agree on Most Issues. Rent Control Isn't One of Them [Chicago Mag]


• Side-by-side: Lori Lightfoot’s and Toni Preckwinkle’s plans for Chicago [Sun-Times]


• How mayoral candidates Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle have ducked details on Chicago's financial woes [Tribune]


• Preckwinkle, Lightfoot Talk Consent Decree, Policing Reform at Campus Forum [Maroon]


• Where do Lori and Toni part ways on transportation issues? [Reader]


• In Tribune meeting, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle clash over power of aldermen, City Hall corruption [Tribune]

City Council:

• Veterans day or heavyweight prize fight? Longevity vs. change in ward races [Sun-Times]


• Runoff to the Finish [South Side Weekly]


• Super PACs formed by charter school backers, Realtors, Rahm’s allies spending big bucks in last days of campaign [The Daily Line]


• Unions contributed more than $9.7M to candidates since August: records [The Daily Line]


• Sawyer vows to make his case to voters after being forced into runoff by challenger [The Daily Line]


• As Laurino era ends, Murphy, Nugent vie for 39th Ward seat on the City Council [The Daily Line]


• Jeanette Taylor, Nicole Johnson Set To Advance To April 2 Runoff In 20th Ward Race To Replace Cochran [Block Club Chicago]


• 25th Ward Candidates Trade Jabs On Campaign Donations, Voter Fraud Investigation At Heated Pilsen Debate [Block Club Chicago]


• More money no problems [Reader]


• In Fight For 40th Ward Seat, Ald. Pat O’Connor And Andre Vasquez Trade Barbs Over Each Other’s Past [Block Club Chicago]


• In Lakeview, Cappleman And Lalonde Make Their Case To Condo Dwellers, Showing Divide In Policy — And The 46th Ward [Block Club Chicago]


• Hundreds Flock To Davis Theater To Hear 47th Ward Candidates Debate Affordable Housing, Taxes [Block Club Chicago]

Aldermen will consider endorsing two property tax breaks in Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson’s 11th Ward on Monday.

Chicago’s biggest and most politically active labor organizations spent approximately $9.7 million to sway voters, with various SEIU locals and associated political action committees accounting for close to half that amount in the past eight months, according to records filed with state officials.

Despite high hopes fueled by the election of a supportive governor and Democratic supermajorities in the Illinois House and Senate, supporters of the push to lift the ban on rent control in Illinois are regrouping after a significant setback.

One of Chicago’s experts on housing, gentrification and displacement lives at the heart of the debate — in Logan Square, about a block away from The 606 trail, which touched off a real estate boom after being transformed from a defunct railroad track.

“I’d like to say I was very prescient in my housing decision, but I wasn’t,” Geoff Smith, the executive director of The Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University said on the latest episode of The Daily Line’s Aldercast podcast.

[audio mp3="http://thedailyline.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Smith-final_mixdown.mp3">[/audio]

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Smith went looking for “someplace affordable and interesting,” bought in 2006 and promptly faced the housing crash and found himself underwater on his mortgage.

The area is now one of the city’s hottest real estate markets, and prices are high along one of its main amenities, the 606, which is set to be extended as part of the Lincoln Yards development.

“Having had a front row seat to that whole process has been both professionally and personally interesting,” Smith said.

“Do I consider myself a gentrifier in Logan Square? I mean, some days maybe, some days not, because I’ve been there for a long time. I don’t know, it’s sort of a complicated question,” Smith said, adding that being a good, engaged neighbor can make a difference.

The institute’s 2016 analysis of the trail’s impact found buyers west of Western Avenue were “willing to pay a 22.3 percent price premium for properties within one-fifth of a mile of the trail, which translated to more than $100,000 of the area's average 2015 sales price.”

Several other neighborhoods are facing displacement pressure, the institute found. Not only do individuals face being priced out by buyers lured by new, expensive developments like Lincoln Yards and amenities like the 606, but homeowners are also fleeing Chicago because of disinvestment in their neighborhoods.

It’s a problem the new mayor and the City Council will have to grapple with in the years to come – here are five takeaways:

A grain of salt needed — A recent study and Crain’s headline, “Gentrification not a big issue in Chicago,” was the talk of the housing world this past week, Smith said. “The study itself, I think, has some problems, especially as it relates to Chicago,” he said. The study’s social and economic data were gathered under the U.S. Census American Community Survey program, covering the period starting in 2000 and until 2009-2013, “The bottom of the market, essentially,” Smith says. It only captures the beginning of Chicago’s recovery after the recession. “It’s old data that doesn’t capture a lot of the key changes that are happening in the city.”  

Displacement v. gentrification — “It’s a spectrum of sorts,” Smith said of the difference between the two oft-used terms. “Gentrification is the investment in a place that causes property values — it causes change in the neighborhood that’s derived from that increased investment in the neighborhood. Displacement is the actual push, the market forces that might push out folks who’ve lived there for a long time.” While some neighborhoods like Logan Square and Pilsen have seen residents pushed out by rising values, “in Chicago you’ve also got this almost other bigger effect of displacement that’s a product of disinvestment,” Smith said. That is occurring on Chicago’s West and South sides, which have seen population losses. The institute built a map to serve as a leading indicator to warn when displacement might occur in Chicago neighborhoods. “We’re trying to look at the market, look at the demographics of a neighborhood and say, ‘Here are a mix of conditions that might help us get ahead of this type of displacement, gentrification if you’re going to build a new 606, or a new kind of big place-based strategy or built environment type project.’” Two projects housing activists are watching closely — the Paseo Trail and the Obama Presidential Center.

Affordable housing requirements for the next Lincoln Yards — “The big debate around Lincoln Yards was how much affordable housing to build on site. When you’re building an entire neighborhood,” the city’s affordable housing requirements ordinance might not be the best vehicle, Smith said, since the ordinance “was designed for single developments where you’ve got a few hundred units, maybe at most. This is thousands and thousands of units. I do think that, especially when city subsidy like [funds from tax-increment financing] money is involved,” requiring a “substantial portion” of affordable units on site would have helped create a more inclusive neighborhood, rather than one fully “oriented to higher income households.” Aldermen and Lincoln Yards developer Sterling Bay ultimately struck a deal to double the number of planned on-site affordable units from 300 to 600. Of the 6,000 apartments, condominiums and townhomes planned for Lincoln Yards, 1,200 must be set aside for low- and moderate-income Chicagoans. Sterling Bay also plans to pay $39 million into the city’s low-income housing trust fund.

How to tailor rent control for Chicago — While legislators in Springfield saw proposals to lift the state’s ban on rent control swatted down, some organizers and voters supportive of rent control measures are unlikely to drop the issue. “For me, at least, I have a lot of questions about how rent control can be applied in Chicago,” Smith said. It’s a complicated proposition that would deserve a unique ordinance, but “I understand it’s appeal, because when you think about the breadth and the size of the affordable housing challenge, no one solution is ever really going to cut it.” Smith has concerns — chief among them how rent control can apply in a city with as diverse a housing stock supply as Chicago. Cities with rent control usually face a uniform rise in values and rents across the board. There are many parts of Chicago where rising housing costs are not the challenge, disinvestment is, Smith said. “Is that going to inhibit investment, potentially, in other parts of the city? You can’t just target it to one neighborhood, it has to cover the entire city, it has ripple effects” on the broader market.

Where have all the two flats gone? — Chicago’s iconic two flats — a key source of affordable housing — are disappearing, Smith said. Preserving those homes is one key plank of maintaining the city’s affordable housing stock. In some neighborhoods, like North Center, Lincoln Square and Lakeview, two- to four-unit buildings are being converted into single family homes. In others, including on the South and West Sides, those homes are deteriorating, while new ones aren’t being built, Smith said. Part of the problem lies with banks — both single family homes and large multi-unit apartment buildings are relatively straightforward to finance, Smith said. Two to five-unit buildings are tougher. “Because it’s a hybrid homeownership rental model, in some cases the end user is a little less clear… it falls into a gray area,” Smith said, adding thathe’s watching how the city’s PEAR pilot – Preservation of Existing Affordable Rental – plays out. PEAR, one of several affordable housing programs Emanuel announced in 2018, “provides city financial assistance for the purchase or refinance of multi-family residential buildings in exchange for affordable rental covenants over a 30-year term.”

Aldermen questioned Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to ink an exclusive deal with Lyft to operate the city’s Divvy bicycle-sharing system on Thursday — and reject a proposal from Uber to offer dockless bicycles and scooters.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel totaled up the overtime spent investigating the report by actor Jussie Smollett that he was injured in an attack he said was motivated by racism and bias. Emanuel sent the “Empire” star a bill, while a Cook County commissioner called for State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to answer questions about the high-profile case.

Aldermen will get their first detailed look at Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to ink an exclusive deal with Lyft to operate the city’s Divvy bicycle-sharing system on Thursday — as Uber pushes a plan to offer dockless bicycles and scooters.

The Super PAC aligned with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Forward, has quickly pumped a total of $275,000 into aldermanic races to defend allies.