Aldermen blast Metra over minority hiring, station maintenance before approving Fulton Market TIF agreement 

Aldermen on Monday nearly scuttled a deal allowing Metra to use tax-increment financing (TIF) for a study on railroad crossings in Fulton Market after they tore into the transit agency over its record on hiring minority-owned firms and the deteriorating condition of some of its stations.  

The City Council Committee on Finance during its meeting on Monday eventually approved the intergovernmental agreement (O2020-6213) with Metra among several other ordinances, but aldermen shelved an ordinance (O2020-5785) waiving permit fees for construction, demolition and renovations of public buildings undertaken by Chicago Public Schools and its contractors. 

The Chicago Office of the Inspector General on Friday published a memo it wrote to the Chicago Police Department with “urgent” recommendations on how to improve its warrant execution policies. [Office of the Inspector General]

Chicago Police will tighten their intelligence-gathering policies in an attempt to prevent more botched warrant executions like the February 2019 raid that targeted Anjanette Young, the city’s top police leader told a city watchdog last week.

Aldermen demand answers on spike in carjackings: like ‘something out of a video game’ 

Aldermen on Friday took turns demanding answers from police on all aspects of carjackings and suggested strategies to combat the sharp uptick in the crime that has bedeviled Chicago and other cities across the country in the past year. 

The City Council Committee on Public Safety held a five-and-a-half hour subject matter hearing on the issue after Chicago was beset by carjackings, some violent, in 2020 with the trend continuing this year.  

Aldermen to take 2nd pass at $56M O’Hare Airport contract hobbled over lack of diverse hiring  

Aldermen are poised on Monday to revisit a $56 million agreement to expand O’Hare Airport’s cargo capacity four months after the measure hit a wall amid backlash from aldermen who cried foul over the contractor’s poor record on hiring Black-owned firms.  

The City Council Committee on Aviation is scheduled during a 2 p.m. meeting on Monday to take up a 35-year lease agreement (O2020-3997) with Aeroterm so it can build and operate the final phase of its Northeast Cargo Campus expansion on the airport grounds. City aviation officials have credited two earlier phases of the project, completed in 2016, with expanding the airport’s cargo freight capacity by 20 percent. 

News in brief: Hearing on increased carjackings will include range of law enforcement officials; Lightfoot wants Biden to prioritize more COVID vaccines

Aldermen on Thursday approved a $9.8 million tax abatement for a warehouse in the 12^th Ward.

Aldermen approved a $9.8 million tax incentive for an already-built and occupied warehouse in Back of the Yards over the vocal objections of one alderman.

Members of the City Council Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development voted to approve the request from Michael Tadin Jr. of Marina Crossing Owner LLC for a class 6(b) property tax incentive for the 633,000-square-foot industrial warehouse and distribution center at 2075 W. 43rd St. In the 12^th Ward.

The Morton Salt shed at 1357 N. Elston Ave. would be turned into a concert venue with space for up to 4,000 people under a plan approved Thursday.

A $30 million plan to transform the Morton Salt industrial shed in West Town into a concert venue and dining destination took a leap forward Thursday after earning a unanimous endorsement from the Chicago Plan Commission.

Chicago-based Blue Star Properties and prolific Goose Island developer R2 Companies are proposing to redevelop (O2019-7968) the four-acre site at 1357 N. Elston Ave. along the Chicago River North Branch while keeping the iconic exterior structure intact, even landmarking the building so that the “Morton Salt” logo and umbrella girl illustration remain to greet concertgoers.

News in brief: Hearing on increased carjackings will include range of law enforcement officials; Lightfoot wants Biden to prioritize more COVID vaccines 

Aldermen on Thursday will consider granting a $51 million, 12-year tax break for the rehabilitation of a downtown office tower alongside a handful of smaller tax credits for new industrial proposals around the city.

A proposal to convert a vacant Jefferson Park firehouse into a brewery and taproom with upstairs apartments cleared one of its final hurdles Wednesday.

Members of the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate unanimously voted during their Wednesday meeting to approve the sale of the property (O2020-5755) at 4841 N. Lipps Ave. to Ambrosia Homes for $208,000, which would be put in an escrow account to fund environmental remediation of the property.

A new 99-unit mixed-income apartment complex proposed next to the 43^rd Street CTA Green Line station in Bronzeville is among the largest of five projects set for consideration by the Chicago Plan Commission during its 10 a.m. meeting on Thursday.

‘Final step’ to converting Jefferson Park firehouse to brewery, apartments to be considered by aldermen  

Work to convert a Jefferson Park firehouse into a brewery and tasting room with apartments on the top floors could finally kick into gear this year if aldermen approve the sale of the property to the developer this month. 

The City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate during its Wednesday meeting will consider the “negotiated as-is sale of City-owned property at 4841 N. Lipps Ave.” to Ambrosia Homes. According to the ordinance (O2020-5755), the sale is contingent on the developer removing environmental hazards, including lead paint and asbestos, from the property. 

Expanded ‘Welcoming City’ ordinance advanced: ‘A long time coming’ on Lightfoot campaign promise 

Advocates for undocumented immigrants celebrated a string of substantive and symbolic victories Tuesday as aldermen advanced a measure to firm up protections for foreign-born residents on President Donald Trump’s last full day in office. 

During their first-ever meeting, the members of the City Council Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights voted unanimously to approve a proposal by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and a handful of aldermen to eliminate carve-outs in the city’s 2012 “Welcoming City” ordinance that allowed police to cooperate with federal immigration agents in some limited cases. The newer ordinance strikes language that allows such cooperation in cases that involve any suspect who has an “outstanding criminal warrant,” has been charged or convicted of a felony or “has been identified as a known gang member either in a law enforcement agency's database or by his own admission.” 

Aldermen press health officials on vaccines, other grant funding as loose timeline emerges for citywide shots 

Chicago health officials will soon release information on how city workers can sign up for COVID-19 vaccine doses, they told anxious aldermen during a committee meeting Tuesday. 

The city is “getting very close” to widening its pool of residents eligible for vaccines beyond health care workers and nursing home residents and will then “make announcements about how people can sign up” for shots through an online platform, Chicago Department of Public Health Deputy Comm. Christina Anderson told members of the City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations. 

Council approval of Smart Lighting Program exposed communication, transparency issues in city ‘legislative process,’ watchdog finds 

A report published Tuesday by Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson seized on the City Council’s approval of the Smart Lighting Program as an example of problems the office has observed when it comes to communication and transparency with aldermen over items that require their vote. 

Ferguson “conducted an inquiry” into the role the since-disbanded Chicago Infrastructure Trust had in the legislative process that ultimately led to the City Council voting in 2017 to approve the contract for the Smart Lighting Program to modernize the city’s street light system, according to the report, which summarizes investigations conducted by the watchdog office during the final quarter of 2020. While hiccups in the council approval process did not necessarily constitute wrongdoing, a series of communication issues exposed “management problems” among some city agencies, Ferguson wrote.