Members of the City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations are set to consider a proposal to give residents prepaid gas cards and CTA fare cards. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

Aldermen are set on Wednesday to vote on a yet-to-be-made-public plan meant to help Chicago residents pay for transportation as gas prices remain high.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago police Supt. David Brown speak during a news conference on Monday.

City leaders and Chicago Police Department officials on Monday announced a suite of new neighborhood initiatives, including a security camera rebate program, meant to help tamp down crime in the city.

Chicago will pilot a three-year program to offer free legal representation to people facing eviction. And Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans is touting relationships with business groups to crack down on retail thefts.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25) says he “cannot support” a Related Midwest and Rivers Casino’s proposal for The 78 until it proves it can earn community backing. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago; Related Midwest]

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25) wrote in a letter to a powerful colleague this week that he “cannot support” a proposal for a casino to be built as part of “The 78” mega-development brewing in his Near South Side ward, imperiling the proposal’s chances as it competes with two other plans.

A biker rides in the Milwaukee Avenue bike lane. [Hannah Alani/Block Club Chicago]

Tucked into her speech to the City Club Chicago on Thursday, Chicago Department of Transportation Comm. Gia Biagi announced the city is planning to give away 5,000 bikes, helmets and bike locks to Chicagoans.

From left: Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38), then-Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety Deborah Witzburg and Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25) during a City Council joint Finance and Public Safety committee meeting last year

Mayor Lori Lightfoot put an official stamp Thursday on her nomination of Deborah Witzburg, a former deputy in Chicago’s Office of the Inspector General, as her choice to lead the office on a permanent basis. The long-awaited pick brought comfort to good government advocates and some aldermen who feared the mayor would pick an outsider over Witzburg, an acolyte of former Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, with whom the mayor has repeatedly clashed.

Chicago Department of Transportation Comm. Gia Biagi speaks during a City Club event on Thursday.

Chicago is planning to connect and expand its trail and “corridor” system with a dozen pedestrian- and bike-friendly projects that could get underway in years to come, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other city officials said on Thursday.

Drivers wait in a blocks-long line for free gas from businessman and former mayoral candidate Willie Wilson near the Marathon gas station, 340 S. Sacramento Blvd., in Garfield Park on March 17, 2022. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

This article was first published in Block Club Chicago.

The city will give away $150 gas cards and provide funds for CTA rides to tens of thousands of residents to help them as gas prices stay at record highs.

From left: Ald. Scott Waguespack (32), Ald. Brendan Reilly (42), Ald. Tom Tunney (44) and Ald. Matt O’Shea (19) during Wednesday’s City Council meeting. All four will be members of the new City Council Committee on the Chicago Casino. [Don Vincent / The Daily Line]

One week after the City Council voted to create a new super-committee dedicated to approving a Chicago casino, officials are still clearing up questions over how the committee’s work will be funded and how powerful it will be, including whether it would allow development plans to bypass the city’s Plan Commission.

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Larry Rogers (D-3), left, and Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi.

The public battle between the two Cook County offices charged with measuring tax assessments reached a fever pitch on Wednesday, as Assessor Fritz Kaegi accused Board of Review Comm. Larry Rogers (D-3) of “playing politics with the property tax system” and Rogers retorted by calling Kaegi “the worst Assessor Cook County has seen” and “worse than Covid.”

Deborah Witzburg served as Chicago Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety between May 2020 and November 2021.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has tapped former Chicago Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety Deborah Witzburg as the city's next Inspector General, ending a nearly six-month open question about who will become the next permanent leader of the watchdog office, city officials confirmed Wednesday. Witzburg worked as a legal adviser to former Inspector General Joseph Ferguson from 2016 to 2020 before being appointed to lead the wing of Ferguson's office that oversees police reform — a post she held for 18 months.

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Michael Caboargi (D-2) in 2019 [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Michael Cabonargi (D-2) sent a fresh shot across the bow to Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi last week in the form of a letter to 80 elected officials across the county warning of a “new model” of assessments that will make appeals more important than ever.

Kaegi’s office has dismissed the warning as “scare tactics” that could end up skewing assessments, saying his own office is taking the same approach as in previous years to pinpoint property values for maximum accuracy and tax fairness.

An announcement is expected soon on which of the six companies that applied to roll out their e-scooters can pursue licenses with the city. And Latino aldermen are demanding more say and better representation in the City Council’s approval of Chicago’s forthcoming casino.

Ald. Nicole Lee (11) speaks during a news conference on Monday. [Erin Hegarty / The Daily Line]

The Chicago City Council made history on Monday when aldermen approved Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s nomination of Nicole Lee, a Chinatown native and United Airlines executive, as the city’s first Asian American woman to serve on the council.

Members of the Chicago Housing Initiative, ONE Northside and Access Living speak during a news conference outside City Council on March 23. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Expanding existing fees on demolitions, tacking on new penalties for apartment owners who leave their units empty, attaching new conditions to city-backed affordable housing subsidies and taxing high-end land sales to pay for anti-homelessness programs are among a suite of new legislative proposals housing organizers are looking to stake out in the City Council.