Chicago News
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SEP 23, 2020
A long-promised amendment to the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance is on track to come before the City Council later this fall.
Aldermen on Wednesday will offer ideas on how to rewrite the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance, a months-in-the-making project to stamp Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s imprint on a controversial and evolving housing policy. -
SEP 22, 2020
Chicago Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Lisa Morrison-Butler speaks during a committee meeting on Monday.
The city’s overwhelmed network of homeless shelters is ill-prepared to handle the long-term fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting economic devastation, a top city official warned aldermen on Monday. -
SEP 22, 2020
A report commissioned by the city found last month that it would be “financially infeasible” for the city to take control of its electric utility system.
Aldermen will get the chance on Tuesday to ask city officials and researchers for more details about a recent report that threw cast doubts on the idea of wresting control of the city’s electric utility away from Commonwealth Edison. -
SEP 22, 2020
Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett speaks during a meeting of the City Council finance committee on Monday.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot will propose raising the city’s tax on computer leases but likely won’t budge on her opposition to two progressive business taxes as potential tools to bridge the $1.2 billion budget shortfall the city faces heading into 2021, the city’s top financial official told aldermen Monday. -
SEP 21, 2020
A floor plan for NuEra’s proposed dispensary during a virtual meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday.
Cannabis firm NuEra on Friday became the first company to score city approval for a new dispensary since March, beating out competitor Dispensary 33 for the right to sell pot on a coveted block in the Fulton Market district. -
SEP 21, 2020
Aldermen hear presentations from advocates of reparations during a June meeting of the City Council health and human relations committee
Aldermen will reckon with the city’s historic revenue shortfall, chew over the state of the city’s homelessness crisis, populate three new mayoral-appointed advisory boards and push forward an exploration of potential reparations for Black Chicagoans during committee meetings scheduled for Monday. -
SEP 18, 2020
Chicago Budget Director Susie Park gives a presentation on the Chicago Police Department’s $1.7 billion budget during a hearing on Thursday.A city financial analyst pinpointed about $55 million he said can be shaved from the Chicago Police Department budget as the city faces a combined $2 billion budget deficit for 2020 and 2021. But as the city works to negotiate a new contract with its rank-and-file police union, most of those savings likely can’t be realized next year, officials said Thursday. -
SEP 18, 2020
UNLOCKEDBRIGHTON PARK — A proposal to build a new Chicago Park District headquarters in Brighton Park received the green light from the city’s Plan Commission on Thursday.
The park district’s proposal aims to build an 88,000-square-foot office space, a field house, playground, spray pool and three artificial turf fields on 17 acres at 4800 S. Western Ave., shifting the current headquarters from Streeterville.
In response to community feedback, the Park District added a teen center to the field house, and a new traffic signal and crosswalk at Western Avenue and 48th Place. The plan also includes two fitness centers and a gym with a full-sized basketball court, according to city officials.
Guests also can expect a green roof with more than 30 varieties of plants, more than 200 parking spaces and bicycle parking, officials said at the meeting.
John Ronan Architects has been contracted to design the new headquarters.
Planning commissioners lauded the project for bringing an amenity-filled complex to the underserved neighborhood.
Commissioner Maurice Cox called it “by far one of the most transformational investments” the city has made in the Brighton Park neighborhood.Plan Commission approves a new @ChicagoParks headquarters at 48th and Western in #BrightonPark. It includes a two-story, 88,000-square-foot office that will replace the agency's current HQ in Streeterville, as well as adjacent park space and a fieldhouse on a large, 17-acre site. pic.twitter.com/IPnsrR2xm9
— Chicago DPD (@ChicagoDPD) September 17, 2020
RELATED: Park District Headquarters’ Move To Brighton Park Means New Fields, A Spray Pool And More
The Chicago Park District sold its headquarters to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for $22.5 million in 2015.
City officials unveiled the plan to move the headquarters from Downtown to Brighton Park in 2018. At the time, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the move would bring 200 existing jobs along with “much-needed recreational assets” to the South Side neighborhood.
Brighton Park was selected out of 20 possible locations because it is one of the top five community areas in need of open space, city officials said, and because of the site’s close proximity to the Western Orange Line and the Western bus route.
No price tag for the facility has been revealed. Park District Supt. Michael Kelly said officials are working to secure more funding for the project.
While the project was well-received, some commissioners raised concerns the project could result in gentrification-fueled displacement.
“What we don’t want is to end up with this beautiful park but all of the Latinos pushed out of the neighborhood, commission chair Teresa Córdova said.
“We need to make sure this park does not result in the gentrification of this neighborhood. They deserve these amenities, too.”
Upon City Council approval, Park District officials said they hope to start construction this winter.
City officials unveiled new renderings of the proposed Park District Headquarters in Brighton Park Thursday. CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT
City officials unveiled new renderings of the proposed Park District Headquarters in Brighton Park Thursday. CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT
City officials unveiled new renderings of the proposed Park District Headquarters in Brighton Park Thursday. CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT
City officials unveiled new renderings of the proposed Park District Headquarters in Brighton Park Thursday. CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT
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SEP 17, 2020
Dr. Allison Arwady shows a map of COVID-19 “hot spots” on the city’s Northwest and Southwest Side.
Chicago public health officials are planning ahead for a mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign assuming a viable dose becomes available early next year, the city’s top doctor told aldermen Wednesday. -
SEP 17, 2020
Commonwealth Edison is recovering from the worst storm the company has ever faced, its president said Wednesday.
But that storm had nothing to do with the political firestorm that has brought the utility company negative attention as it continues to face scrutiny for its role in a federal investigation. -
SEP 17, 2020
A rendering of the new Chicago Park District headquarters planned for 4800 S. Western Ave
The new 17-acre Park District headquarters slated for construction in Brighton Park would include turf fields, an indoor gym and multiple outdoor play areas for kids, according to a design (O2020-1899) set to be approved by the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday. -
SEP 17, 2020
UNLOCKED
Mayor Lori Lightfoot presides over a virtual meeting of the City Council in August.
Concrete manufacturer Oremus Material never won over Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25) on its plan to open a new plant at 2351 S. Loomis Ave. In the end, it didn’t need to.
The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection issued a license over the weekend allowing the operation to get underway, despite Sigcho-Lopez’s insistence that the plant would be an environmental hazard to neighbors.
