DuSable Park sits just east of the Navy Pier Flyover. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

This article was originally published in Block Club Chicago.

CHICAGO — Community groups who have fought for decades for the completion of DuSable Park say they want their voices heard as Mayor Lori Lightfoot moves forward with her $40 million plan to honor Jean Baptiste Point du Sable.

Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown during an August 2020 news conference [Chicago Police Department] 

Updated Wednesday 12:54 p.m.: Nearly half the City Council used a legal maneuver on Wednesday to trigger a special meeting designed to probe Chicago Police Department leaders about their plans to head off summer violence ahead of the July 4 weekend.

The virtual council meeting, now scheduled for 11 a.m. on Friday, follows through on a letter signed on Tuesday by 25 aldermen threatening to convene the special meeting if a powerful committee chair did not act this week to schedule a wide-ranging meeting to review police policies.

Pot entrepreneurs with social equity licenses would be able to open downtown under a proposal from Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36). [budding via Unsplash]

Cannabis dispensaries with “social equity” licenses would be allowed to bypass many of the city’s built-in zoning restrictions under a new ordinance introduced by Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) last week designed to help minority-owned firms break into the city’s fledgling legal weed industry.

A statue of Christopher Columbus in Chicago’s Grant Park

A broadly backed push to rename Cook County’s official Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day remains stuck in neutral as supporters struggle to whip up support from a majority of the 17-member Cook County Board of Commissioners.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot during a news conference on Monday.

Surrounded by other city and community leaders, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a program on Monday to bring 250 new affordable homes to North Lawndale as part of wider INVEST South/West initiative. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks in a news conference on Friday, after aldermen delayed a vote on a portion of her business recovery package involving sign permitting. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

Despite unanimously approving most of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s sweeping business recovery package, aldermen delayed a vote on a siphoned-off section of the ordinance in order to retain their power over permitting storefront signs — for now. 

A rendering of the proposed school renovation and senior living tower at the intersection of Marine Drive and Irving Park Road [KGiles/46th Ward] 

A new 22-story Uptown senior housing facility, a 150-unit apartment complex near McCormick Place and a 357-unit apartment and townhome development in Irving Park represent some of the highest-profile proposals among nearly a dozen planned development applications submitted to the City Council this month. 

Linda Tortolero (left) and Stephanie Love-Patterson speaking during a subject matter hearing on domestic and gender-related violence. 

Leaders of organizations that serve survivors of domestic and gender-based violence are asking the city to set aside $50 million in its 2022 budget to help meet demand in staffing and resources needed to help Chicagoans suffering abuse. 

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle during the Board of Commissioners’ first semi-in-person meeting in 15 months on Thursday

Cook County leaders plan to use their $1 billion in new funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to boost the county’s existing safety net programs, expand worker benefits and help the county’s 100-plus municipal governments use the new resources to the fullest, officials said Thursday.

Up to three companies would be allowed to operate e-scooters in Chicago under an ordinance set to be proposed by an alderman and city transportation officials on Friday. [Hannah Alani/Block Club Chicago]

Reinstated renter protections, a permanent citywide e-scooter program and two proposals meant to combat systemic racism in home lending are among the dozens of new measures set for introduction at Friday’s City Council meeting. The raft of new legislation was set to be rolled out on Wednesday, until the meeting abruptly adjourned following a dispute over the appointment of Corporation Counsel Celia Meza.

Ephraim Martin details a compromise on the renaming of outer Lake Shore Drive during a news conference Thursday.

The City Council will try again Friday to get through its agenda originally planned for earlier this week after Wednesday’s meeting ended prematurely amid rancor and parliamentary maneuvering.  

Wednesday’s City Council meeting was derailed after Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) (left) joined Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20) to delay a mayoral appointment. [The Daily Line/Don Vincent]

Any semblance of routine was lost from the beginning of Wednesday’s City Council meeting as aldermen tussled to temporarily block a mayoral appointment, approve another, then adjourn before any additional agenda items could be considered. 

The $121 million budget shortfall faced by Cook County represents a sharp decline from gaps ripped open by the COVID-19 pandemic last year. [Cook County Bureau of Finance]

Cook County leaders will have to close a $121.4 million budget shortfall this fall as they prepare to pass a 2022 budget that leaves the economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the rear-view mirror. They’ll do so with the help of a $1 billion allotment from the federal government via the American Rescue Plan, a windfall that county budget officials will work to weave into their budgets during the next three years.

Cook County Comm. Kevin Morrison (D-15) speaking during a virtual news conference Monday to promote his “Gender Inclusive Documents and Forms” ordinance [Facebook]

Ordinances designed to make Cook County paperwork more sensitive to genderqueer people and help suburban workers secure time off to get vaccinated are among dozens of measures set to be taken up by the county’s Board of Commissioners during its first semi-in-person meeting in 15 months Thursday.

Ald. David Moore (17) said he has the votes to pass an ordinance to rename Lake Shore Drive after Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable. [The Daily Line/Alex Nitkin]

One month after a vote on their proposal was blocked, sponsors of an ordinance to rename Lake Shore Drive after Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable plan to call their proposal back for a vote Wednesday. And they believe they have the votes to pass it.