Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett and Ald. Walter Burnett (27) speak during a Wednesday committee meeting.

Aldermen on Wednesday took several zaps at Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposal to give away $150 gas cards and $50 public transit cards, laying another bump in the road for her plan to help Chicagoans deal with rising fuel costs. The plan did not advance on Wednesday, putting its implementation in flux.

Ald. Leslie Hairston (5), left, and Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady during a City Council committee hearing on Wednesday

Chicago is about to mightily expand its on-the-ground efforts to stop gun violence before it starts thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars incoming from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, city public health and social service officials said Wednesday. But many aldermen remain skeptical of whether the money is headed into the right hands.

Chicago Department of Planning and Development Comm. Maurice Cox and Ald. Michael Scott (24) during a City Council committee meeting on Wednesday

City planning officials are using federal dollars to fuel a top-to-bottom environmental review of Chicago’s 10,000-plus publicly owned vacant lots in an effort to uncork a persistent bottleneck in the city’s vacant land rehabilitation efforts by the end of the year, they announced Wednesday.

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) speaks during an event launching his 2023 mayoral campaign. [Erin Hegarty / The Daily Line]

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15), one of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s loudest critics on the City Council, on Wednesday officially announced he plans to run for mayor in 2023. During his official campaign launch at The Plant in Back of the Yard, Lopez said he plans to “focus on safety, rebuilding our economy and supporting our first responders and city employees that serve the taxpayers of the city of Chicago.”

A rendering of the Discover Call Center at 8560 S. Cottage Grove Ave. in Chatham. [City of Chicago]

Cook County commissioners are set on Thursday to green-light a tax incentive for a celebrated new banking call center in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood that was once the husk of a Target store that closed at the busy South Side intersection. The tax break — designed to give a boost to abandoned commercial properties — is set to save the property owner millions in potential real estate taxes as the call center ramps up during the next decade.

The class 7b tax incentive (22-2222) is one of seven local property tax breaks and dozens of other items set for final approval during the Board of Commissioners’ monthly meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday.

A $54 million allocation for a “vacant buildings rehabilitation program” envisioned under the Chicago Recovery Plan is one of multiple topics set for dissection by aldermen on Wednesday. [Eric Allix Rogers on Flickr]

Chicago aldermen will get a chance on Wednesday to grill city officials about how they plan to spend $316 million in federally sourced money to get ahead of a dreaded surge in summer crime and revive thousands of vacant or abandoned properties.

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.