Lightfoot’s revised ‘clean air’ ordinance resurfaces for committee consideration Monday 

Changes to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s long-stalled “clean air” ordinance mean certain industrial developments would be required to go through tougher reviews by the city’s transportation and public health departments instead having to go before the Zoning Board of Appeals or the Chicago Plan Commission.  

The substitute ordinance allows shipping and logistics warehouses to open by right instead of requiring a special-use permit, as a previous draft of the ordinance laid out. 

Chicago, Evanston aldermen press reparations subcommittee to begin work immediately 

Aldermen and other advocates urged members of the City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations Subcommittee on Reparations not to delay work on implementing reparations initiatives in Chicago. 

The subcommittee, tasked with exploring reparations for Black residents, held its inaugural meeting on Thursday after a previously scheduled February meeting was canceled.  

News in brief: Preckwinkle announces $72.8M rent relief program; Lightfoot proposes tougher rules for scofflaw building owners 

Aldermen line up behind guaranteed income: ‘2021 is our New Deal moment’  

A growing group of aldermen led by Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) are calling on city finance officials to set aside a piece of the forthcoming federal rescue package for direct cash payments to struggling Chicagoans. 

Villegas wants to peel off up to $50 million from the $1.8 billion due to the city from the American Rescue Plan Act to pilot a “guaranteed income program for those who need help the most,” he said during a meeting of the City Council Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development Thursday. Villegas, who chairs the committee, used the two-hour meeting to showcase support for direct-payment programs among policy researchers and officials from other cities. 

Lightfoot launches fund, working group aimed at helping small and diverse companies working with the city 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot introduced a series of measures on Wednesday aiming to help support small minority- and women-owned companies that contract with the city. 

The three new initiatives include a $25 million Vendor Impact Fund through which minority- and women-owned businesses will get preferential access to Paycheck Protection Program and Small Business Administration loans. Businesses owned by veterans or people with disabilities will also get priority in the fund. 

Reform advocate tapped to succeed Campanelli as next Cook County Public Defender 

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle tapped Illinois Justice Project director Sharone Mitchell, Jr. to be the county’s top defense lawyer, replacing current Public Defender Amy Campanelli with a like-minded advocate for decarceration and criminal justice reform. 

Mitchell is set on April 1 to begin a six-year term at the helm of the $81 million office charged with representing most defendants in the county’s sprawling court system. County commissioners scheduled a special meeting for 10 a.m. Friday to confirm the appointment. 

News in brief: Aldermen to hold hearing on guaranteed income proposal; Reparations Subcommittee to hold first meeting Thursday; Transit Board approves $1.75M to settle case in which bus driver struck bicyclist in 2019 

Commissioner vows ‘ambitious’ arts and culture agenda as funding lacks for Taste of Chicago 

Chicagoans still should not expect big-ticket events like Taste of Chicago and the Air and Water Show to run their typical course this year, but city leaders are still a long way from any official decisions about this year’s slate of summer events, officials told aldermen Wednesday. 

Aldermen in the City Council Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation unanimously approved an ordinance (O2021-781) on Wednesday granting the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events legal authority to partner with vendors and sell tickets to dozens of major festivals and other summer events. The ordinance is a routine annual legal checklist item, but this year is far from typical, facing department leaders with a set of hard choices. 

Group launches plan to establish independent advisory commission to redraw Chicago’s 50 wards 

A group advocating for an independent commission to redraw Chicago’s 50 wards launched an initiative Tuesday to create the commission, but some aldermen who support remapping reform still see most of the power resting in City Council’s hands.  

The 13-member Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission will work with “neighborhood and good government groups” to collect community input and draw a ward map CHANGE Illinois and advocates hope “will win support in the City Council,” Madeleine Doubek, the organization’s executive director, said Tuesday.  

More than half of United Center vaccination slots unfilled as officials shift to ‘targeted’ approach  

Contradicting earlier reports that all of the vaccination appointment slots available at the United Center were filled, officials said on Tuesday that tens of thousands of appointments have not yet been taken but will be filled with a more “targeted” and “equity” approach.  

Gov. JB Pritzker, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady announced the open slots alongside other local and federal officials Tuesday morning at the United Center, where they marked the opening of the massive vaccination site set to administer 6,000 vaccines per day for at least the next eight weeks. Arwady said the site will ultimately deliver about 336,000 shots of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine meaning about 168,000 could be vaccinated at the United Center in the next eight weeks. City officials originally projected 110,000 shots would be available at the United Center. 

City to open the door to summer festivals as event roster remains in flux 

Aldermen are scheduled Wednesday to lay the legal groundwork for the city to sponsor a full array of summertime cultural events this year, even as it remains unclear how many events will be held in person as the city tries to emerge from the pandemic this year. 

The City Council Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation is set to consider the 10-page event authorization ordinance (O2021-781) during its 11 a.m. meeting on Wednesday. The routine annual measure empowers the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events to sell tickets, enter into contracts with vendors and impose fees for cultural touchstones like the Chicago Blues Festival and Chicago Air and Water Show. 

News in brief: Lightfoot announces White Sox and Cubs fans can attend games this season; United Center vaccination site to open Tuesday after appointment confusion 

First round of major Invest South/West plans unveiled as city lags behind 2019 funding goals 

City leaders on Monday raised the curtain on more than $67 million in new developments planned through the Invest South/West program, cementing the first round of major projects planned as part of the mayor’s signature economic development initiative.  

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday that the city has so far committed about $70 million in direct city funds to Invest South/West projects, a fraction of its October 2019 goal to sink more than $750 million into the program within three years. The mayor acknowledged that her administration has “got a little ground to make up” to reach its goal, but she said the public funds invested so far have already drawn $300 million in private investments to the 10 South and West Side neighborhoods targeted by Invest South/West. 

 

A last-minute eligibility change frustrated many people — but the state said it was needed because too many appointments were going to non-Chicagoans.

CHICAGO — All of the United Center’s 110,000 vaccination appointments have been taken — but only after technical glitches, eligibility changes and frustration Sunday.

More appointments at the mass vaccination site will open in the weeks to come, officials have said. The center, where up to 6,000 people can be vaccinated per day, will significantly boost Chicago’s and Illinois’ vaccination efforts.

Ald. Jason Ervin (28) is the sponsor of a resolution calling for hearings to establish a City Council Office of Legislative Counsel. 

A resolution introduced in February takes the first step toward setting up an independent legal shop for members of the City Council following a prolonged dispute between some aldermen and the city’s law department. 

The measure (R2021-217), sponsored by Ald. Jason Ervin (28), calls for a hearing  on creating a City Council Office of Legislative Counsel that would provide independent counsel for City Council members. Although Mayor Lori Lightfoot has so far been silent on the proposal, it would fulfill a key promise from her campaign, when she pitched creating a separate legal office as an ethics reform measure.