Ald. Leslie Hairston (5), left, and Chicago Department of Housing Asst. Comm. Will Edwards speak during a meeting of the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate Tuesday.

A $15 million loan fund pilot to help longtime South Shore condo owners stay in their homes won’t insulate most of the neighborhood from displacement pressure, but it will salve a nagging problem that has been festering for decades, city housing officials and the area’s local alderman said Tuesday.

A vocal group of local organizers is calling for more, saying the fund is well-intentioned but shows misplaced priorities by the city as South Shore faces a crush of real estate interest rippling from the coming Obama Presidential Center.

Aldermen on Tuesday approved a tax incentive for a Fatburger proposed in Chatham. [Department of Planning and Development]

Property tax incentives for a Fatburger restaurant location in Chatham and a behavioral health hospital in Uptown were teed up for final City Council approval when a key committee quickly approved the proposals on Tuesday.

Ald. Michele Smith (43), left, is working to push her proposed ethics package through the City Council this month. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

A tweaked version of a proposal to update the city’s ethics code for the first time in nearly three years could go to the City Council for a vote this month if a key committee gives the measure an OK this week.

The City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight is scheduled to consider a reworked version of the proposal (O2022-1100) from the city’s Board of Ethics and by Ald. Michele Smith (43), who chairs the committee, to update city ethics rules for the first time since December 2019. But Smith’s office told The Daily Line on Tuesday that the alderman willgavel in Wednesday’s meeting and immediately recess until Friday, when a rescheduled vote on the overhaul is expected.

Residents of condo buildings including the Lake Terrace complex at 7337 S. Lake Shore Drive would be able to apply for grants or loans to renovate their homes under the South Shore Condo Preservation Pilot Program. [Eric Allix Rogers on Flickr]

South Shore condo associations will be allowed to apply for city-backed grants for maintenance and repairs under an ordinance under consideration Tuesday that aims to protect longtime homeowners from displacement in the South Side neighborhood.

The proposal (O2022-2004) by Mayor Lori Lightfoot on behalf of the Chicago Department of Housing is one of more than a dozen ordinances set for consideration by the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate during its 10 a.m. meeting on Tuesday, including city financing for a new woman-centered supportive housing development in Uptown.

Montrose Behavioral Health Hospital has applied for a Class 7(c) tax incentive.

Aldermen on Tuesday could give an initial OK to tax incentives to boost construction of a behavioral health hospital in Uptown and a Fatburger restaurant in Chatham.

Cook County leaders laid the groundwork Monday for annual spending talks and late tax collections in an unusual budget year. And Chicago transportation officials unveiled plans to give away 5,000 bikes through 2026.

Aldermanic hopefuls have already begun fundraising and campaigning for the 2023 municipal election [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

With the Illinois Gubernatorial Primary Election in the rear-view mirror, campaign work is shifting to next year’s citywide elections, when voters will decide how to fill all 50 Chicago aldermanic seats as well as the Mayor’s chair.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office sent out reassessment notices this month to property owners in Norwood Park Township, which includes the villages of Norridge and Harwood Heights. [City of Chicago]

The first round of new assessments for the 2022 tax year hit mailboxes in Norridge and Harwood Heights last week, and they offer an early signal that landlords may be spared of the sticker shock that has confronted them the last three years.

But the timing of the new valuations — five months after they’re typically sent out — has set off warning bells that the delay could cascade into next year’s collections, extending a headache for suburban municipalities and school districts with no clear end in sight. Kaegi's office is downplaying the threat of a future delay, saying the same technology update that contributed to this year's pile-up will speed up assessments now that it's been implemented.

Second-installment property tax bills will be mailed out by Dec. 1 this year instead of in July per the usual schedule, officials said Thursday.

Cook County will launch a competitive fund offering loans of at least $20,000 each to suburban municipalities, school districts and other taxing bodies that are bracing for revenue shortfalls from an expected four-month delay in property tax bills this year, county President Toni Preckwinkle’s administration announced Thursday.

The county’s Local Government Bridge Funding Program, set for official launch by the county Board of Commissioners later this month, will make up to $300 million in “one-time…short-term operational cash flow” loans to taxing bodies most hurt by the late bills, officials said.

Dan Pogorzelski, left, was leading Elizabeth Joyce Thursday in the race for a two-year term on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. [provided/Facebook]

Nine days after the June 28 primary, just one Chicago-area race remained too close to call on Thursday, but a late batch of mail-in votes tilted the result toward a clean sweep for the Cook County Democratic Party’s candidates for the $1.2 billion agency responsible for wastewater treatment and flood mitigation all over Cook County.

If Daniel Pogorzelski clings to his nearly 2,000-vote lead over Elizabeth Joyce through the end of ballot-counting next week, party-backed candidates will have successfully beaten back an insurgent slate led by an ousted former commissioner who argued he and his allies are more diverse and qualified than the party picks.

A disgraced former Chicago alderman was sentenced to four months in federal prison on Wednesday as a judge denied his request for probation. And a Chicago police oversight agency launched an investigation into a Park Ridge incident allegedly involving a Chicago Police officer who pinned a 14-year-old boy to the ground.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago Department of Transportation Comm. Gia Biagi, Ald. Pat Dowell (3) and other city officials cut the ribbon on the new Motor Row Streetscape project along Michigan Avenue Wednesday. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and city transportation officials on Wednesday used the unveiling of streetscape improvements meant to bolster pedestrian and driver safety on the Near South Side and tout the city’s larger strategy of widening sidewalks, cutting vehicle lanes and improving crosswalks to promote safer streets and reduce traffic crashes.

Private lot booting is currently legal in about two-thirds of Chicago, but some aldermen want to expand it to the entire city [Quinn Myers/Block Club Chicago]

This article was first published in Block Club Chicago.

On a Saturday afternoon in mid-April, Wicker Park resident Tess Syriac planned to make a quick stop for beers and burgers to bring home to some friends hanging out at her house.

She had already placed an order online at Small Cheval, 1732 N. Milwaukee Ave., and said she planned to stop at the Garfield’s Beverage Express liquor store across the street right after.

Ald. James Cappleman (46) at a City Council meeting in February 2020. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

Ald. James Cappleman (46) will not run for a fourth term in the City Council next year after more than a decade at the helm of Uptown’s radical transformation, he announced in a note to constituents on Tuesday.

The news comes as three contenders have already lined up to succeed him — including one challenger who came within a hair’s breadth of unseating him in 2019.

Ald. Brendan Reilly (42), right, talks to Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38) during an April 2022 City Council meeting.

A new proposal backed by a cluster of powerful Chicago aldermen aims to crack down on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration’s semi-regular habit of introducing new legislation for an immediate vote with little or no notice.