Chicago News
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MAY 19, 2017
The Chicago Plan Commission unanimously approved a major land use planning guide for the North Branch Industrial Corridor Thursday afternoon, the first of several legislative steps needed to transition the former manufacturing hub into the future. It’s also the first of many design plans expected to be released as the Department of Planning and Development continues its review of all 26 Planned Manufacturing Districts (PMDs) across the city.
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Aldermen unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday from Mayor Rahm Emanuel in support of Senate Bill 885, a measure to improve protections to home buyers involved in contract for deed sales. Home buyers in those sales don’t have equity in the home until they’ve paid the cost in full, and can be thrown out without a foreclosure process if they miss a payment. A Chicago Reader investigation identified three out-of state companies that sell homes using these kinds of agreements in Chicago: Harbour Portfolio Advisors, Vision Property Management, and Battery Point Financial. Those sales, the Reader said, are concentrated in communities of color, and often lack sufficient information for buyers.
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Aldermen on the city’s Committee on Economic, Technology and Capital Development unanimously passed 12-year tax breaks Wednesday for a new CTA railcar assembly warehouse, a custom metal fabrication firm, a landmarked former catalog warehouse, and a new industrial site that could attract e-commerce giants like Amazon.
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MAY 18, 2017
The Council’s Pedestrian Committee approved a pair of ordinances Wednesday aimed at cracking down on parking and valet operators that have been shirking city taxes or operating illegally.
Parking Tax Clarity
Downtown parking garage operators claim mobile apps that allow drivers to find discounted parking spots have been evading city taxes, giving them an unfair advantage. Saying his office has been fielding many of those complaints, Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) sought to level the playing field with a change to the municipal code that clarifies companies like SpotHero and Parkwhiz must comply with the city’s parking tax.
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MAY 18, 2017
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The city’s year-long endeavor to overhaul the strict manufacturing boundaries of the North Branch Industrial Corridor faces its first legislative hurdle Thursday in a Plan Commission vote.
Plan Commissioners will also be greeted this morning by a neighborhood group in Jefferson Park that has been vocal in its opposition to an item not on today’s agenda.
At 10 am, members of Northwest Side Unite plan to hold a press conference where they plan to hand out copies of a petition that’s received more than 5,000 signatures against the rezone for 5150 N. Northwest Highway.
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Manufacturing jobs by zip code in Chicago.
Cook County Commissioners and aldermen packed a rare joint committee hearing Tuesday to meet face to face with many of the city and county agencies and local groups working to solve low employment numbers for youth. “The county and the city have some of the same functions when it comes to youth employment, and rarely ever talk to one another,” County Workforce Chairman Bridget Gainer (D-10) said. “This was an opportunity to make sure all the money we’re spending on youth unemployment, servicing, mentoring, that people know–the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. This doesn’t happen enough and it’s really useful.”
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The City of Chicago’s Department of Aviation released a request for proposals (RFP) for unarmed security at O’Hare and Midway Airports Tuesday. The RFP for a 60-month contract includes a key labor provision that would bring security officers at the city’s airports in line with unionized private security around the city and county. Those security officers are largely represented by SEIU Local 1, who have been pushing for increased wages and benefits for workers employed by private contractors at the city’s airports.
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A class 6b tax incentive for a new CTA railcar manufacturing facility in Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza’s (10) ward is the first agenda item of the day for City Council's Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development. CRCC Sifang has promised to create 169 new jobs within five years at the new facility being built at 13535 S Torrence Ave. CenterPoint Chicago Enterprise LLC owns the site, and plans to construct an approximately 380,994 sq. ft. facility to manufacture 864 new CTA rail cars.
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City Treasurer Kurt Summers’ General Counsel and Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Drew Beres, served his last day Monday, according to an email obtained by The Daily Line. Beres has been in Summers’ office since January of 2016. He did not return a request for comment, but his automatic email reply notes he’s no longer working at the Treasurer’s office.
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MAY 17, 2017
Wednesday’s Finance Committee agenda comprises of an eclectic mix. There’s an order requesting the city fold airport security officers into the Chicago Police Department, a hearing on homeowner protection programs created in the 1980’s as a way to stem white flight to the suburbs, and another hearing on how the city can protect its garbage cans from rodents. The alderman of the latter item, Howard Brookins (21), had his own run in with some overly aggressive squirrels that caused him to crash his bike.
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MAY 17, 2017
The Council’s Housing Committee meets at 9:30 this morning to consider a plan to sell city-owned land near Midway Airport valued for over a million dollars to Wisconsin-based Culver’s. It’s the largest land sale on the agenda and the burger franchise plans to purchase it for a dollar.
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While the Chicago Public Schools is fighting to keep its doors open for a full school year, its next fiscal year, beginning July 1, is sure to be as financially difficult, if not more. For the 2017-18 school year, board members will need to find a way to adequately fund a system while addressing a multitude of growing financial pressures amidst declining student enrollment.
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County commissioners and aldermen will gather for a joint hearing of the two bodies Workforce Committees in City Council chambers Tuesday morning to discuss youth unemployment heading into the summer. The subject matter hearing will delve into some striking statistics for Chicago, where 47% of Black men (20-24) and 20% of Hispanic men are jobless and out of school–which the resolution warns leads to “poverty, drug abuse, homelessness and violence in our communities.”
