A person receives a COVID-19 vaccine at the mass vaccination site in the Jones Convocation Center on the campus of Chicago State University on April 7, 2021. [Colin Boyle/Block Club]

This article was first published in Block Club Chicago.

More than 92 percent of city workers have reported their vaccination status, according to a Monday news release.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters

Hammond Elementary, a predominantly Latino school in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, lost almost 30% of its enrollment during the pandemic, shrinking to about 250 students from a peak of more than 500 back in the mid-2010s.

Date:11/22/21
Location: Harold Washington Cultural Center

Click read more below to watch the full presentation and question & answer session.

 

 

Chinatown residents held a rally in Chinatown square on Nov. 12 to demand a majority-Asian American ward in the city's next remap. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Even as the City Council Aldermanic Black Caucus and Latino Caucus drive toward a standoff over their dueling proposals for a new city ward map, the groups have found agreement on at least one point. Leaders of both groups say they’ve submitted proposals to carve out a majority-Asian ward on the city’s Near South Side, bowing to growing calls from Asian American advocacy groups arguing the city’s fastest-growing racial group deserves a louder voice in city government.

Civic Federation president Laurence Msall testifies during a meeting of the Cook County Board of Commissioners on Thursday.

Cook County leaders gave a unanimous final stamp on Thursday to an $8 billion 2022 spending plan praised by a key fiscal watchdog as a responsible and innovative path out of the COVID-19 pandemic. But more budget fights are waiting on deck as the Board of Commissioners prepare to iron out the details of the county’s American Rescue Plan spending and launch a campaign to persuade voters to raise their own taxes for the sake of the county forest preserves.

Aldermen listened to a presentation on the proposed Coalition Map spearheaded by the City Council Latino Caucus.

With 12 days until a critical deadline to vote on a new map, aldermanic debate over the city ward remap on Thursday broke out into the public sphere for the first time since the behind-the-scenes process got underway. 

The Chicago Plan Commission gave an initial OK to an affordable housing development along Fifth Avenue in East Garfield Park. 

A proposal to build affordable apartments and condos side-by-side in East Garfield Park cleared a key hurdle on Thursday by nabbing the endorsement of the Chicago Plan Commission. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference on Wednesday. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Aldermen gave the Chicago Police Board the go-ahead on Wednesday to draw up an appeal process for people who want their names removed from a new system intended to replace the Chicago Police Department’s controversial Gang Database.

The City Council Latino Caucus held a news conference to promote its map proposal on Wednesday. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

Members of the City Council Latino Caucus are “locked in” on their insistence that a new city ward map must include 15 majority-Latino wards, putting them on a collision course with the council’s larger Aldermanic Black Caucus with less than two weeks remaining to reach a deal. 

The Cook County Board of Commissioners is set to approve the county's 2022 budget on Thursday. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Cook County commissioners are set to give a final stamp on Thursday to county board President Toni Preckwinkle’s $8 billion blueprint (21-5619) to fund the county government in 2022, backed in part by a $1 billion boost from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.

Developers are proposing adaptive reuse of the historic former Ludlow Typography Company building at 2032 N. Clybourn Ave. [Department of Planning and Development]

A mixed-use campus in East Garfield Park and a residential adaptive reuse planned near the future site of Lincoln Yards are set to headline Thursday’s meeting of the Chicago Plan Commission.

Brewpubs like Goose Island in the Kinzie Industrial Corridor will be able to set up outdoor patio seating under an ordinance set for City Council approval. [Facebook/Goose Island]

Chicago’s proliferation of outdoor restaurant patios will be free to extend into the industrial districts of the city’s Near West and Northwest Side under a rule change set for final approval on Wednesday.

Aldermen are set to meet on Wednesday for the first regular City Council meeting since approving the 2022 budget. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

During the first regular City Council meeting since passing the 2022 budget, aldermen on Wednesday are set to approve nearly $3 million for five police-related settlements and loosen rules allowing dogs in some Chicago bars, among dozens of other measures.  

Ald. James M. Gardiner (45) reacts at a City Council meeting where alderpeople voted on the 2022 budget, on Oct. 27, 2021. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

The city’s ethics board is calling for harsher punishments for alderpeople who violate the council’s code of conduct after Ald. Jim Gardiner (45) allegedly retaliated against constituents who criticized him.

The zoning amendment for the lot near Argyle Street and Long Avenue kills the proposed project by developer American Heritage, which was first introduced in 2014. [provided]

A proposal to bring a 48-unit Northwest Side apartment complex that was already on life support is now officially dead after Ald. Jim Gardiner (45) downzoned a vacant Jefferson Park lot this week, undoing a 2016 zoning decision championed by his predecessor.