Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference after Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

Aldermen overwhelmingly approved a plan to move forward with Bally’s $1.7 billion blueprint for a Chicago casino, more narrowly endorsed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s curfew crackdown plan and threw another hurdle in front of a proposed ethics crackdow during a marathon City Council meeting on Wednesday.

Ald. Michael Scott, Jr. (24) and his wife Natashee Scott are set to pay $8,000 to buy a pair of vacant city-owned parcels next to their home in the 1200 block of South Albany Avenue. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line; Byrnes & Walsh LLC]

Departing Ald. Michael Scott (24) is on track to benefit from a city-backed land deal in his own ward shortly after he leaves office that would allow him to and his wife Natashee Scott to buy a pair of vacant lots adjoining their North Lawndale home.

The alderman has defended the move as above board, saying he had no personal involvement in the pair of land sales that his wife pursued through Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration so that his young children can enjoy a safe outdoor play space in the shadow of their home. And planning officials in Lightfoot’s administration also say the pending sales cross no legal or ethical lines.

Still, the Scotts were able to take advantage of a city-led appraisal that undercut nearby property values, and of a city program that offers discounts to property owners who buy publicly owned parcels next-door to them.

A 380-foot, 204-unit residential building is proposed for 210 N. Morgan St. In the 27th Ward.

The Chicago Plan Commission is set to meet on Thursday to consider a sparse agenda that includes a 204-unit residential proposed to be built in Fulton Market.

The mayor's allies blocked a vote Wednesday on Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez's (25) ordinance to downzone a Pilsen church to better control future development on the property. [Left, middle: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago; Right: Mauricio Pena/Block Club Chicago]

This article was first published in Block Club Chicago.

City Council members blocked a vote on an ordinance to downzone the site of the beloved St. Adalbert Roman Catholic Church in Pilsen, setting off a heated exchange between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th).

Alds. Nicholas Sposato (38th) and Ariel Reboyras (30th) moved to defer and publish Sigcho-Lopez’s proposal during Wednesday’s meeting, meaning it won’t go before City Council for a full vote until next month.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25) and Eric Wollan, chief capital assets officer for the Archdiocese of Chicago, speak during a committee meeting on Tuesday.

Aldermen on Tuesday supported a colleague’s proposal to downzone a shuttered Pilsen church as a way to slow any proposed redevelopment despite warnings from the city’s law department and the Archdiocese of Chicago that the move could invite a lawsuit against the city.

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) speaks during a committee meeting on Tuesday.

A normally routine re-referral of a proposal out of the City Council’s rules committee led to confusion and an unusual roll call vote on Tuesday an alderman attempted in vain to further delay a proposal that would allow the booting of cars citywide.

Ald. Michael Scott during a political event in March 2020 [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

A popular West Side alderman and key ally of Mayor Lori Lightfoot is calling it quits at the end of next week, setting up the mayor’s second opportunity to fill a vacancy on the City Council.

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) filing notice Monday for a special City Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

The City Council is set to give its official blessing on Wednesday to a plan tying the fate of Chicago’s finances with Bally’s $1.7 billion blueprint for a casino, hotel and entertainment district in River West. The council is also on track to take a vote on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s controversial proposal to move up the city’s youth curfew to 10 p.m.

Following the abbreviated City Council meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, aldermen are set to reconvene for an impromptu 3 p.m. hearing forced by aldermen to grill police, parks and school district officials on their plans to get ahead of summer violence.

Clockwise from top-left: Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Comm. Larry Suffredin (D-13), Comm. Stanley Moore (D-4) and Civic Federation president Laurence Msall speak during a virtual meeting on Tuesday.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners quickly approved a measure on Tuesday to hike the salaries for all county elected officials — including themselves — by 10 percent, with step-ups set to follow every year through 2026.

Commissioners defended the pay bump as a long-overdue and necessary step to keep up with inflation and to keep the county’s top positions attractive to candidates. But with just five weeks until the primary election, it proved an awkward maneuver for incumbents and a gift to their challengers. All four commissioners who are facing primary challenges voted against the measure.

Aldermen convene for a special City Council meeting on Monday. [The Daily Line/Alex Nitkin]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her City Council allies stuck the landing Monday on a series of procedural acrobatics designed to tee up preliminary approval for Wednesday of a $1.7 billion Chicago casino plan, overcoming a flurry of late questions to advance an ordinance and corresponding public benefits agreement in a lopsided vote.

The City Council Special Committee on the Chicago Casino launched the casino measures to approval in a 27-3 vote just after the full City Council gave final stamps of approval to dozens of other items, including a program designed to speed the installation of water meters and a new licensing apparatus to allow major concert venues like the upcoming “Salt Shed” to hold outdoor concerts.

However, Lightfoot’s allies punted on a plan to codify her controversial push to push forward the city’s youth curfew, throwing the ordinance’s chances of passage into doubt.

Members of the ECPS Coalition speak during a news conference on Wednesday [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

Aldermen will get the chance on Tuesday to question the 14 potential nominees to the city’s first-of-its-kind citywide civilian committee tasked with overseeing the Chicago Police Department.

The archdiocese closed Saint Adalbert Church in Pilsen closed in July 2019. [Mauricio Peña/ Block Club Chicago]

The City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards is set on Tuesday to take up dozens of proposals including an ordinance to downzone a shuttered church in Pilsen to ensure the community has a say in the site’s future, according to the local alderman.

Aldermen quizzed Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett (top right) and Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Samir Mayekar (top left) during a committee hearing on Friday.

A key City Council committee hit the pause button Friday on the $1.7 billion Chicago casino plan championed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration amid a flurry of questions over how much oversight aldermen will have over the deal. Lightfoot’s deputies and committee chair Ald. Tom Tunney (44) are holding on — for now — to a schedule that would keep the plan on track to move to a final City Council vote this week.

But as a range of aldermen beg for more details and language tweaks to a nearly 150-page agreement between casino developer Bally’s and the city, Tunney made it clear that the mayor’s target of a floor vote on Wednesday is no sure bet.

From left: Chicago Police Department Lt. Mike Kapustianyk, Ald. Ed Burke (14) and Ald. Emma Mitts speak during a City Council public safety committee meeting on Friday.

City and police officials on Friday had scant answers for aldermen who asked for data and research explaining how Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposal to permanently change the city’s curfew for minors from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m. would help curb violence.

From left: Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago Department of Housing Comm. Marisa Novara and Bickerdike Development CEO Joy Aruguete speak at the grand opening of the Lucy Gonzalez Parsons apartments in Logan Square on Friday. [Twitter/Chicago Department of Housing]

Three years after promising to overhaul the city’s housing policies to attack Chicago’s bone-deep legacy of racial segregation, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is poised this week to roll out her most consequential housing plan to date. The “Connecting Communities Ordinance” cobbles together nearly a dozen new rules and policies aimed at supercharging construction near transit stations and building safer environments for pedestrians in busy corridors.

It would also forbid neighborhoods from banning new two-flats or three-flats in wealthy, transit rich parts of the city, and it would force affordable housing proposals into the City Council spotlight — two changes that would meaningfully erode, but not eliminate, aldermen’s power to call the shots on what gets built in their own wards.