Members of a City Council committee approved the appointment of a new Chicago Park District commissioner and gave an OK to this year’s special events calendar. The Chicago Plan Commission will hear an update on the city’s “We Will” plan on Thursday. And the council’s budget committee approved a slew of new grants on Wednesday. 

Members of the City Council Latino Caucus walk into Council Chambers for an in-person ward map meeting in January. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line] 

Supporters of the independent commission that drew its own ward map proposal announced on Wednesday its endorsement of the City Council Latino Caucus-backed “Coalition Map.” The joining of forces and creation of a new ballot initiative committee show supporters of the map are “taking the step in moving toward a campaign,” the Latino Caucus chair said on Wednesday. 

Ald. Jason Ervin discusses a plan to buy a shuttered Aldi site in West Garfield Park during a meeting of the City Council housing committee on Tuesday. 

A City Council committee green-lit a plan on Tuesday for the city to swoop in on a closed West Garfield Park grocery store site to alleviate a food desert, but not before aldermen grilled city planning officials over what the deal will mean for Chicago’s land intervention policy moving forward. 

This year’s special events calendar is set to include the Taste of Chicago. [Facebook/Taste of Chicago]

The City Council Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation is set to discuss a special events calendar that includes staple Chicago events like the Air and Water Show and the Taste of Chicago. 

Chicago is still likely on track to lose its mask mandate at the end of February, the city’s top doctor said. A key City Council committee on Tuesday approved a property tax incentive for Siegal Steel in Brighton Park. And the council’s budget committee will approve receipt of an untold number of grant funds on Wednesday. 

Apartments near the 606 Bloomingdale Trail have been subject to density minimums and demolition fees since early last year. [Eric Allix Rogers]

Backed by neighborhood activists and a handful of junior aldermen, Chicago housing officials took on a controversial experiment early last year to slow displacement in two of the city’s most rapidly gentrifying areas. 

The City Council approved the plan in January 2021 to flip city zoning rules on their head by setting a minimum allowable density in Pilsen and the area surrounding the 606 Bloomingdale Trail, and they followed up two months later by tacking a “surcharge” onto home demolitions in the same neighborhoods. Their goal was to interrupt a runaway pattern of “deconversions” and demolitions that saw two-flat and three-flat apartment buildings replaced with lavish new single-family houses, a trend that was eating away at the neighborhoods’ precious remaining stock of affordable homes. 

The 6.25-acre lot at 18th and Peoria streets is one of the largest undeveloped sites in the Pilsen neighborhood. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

City leaders are poised to take a key step forward Tuesday on a plan to turn over a long-vacant lot at the gateway to the Pilsen neighborhood so it can be developed into hundreds of new affordable homes.  

Aldermen gave initial approval to a resolution supporting the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine. And a City Council committee is set on Tuesday to approve a property tax incentive for the rehabbing of an industrial facility on the city’s Southwest Side.

Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) speaks during a January 2022 City Council meeting. [Don Vincent / The Daily Line] 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has approximately two months to choose a new alderman of the 11th Ward after a federal jury on Monday decided Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) is guilty of lying to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and undervaluing his income on tax returns. 

The Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse [Erin Hegarty / The Daily Line] 

Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) confirmed on Friday he will not testify in his federal jury trial as his defense attorneys called its final round of witnesses close to Thompson to vouch for him as someone who is willing to “help anyone” but is “not a details person.”

Aldermen are set to vote Monday on a resolution affirming Chicago’s symbolic support for Ukraine. And Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas is kicking off the county’s biennial Scavenger Sale with a warning for buyers. 

Ald. Jason Ervin (28), left, and Ald. Pat Dowell (3) speaking during a committee meeting on Thursday. 

Aldermen on Thursday probed city officials on whether the program that awards fixed-price, competitive bid construction contracts works with enough minority- and women-owned businesses.  

Lanetta Haynes Turner (top right), chief of staff to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, walks commissioners through new spending initiatives on Thursday.

New proposals to create a non-police “alternative” response system for mental health emergencies, protect vulnerable areas from the ravages of climate change and accelerate the replacement of lead service lines were among new priorities laid out by Cook County officials on Thursday as they map out spending for the county’s $1 billion share of American Rescue Plan Act funds. 

Aldermen on Thursday delayed a vote on whether to add new liquor licenses at Millennium Park. And leaders of the Cook County Land Bank Authority described their strategy ahead of this month’s Scavenger Sale. 

Andrea Kersten speaks during a committee meeting on Wednesday. 

Members of a key committee on Wednesday voted narrowly to send Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s nomination to head the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) to the full City Council for a final vote later this month. And committee members got a first look at a proposal to allow the agency’s administrator to redact names of officers killed in the of duty from future reports.