Chicago Chief Data Officer Nick Lucius (right) followed up on recommendations from Interim Inspector General William Marback (left) to clean up and centralize the city’s information technology systems. [Twitter/Inspector General’s office]

Chicago leaders embarked last month on an “aggressive 12-month plan” to modernize and centralize the city’s repository of data on everything from ambulance response times to overgrown weeds, according to the city’s data chief. 

Chicago’s new daily COVID-19 case rates are “getting close” to low enough for the city to drop its vaccination mandate for businesses, according to Chicago’s top doctor. A new City Council subcommittee on spending oversight is preparing its first meeting. And Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25) is joining a three-pronged effort to introduce City Council resolutions in Chicago, Minneapolis and Seattle proclaiming all three cities’ support for nationwide Starbucks unionization efforts. 

Deon Hudson was denied an apartment he had sought so he could live closer to his sister Darlene, for whom he works as a home health aide. [Provided]

Deon Hudson didn’t think much of the low-rise apartment community in south-suburban Chicago Heights where he sought to move last May. It was a dangerous area, and the building wasn’t a “five-star complex,” Hudson said.

A rendering of the planned industrial complex and community center proposed by Related Midwest and 548 Development. [Provided]

This article was first published in Block Club Chicago.

In the early ’90s, the massive lot at Roosevelt Road and Kostner Avenue was home to one of the nation’s most notorious environmental justice disasters: an illegal dumping ground for hazardous waste that caused health issues for residents.

Members of the City Council Latino Caucus walk into council chambers on Sunday. 

Even after a more than two-hour Sunday meeting, aldermen did not appear any closer to agreeing on boundaries for the city’s new ward map that will be in effect for the next decade. Leaders of the City Council’s Latino and Black caucuses used the meeting to further dig in their heels on the number of wards each caucus is demanding.

Challeger Kari Steele (left) pounced Friday on a Sun-Times investigation that poked new holes in a controversial 2020 assessment policy of Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi. 

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi was back on the defensive Friday over the “COVID adjustment” breaks his office gave homeowners and some businesses in spring 2020, as Keagi back hit against a Sun-Times investigation that poked new holes in the controversial decision.

(From left) Ald. Jim Gardiner (45), Ald. Ed Burke (14) and Ald. Carrie Austin (34) all made significant expenditures from their campaign accounts on legal services during the fourth quarter of 2021. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago; Heather Cherone/The Daily Line] 

Chicago aldermen under indictment or federal investigation continued to spend campaign funds on legal fees during the last quarter of 2021 while the Illinois Supreme Court decides whether the practice should be legal.

The Encuentro Square development at 3745 W. Cortland St. will eventually include three buildings spanning 187 affordable units along the 606 Bloomingdale Trail. [Canopy via Block Club Chicago] 

Plans for a Logan Square affordable apartment complex, a 40-story Fulton Market residential tower and a Bronzeville Chicago Housing Authority development were among the nearly dozen new planned development applications filed with the City Council this week.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9) speaks about his proposal to establish separate legislative counsel for the City Council during Wednesday’s council meeting. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Aldermen during the year’s first City Council meeting quickly approved three payments to resolve police-related lawsuits, but a rift emerged between aldermen about how to establish independent legal representation for the City Council.

Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) presided over the City Council meeting on Wednesday after Mayor Lori Lightfoot left. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

City licensing officials would have new powers to shut down “nuisance” bars and night clubs under a new proposal introduced to the City Council on Wednesday. It was one of dozens of new ordinances, resolutions and appointments submitted to the council this week, including a measure aimed at fighting wage discrimination in city hiring.

Aldermen attend a City Council meeting on Sept. 14. 2021. The first council meeting of 2022 could feature tense debates on the city’s legal defense policy for police misconduct allegations. 

Chicago’s first City Council meeting of 2022 on Wednesday could set the stage for intense debate on a series of controversial police misconduct settlements as well as a pair of long-stalled proposals to reverse a 2021 speeding crackdown and give the council its own legal representation. 

Following a presentation by zoning attorney Nick Ftikas, Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) urged his colleagues on Tuesday to oppose a 48-residential unit mixed-use development he said does not fit the character of the neighborhood along the 1600 block of North Wells Street in his ward. 

Dozens of zoning-related proposals including affordable housing plans in Humboldt Park and North Lawndale sailed swiftly through a key committee Tuesday, but one alderman pushed his colleagues to reject a 48-unit housing development he says doesn’t fit the character of the neighborhood.

The city collected $76 million for the CTA last year from a real estate transfer tax on sellers. The money will be used to pay down the transit agency’s pension debt. [Flickr/CTA]

Aldermen green-lit a routine budget measure on Tuesday aimed at helping the CTA pay down its pension debt — but not before firing a shot across the bow that the agency’s leaders need to spend more time in the limelight answering for incessant safety and reliability issues.  

Chicago Deputy Corporation Counsel Victoria Benson (left) and Ald. George Cardenas (12) speak during a City Council Committee on Finance meeting on Monday. 

A key City Council committee narrowly voted to reject a legal settlement tied to a fatal 2013 police shooting, setting up a potential standoff over the city’s legal defense policy2 during Wednesday’s meeting of the full council. 

Chicago Department of Housing Comm. Marisa Novara presents details on the “encumbrance ordinance” during a City Council finance committee meeting on Monday. 

Aldermen and city housing officials expressed hope on Monday that a pending ordinance will help spur private efforts to rehab long-abandoned properties on the city’s South and West Sides.