Chicago briefs: Suburban Cook County moves to Phase 4, keeps dining restrictions; City partners with Zocdoc for an online COVID-19 vaccination booking platform

The candidates hoping to be appointed to state Sen. Heather Steans’ (D-Chicago) 7^th District seat following her resignation last month have different takes on the party-led process currently underway to fill her seat.

The six candidates weighed in on the process during a virtual forum hosted Monday night by 40th and 47th Ward Democratic organizations, who organized the event with the goal of making the appointment process more transparent. Candidates also weighed in on topics including workers’ rights, police reform and the state’s budget crisis.

Chicago briefs: Suburban Cook County moves to Phase 4, keeps dining restrictions; City partners with Zocdoc for an online COVID-19 vaccination booking platform 

Any proposal to create an elected Chicago school board must include a “safeguard” to ensure that at least some members of the board have children in the school system — otherwise, Mayor Lori Lightfoot won’t get behind the plan, the mayor’s top lobbyist said Monday.

News in brief: First Subcommittee on Reparations meeting canceled; Lightfoot, city file lawsuit against companies for selling and marketing flavored vape products

About 359 miles of bike lanes traverse Chicago’s streets, a far cry from the 645-mile network a 2012 plan envisioned the city would have by 2020. And just more than 25 miles of those lanes are physically separated from car traffic, a fraction of the 100-mile goal city officials vowed to build by 2015.

After promising during her campaign to add 100 miles of new bike lanes, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said her administration is doubling down on adding and maintaining lanes, with plans to accelerate the build-out during the next two years using dedicated funding from a new capital plan.

News in brief: @chipubschools standoff intensifies as talks with @CTULocal1 grind to a halt; Chicago moves to Phase Four of reopening but indoor dining restrictions remain

News in brief: @chipubschools standoff intensifies as talks with @CTULocal1 grind to a halt; Chicago moves to Phase Four of reopening but indoor dining restrictions remain 

News in brief: First Subcommittee on Reparations meeting canceled; Lightfoot, city file lawsuit against companies for selling and marketing flavored vape products 

Cook County redistricting gets underway as commissioners stare down ‘tight period’ before reelection season 

County commissioners on Thursday formally kicked the tires on their once-in-a-decade effort to redraw their own district boundaries, vowing to lead a fair and collaborative process before their reelection campaigns get underway in the fall.  

The county Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a measure (21-1196) by board President Toni Preckwinkle charting out rules for the redrawing process, and another ordinance (21-1195) creating a new committee to develop and approve a new map. The 2020 Census Redistricting Committee will comprise all 17 commissioners and will be chaired by Comm. Deborah Sims (D-5). 

New Committee on Litigation and Risk Management, downtown dispensary push among new ordinances introduced to City Council 

Leaders of the Chicago Aldermanic Black Caucus proposed creating a new committee to focus on litigation and risk management to rein in police abuses, and a downtown alderman rolled out a push to allow marijuana dispensaries to operate downtown among dozens of new measures introduced to the City Council this week. 

Other proposals introduced Wednesday also seek to create a “Clean Water For All program” and clarify functions of the Chicago Board of Health. 

Remap disputes kick off as City Council approves Welcoming City ordinance among slew of other measures 

Results from the 2020 Census may be delayed, but the grappling over how boundaries of Chicago’s 50 wards will be redrawn has already begun.  

As disagreements on the remapping process began to bubble up, the City Council on Wednesday approved a Welcoming City ordinance (O2021-117) eliminating carveouts that allowed Chicago police to work with federal immigration agents, a hike in fines (O2020-6200) for industrial facilities that violate air quality rules and two measures (O2020-6206, O2020-6207) that set minimum density requirements in parts of Pilsen and the city’s Near Northwest Side to stop the conversion of affordable small apartment buildings into more expensive single-family homes, among a slew of other measures.

Pappas, commissioners roll out TIF transparency ordinance to expose ‘unmined frontier’ of government finance 

Chicago and more than 500 other taxing bodies across Cook County would be required to publish detailed information about how they use a controversial but widely used financing mechanism under a new measure pushed by county Treasurer Maria Pappas. 

Comm. John Daley (D-11) will introduce an ordinance (21-1048) during Thursday’s monthly county Board of Commissioners meeting that would require units of government to send the treasurer’s office line-item reports on expenses furnished by tax-increment financing (TIF). Twelve of Daley’s 16 colleagues were listed as cosponsors on Wednesday. 

‘Welcoming City’ ordinance, hiked pollution fees set for final approval in first City Council meeting of 2021 

The City Council is poised to solidify legal protections for undocumented immigrants, raise fines on scofflaw industrial polluters and try to slow displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods among dozens of measures set for approval during their first regular meeting of the new year on Wednesday. 

The “Welcoming City” proposal, proposed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and a handful of aldermen, would eliminate carve-outs in existing sanctuary city rules that allowed police to cooperate with federal immigration agents in some cases. The newer ordinance strikes language that has allowed such cooperation in cases that involve any suspect who has an “outstanding criminal warrant,” has been charged or convicted of a felony or “has been identified as a known gang member.” 

News in brief: Aldermen pass ‘COP House’ proposal over Lightfoot’s objection; aldermen eligible for vaccinations