The city officially opened up the bidding process for developers interested in transforming the Old Main Post Office Complex. Yesterday morning, the Department of Planning and Development issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the massive historic building’s planned redevelopment in the city’s West Loop. A pre-submittal conference is scheduled for April 14. Bidding closes June 10.  

The move comes a week after the city’s Community Development Commission, a mayor-appointed panel, gave preliminary approval for the city to acquire the property from its current owners through eminent domain. 

RFP respondents may choose to redevelop the site in accordance with the existing planned development parameters for the site (PD# 1065), or they can select to amend the PD, which “allows for a wide variety of commercial and residential uses,” the Mayor’s Office said in a release.

Once a developer is chosen, they will have to commit to purchase the property at full market value and pay “all related acquisition costs.”

The U.S. Post Office sold the historic building in 2009 to International Property Developers North America, Inc. (IPD) for $25 million dollars. In 2013, the same developer bought the neighboring annex property for an additional $14 million.

IPD had planned a $3.5 billion mixed-use development to be completed in phases, including three towers and 16-million-square-feet of residential, retail, entertainment and office spaces. In July 2013, the City Council approved an amendment to the planned development for an additional 2,100 residential units in the old post office building. Plans for a hotel and commercial retail space on adjacent land were also approved.

The first phase of the project was scheduled to get underway in early 2015, but according to DPD, no significant redevelopment work has been completed to date.

Opponents of a proposed nine-story condo development planned for a surface parking lot directly across the street from Mary Bartelme Park in the city’s West Loop neighborhood plan to hold a press conference at City Hall ahead of today’s Plan Commission vote on the future of the site.

LG Development is seeking to establish a planned development to build the residential high rise, which would include 95 units, a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units, ranging from 900-square-feet to 2,850-square-feet.   

After several back and forth meetings with the community and local Ald. Walter Burnett (27), the developer filed the zoning application with the city in September 2015, just before Chicago’s beefed up Affordable Housing Requirements took effect.

But the project has remained on the backburner, and some in the community, including one local neighborhood group, is strongly opposed. There’s even a website dedicated to the opposition.  One local resident, who spoke on background, said they’d rather construct a community center on the lot. Local residents have set up a fundraising campaign to get the money to buy the property from the Cacciatore family, the legal title holder.

The project has also gone through numerous revisions. In August 2014, when the project was first presented to the community, LG had planned a 13- story, 173-foot building with 469 single room occupancy units, a roof deck, and 328 parking spaces, according to this letter from the West Loop Community Organization (WLCO). A month later, LG offered an amended plan that cut the building height to 133 feet, reduced the number of units to 210, and downsized parking to 141 spaces. Still unsatisfied with the changes, LG submitted a third proposal in May 2015, that kept the height at 133-feet, but changed the unit breakdown and increased the square-footage of the units.

The Plan Commission will vote today on the fifth version of the original plan. The West Loop Community Organization is still opposed, even after the developer agreed to decrease the number of balconies facing Peoria street, add more glass and stainless steel to balconies, and enhance the main entry of the building. Their objection, according to the letter, is due to the fact that “the developer has not submitted updated renderings as agreed on September 1, 2015.”

LG Development’s application is the last item on the agenda, according to the latest version of the plan commission agenda. Two days ago, it was the fourth item.

Meanwhile, plans for three other residential high-rise towers, two hotels, and a redevelopment plan for Irving Park’s Six-Corners shopping center also await Plan Commission approval today.

• Proposed Hotel Near Fulton Market (27th Ward): Jeffrey Shapack, manager of 200 Green Developer, LLC, filed an application with the city to build an 11-story-story plus penthouse hotel with ground floor retail, restaurant and accessory parking on the corner of Green and Lake Streets. The site Shapack wants to develop at 820-850 W. Lake Street is a block north of the Soho House Hotel that he helped develop in partnership with Chicago-based A.J. Capital Partners. According to the Chicago Architecture Blog, the hotel would include between 167 and 171 guest rooms, a fitness center, and a rooftop pool overlooking the city’s downtown.

• Proposed Hotel-Residential Building for McCormick Place (3rd Ward). Developer Draper & Kramer wants to build a 22-story hotel and residential high-rise with 275 units on the corner of Wabash Avenue and Cermak Road. According to the renderings in the application the developer submitted in September 2015, the hotel and residential tower would be connected on the bottom nine floors, with a service elevator separating the residential side from the hotel. Floors 10 through 21 will be only residential. Other amenities would include a hotel roof deck and and residential sky deck. This is one of three hotels planned for McCormick Place.

• Proposed 38-Story Residential High-Rise for West Loop (42nd Ward) Gray Cardiff, from California-based Gray Cardiff & Co., wants to build a 38-story residential high-rise building with 373 dwelling units, 145 parking spaces (41% of dwelling units), and 77 bike spaces at the site of an old train car storage field located between Union Avenue and Green Street.  According to the application he filed with the city in January, Cardiff plans to take advantage of the city’s affordable housing bonus, which allows for a greater floor-area-ratio by paying into the city’s affordable housing trust fund. The building would be located near the K2 Apartments and its newly-opened half-acre dog park, the biggest in the city, according to DNAinfo. Ald. Brendan Reilly and the Neighbors of the West Loop (NOWL) held a community meeting on this project in November. According to the slideshow presentation he provided to residents, a typical residential floor plan would include 13 units per floor: three studios, seven one-bedroom apartments, and two two-bedroom apartments.

• The National Museum of Mexican Art (25th Ward) is seeking to amend an existing planned development (No. 639) to construct a surface parking lot for 50 cars. According to the application the museum filed with the city, in January, the lot will also serve as an outdoor exhibit space.

• Sinai Health System (28th Ward) is seeking to amend the boundary of their existing planned development (No. 49) to include two additional city-owned parcels of property (1341 and 1345 S. Fairfield Avenue) they’re in the midst of purchasing. The Mount Sinai Hospital campus is located in North Lawndale on the city’s West Side and is undergoing a $100 million investment: the Sinai Tomorrow Project. The hospital intends to use the subject property for the health care related uses that were previously approved with the original PD: hospital, day care, government-operated health center, and wireless communications facilities. The amended PD adds new uses, including retail. The property is two blocks from the hospital campus, in a predominantly residential area.

• Irving Park Six-Corners Development (45th Ward): CSD Six Corners, LLC, an entity with close to twenty stakeholders listed on the economic disclosure statement, filed a planned development application to build a retail center for the site of the former Bank of America building in Irving Park’s Six-Corners. The four-story “vertical retail center,” will have stores on the first and second floor, and parking on the third and fourth. The applicants include Bixby Bridge Fund II, LLC, managed by David Colburn, and Blackfriars Corporation, owned by Keith Colburn, Richard Colburn, and Carol Grigor. Collins Family Limited Partnership is also listed as a stakeholder. The center will contain about 196,000-square-feet of retail and 473 parking spaces.

The $29 million sale of city-owned land for Rush University’s new medical academic village and a new training center for the Chicago Blackhawks is up for consideration by the Council’s Housing Committee this morning.

The sale is broken up into two ordinances - one for Rush (worth $17.5 million), and one for the Blackhawks (worth $11.7 million). The new projects will be built at the now-vacant site of the Malcolm X City Colleges campus in the 27th Ward, represented by Ald. Walter Burnett Jr.

The Housing and Zoning Committees have swiftly approved a series of changes–including land transfers, an upzone, and demolition appropriations–to accommodate the redevelopment plan for the site since Mayor Emanuel announced the plan in July of last year. Students from Malcolm X moved to a new campus in January.

Rush University Sale

The city plans to sell 315,000 square foot vacant lot at a negotiated price for a new $500 million Rush University Medical Center academic village at the site of the former Malcolm X City Colleges site. The development will take place in four separate phases, and will include four LEED designed buildings: three mixed use buildings with educational office, community health, conference, meeting and restaurant spaces. A fourth building will house 300 student residential units. There will also be a green roof, a landscaped open green space, 800 parking spaces and 200 bike spaces.

The negotiated sale price is $17.5 million. A portion of that sum, $1,800,000, will pay for education, scholarships, research, and health and wellness programs over the course of ten years from the closing date of the sale. According to the Mayor’s Office, the project is expected to create 50 permanent and 100 construction jobs as part of its initial phase.

Blackhawks Sale

The new Blackhawks hockey team redevelopment will include a 127,000 square foot facility with full-sized rinks in a dedicated facility for the team and for community hockey training. The facilities will have with 122 parking spaces. The Blackhawks will buy the property for $8.7 million, and $3 million that will be spent on community hockey training programs, fitness and nutritional programs and group events. The fair market value of the property is $9.5 million.

In a press release, the city says “Chicago Blackhawks Charities, the team’s philanthropic arm, will oversee year-round programs and clinics at the training center for the city’s underprivileged youth, ensuring the project’s community benefits extend to those who would otherwise be unable to cover the costs of ice time, equipment and transportation.”

Other Items

• The Department of Planning and Development will present the 2015 Fourth Quarter Progress Report of the city’s five year housing plan to committee members today as well. Usually these presentations are made at a standalone meeting later in the month. You can read prior reports from the city here, and from the Chicago Rehab Network here.

• Three property sales through the Adjacent Neighbors Land Acquisition Program are up for a vote. The properties are in the 27th, 28th, and 4th Wards.   

• A series of right of way changes to accommodate construction of a parking lot for Sinai Health Systems in the 28th Ward is also up for committee consideration.

The Council’s License Committee will resume last week’s meeting to take action on a plan to amend the city’s licensing and application requirements for taxis, ride-share cars, horse-drawn carriages, and pedicabs.

The plan from the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection got shelved at last week’s meeting, after cabbies and taxi industry officials argued the proliferation of ride-share cars is pushing their business towards the verge of collapse. They have been demanding that the city require drivers for Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing apps obtain a public chauffeur's license, which is required of taxi drivers.

The ordinance was drafted in consultation with a task force Mayor Rahm Emanuel put together in 2014 to “strengthen the taxi industry and create a fairer environment for taxicab drivers.” But several members of that Taxicab Driver Fairness Task Force testified the ordinance barely addressed their concerns.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin will pay a visit to City Hall tomorrow to testify in favor of Ald. Ed Burke’s (14) planned direct introduction of an ordinance banning smokeless tobacco at Wrigley Field, U.S. Cellular Field, and all sports venues–professional, collegiate, high school or at organized amateur sporting events–in Chicago.

A press release from Burke’s office says Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston have all implemented similar bans.

If it passes the full Finance Committee, the measure would join Mayor Emanuel’s slew of proposals raising taxes on tobacco products, instituting price floors, and hiking the smoking age in Chicago to 21. Emanuel administration officials have been lobbying aldermen ahead of the Council vote Wednesday. The measure was deferred and published by five aldermen last month, who argued it would hurt retailers (especially in border wards) and fuel the sale of loose cigarettes.

Other items on the agenda:

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  Three tampon tax related items from Finance Chairman Ed Burke: One is a resolution calling on the Illinois General Assembly to adopt legislation to reclassify tampons and sanitary napkins as medical necessities, so those products may be exempt from the state’s sales tax. Another calls on the Illinois Department of Revenue to do the same. The third item is an ordinance amending the city’s municipal code to exempt those products from the city’s 1.5% sales tax. Similar legislation exempting the same products from the county sales tax have been introduced at the Cook County Board. All three items on today’s Finance agenda note that feminine hygiene products such as tampons and sanitary napkins are currently taxed at the rate of 10.25%, which includes a 6.25% state tax; a 1.75% county tax; a 1.5% city tax; and a 1% Regional Transportation Authority tax. That’s because the Illinois Department of Revenue currently classifies tampons and sanitary napkins as “grooming and hygiene” products, not “medical appliances.”

  
  


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  A Resolution to Remove JP Morgan Chase Bank From City’s List of Municipal Depositories: (O2016-690) The ordinance from Ald. Jason Ervin (28) and Ald. Michael Scott, Jr. (24) that calls for removal of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. as municipal depository for both the City of Chicago and Chicago Board of Education, because the bank plans to close a branch in West Garfield Park, which the ordinance says is “one of the most underserved communities in the city.” The closure goes against City Council’s encouragement that “municipal depositories... act as good corporate citizens by striving to increase access to banking services and catalyze economic development in low-income and underserved communities.”

  
  


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  Establishment of Homebuyer Assistance Program: Mayor Emanuel introduced this ordinance in February to “encourage homeownership” by providing downpayment assistance to low- and middle-income families. Under the program, which will be administered by the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, qualified homebuyers could receive a grant for up to 7% of the total loan amount based on income. The city will invest $1 million toward getting the program off the ground.

  
  


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  A Redevelopment Agreement With Irving Park Property Holdings LLC: This ordinance makes available $2 million in TIF assistance for a mixed-use redevelopment of three vacant buildings in Portage Park’s “Six Corners” shopping district. The developer, Irving Park Property Holdings, LLC, managed by Charles Cui, an immigration lawyer, plans to purchase a vacant two story bank building (4901 W. Irving Park Road), the adjacent building (4925 W. Irving Park Road), a new construction site (4939 W. Irving Park Road) along with a parking lot behind the bank building. Once the TIF money is approved, Cui plans to undertake a $14.1 million dollar project that will transform the bank into a Binny’s Beverage Depot on the first floor, a fitness center on the lower level, and a 300-seat theater space on the second floor. The neighboring building will house an Elly’s Pancake House, and the third building will be a Culver’s drive-thru restaurant.

  
  


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  Legal Settlements: There are two legal settlements totalling $830K listed on the supplemental agenda. One suit brought forth by Caprice Halley, Tevin Ford, andWillie Douglas alleges illegal strip searches by eight Chicago Police officers. They’re seeking a $205K settlement. The other settlement for $625k was filed by Marlon Pendleton, who was wrongfully convicted in 1993 of a sexual assault. He was exonerated and released from prison in the fall of 2006, after DNA testing proved he was innocent. According to the Innocence Project, Pendleton “repeatedly requested DNA testing before trial, but Pamela Fish, a Chicago Police Department forensic analyst, falsely claimed that the amount of semen recovered from the victim was too small to yield a result.” Gov. Rod Blagojevich pardoned Pendleton in October of 2008.

  
  

After a rambunctious, three hour hearing that pitted the Emanuel Administration and a who’s who of city’s top lobbyists against North Side residents exasperated by the constant stream of planes over their homes, the Council’s Aviation Committee overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to put the City Council in charge of approving new runway construction at O’Hare Airport, with only one alderman, Anthony Napolitano (41), the main sponsor, voting in favor.

Attendance: Chairman Mike Zalewski (23), Pat Dowell (3), Raymond Lopez (15), Derrick Curtis (18), Danny Solis (25), Ariel Reboyras (30), Gilbert Villegas (36), Emma Mitts (37), Pat O’Connor (40), Anthony Napolitano (41), John Arena (45)

“I kind of knew [the vote] was going to go that way. I don’t hold it against any of the other aldermen,” Napolitano said. Ten of his colleagues on the council rejected his plan, which would have called for the immediate reopening of a diagonal runway (32R) and transferred approval authority of new O’Hare runways to the council’s Aviation Committee. “I was elected because I have a spine. I have a soul. I’m going to look at these constituents in the morning and say, ‘Hey, I stood up for you, I fought for you. It’s not over. We just regroup and we go back and figure out what’s going to work.’”

North Side residents and executives with the city’s top business, hospitality and labor organizations crammed into a small room on the second floor of City Hall for the meeting. With nowhere left to sit or stand, the crowd spilled out into the hallway, where City Hall security set up chairs and a loudspeaker for people to listen in.  

But the ordinance was doomed from the start. Neither the Aviation Department nor the city’s Law Department supported the plan, and had said as much to aldermen during private briefings leading up to yesterday’s hearing. Top officials from both departments–Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans and Chief Corporation Counsel Jeff Levine–reiterated those concerns in an exhaustive powerpoint presentation that went on for nearly two hours.

COPY OF CDA’S POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

Even most of the members on the committee opposed the plan, and seemed to agree that yesterday’s hearing was more for show than anything else.

“I think that noise relief is the hidden agenda of this ordinance, the indirect agenda of this ordinance, but I think this ordinance endangers lives, not just in Chicago, but throughout the entire aviation industry and network throughout this country,” freshman Ald. Raymond Lopez (15), a former skycap for Southwest Airlines, said before the public portion. “This ordinance goes beyond that, above and beyond that. And having worked at an airport, I know that if I were to ask you, are the members of the City Council qualified to make decisions based on runway usage, what would your honest answer be? Probably not.”

A who’s who of business, labor and hospitality industry executives slammed the plan, calling it a job-killing, revenue-losing scheme that would devastate the city’s economy at a time when it is still rebounding from the recession. And it seemed that for every resident who bemoaned about jet noise, there was a business executive who warned that there was so much more at stake.

Sam Toia, President of the Illinois Restaurant Association, argued the ordinance would “hamper” future investments at O’Hare Airport and stifle the city’s burgeoning tourism industry. “We are on our way towards bringing 55 million visitors a year to the city of Chicago by 2020, and in order to do that, we need to continue to modernize and expand O’Hare International Airport.”

Jorge Perez, Executive Director of the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA), the largest Hispanic-based trade association in the Midwest, expressed worry the ordinance would impact their members’ ability to bid on construction projects at O’Hare. “These projects represent a larger capital investment and opportunities for our members and other minority and women business enterprises from doing work inside the terminals with the airlines and concessionaires.”

Jack Johnson, Senior VP for Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism arm, argued passage of the ordinance would “put a chill through the investment community… send a chill through convention and meeting planners as they think about getting in and out of Chicago… and will send a bad message to leisure tourists who’d say, ‘You know, is it easy to get to Chicago?’”

“We’re not looking to run an airport, we’re not looking to use the buzzwords of ‘We’re going to destroy jobs and shut the airport down and no one is going to work anymore and they’re is not going to be more labor,’” Ald. Napolitano defended. But his and the concerns of those North Side residents who made the trip to City Hall did little to persuade anyone.

And residents argued that they’re just as important to the city as tourists. “I haven’t heard anything about the people of the city as an economic engine, as people who drive the economy with their property taxes, with their expenditures in the city, with their use of the transportation systems, without the residents we don’t have a city,” countered Loretta Galiardi, a resident of the 41st Ward, who said she lives “pretty much under 27L9R,” one of the flight paths.

“The amount of scare tactics I heard today, obviously people have been watching the presidential debates. I can tell you as a citizen, we’re not liking it,” said Suzanne Carbon, a resident of the city’s 39th Ward. “I am not against O’Hare, nor am I against progress, what I am against is the noise and pollution being forced on a concentrated segment of highly populated neighborhoods.”

“No” Votes: Chairman Mike Zalewski (23), Pat Dowell (3), Raymond Lopez (15), Derrick Curtis (18), Danny Solis (25), Ariel Reboyras (30), Gilbert Villegas (36), Emma Mitts (37), Pat O’Connor (40), John Arena (45).

While Aviation discusses Napolitano's ordinance, the Budget Committee will take up an ordinance to amend the city’s Equal Employment Opportunity requirements with the goal of increasing job opportunities for minority and female workers in all city-funded construction projects, which are worth nearly $300 million annually.

The city incentivizes contractors to set aside a certain number of labor hours for minority and women apprentices, laborers and journeymen when bidding for city contracts. The plan introduced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel increases those bid incentives for vendors to hire minority workers (from 50% to 70%) and for female workers (from 10% to 15%). It also adds new incentives to hire residents from “neighborhoods of economic need.”

The criteria for those “socio-economically disadvantaged areas” are to be determined by the Commissioner of Planning and Development, and will take into consideration the median family income and unemployment rate of an area, among other things. The ordinance also enables the city’s Procurement Officer to create the rules and help administer the program.

“This proposal will ensure that we are leveraging our procurement dollars to create jobs for residents in all parts of Chicago,” Mayor Emanuel said in a press release when he introduced the ordinance in February.

The second item on the agenda renews an intergovernmental agreement with the Chicago Board of Education regarding an environmental program that turns asphalt schoolyards in flood prone neighborhoods into “multifaceted ‘green’ school yards.”

The so-called “Room to Grow” initiative is a partnership between the Chicago Board of Education, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and two non-profits: Openlands and the Healthy Spaces campaign. 

Four Chicago elementary schools received new school yards in 2014 as part of the program: Virgil Grissom, Theophilus Schmid, Donald Morrill Math & Science, and George Leland. Each school got a new school yard that is designed to include, “special gardens, permeable surfaces and other landscape features that absorb large amounts of water, which will help reduce neighborhood flooding.”

The first phase of the “Room to Grow” program cost roughly $5.87 million. The IGA awaiting committee approval today commits $2 million in funding toward that first phase payment, and notes that MWRD will provide matching funds, up to $500,000 for each of those four schools. It also re-ups the program for an additional six schools per year for five years. The total cost is $15 million. The city plans to use revenue from the city’s sewer system to pay for part of the project.

Pedestrian & Traffic Safety Committee

At noon, the Council’s Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety meets to discuss and approve routine parking matters.

A proposal to add a 50-cent surcharge to credit card payments for cab rides in Chicago advanced out of the Council’s Transportation Committee yesterday. Just three of the seventeen aldermen on the committee, including Chairman and sponsor Ald. Anthony Beale (9), were still present when the ordinance was finally voted on at the end of the two hour meeting.

Members Present: Chairman Anthony Beale (9), Pat Dowell (3) Raymond Lopez (11), Jason Ervin (28), Chris Taliaferro (29), Gilbert Villegas (36), Michele Smith (43). Non members: Walter Burnett, Jr. (27), John Arena (45).  

The 50-cent fee is aimed at easing the burden on taxi companies that have to pay a 5% service fee to cash credit card payments. The money will go to the cab companies, not the drivers. This point was clarified in the substitute ordinance that was adopted at yesterday’s meeting, which added the following provision: “The convenience fee shall be used only to cover any portion of the processing fee and related costs that a licensee incurs to accept non-cash payments for taxi services through credit card processing equipment approved by the department.”

When the City Council and the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection approved new rules for the industry in 2015, it set a timeline to decrease the driver’s portion of the service fee to 4% in January 2016 and 3% in July 2016, as a way to lessen the burden on drivers. But the medallion holders who lease the cars out argue they can’t afford to pick up the extra cost either.

“The affiliations [cab companies] are not able to absorb a loss of the kinds we're talking about when processing credit card fees, because of the proliferation of ride-share cars on the market, and… the lack of taxi drivers. The taxi industry is on the verge of collapse,” said Mara Georges, former City of Chicago Corporation Counsel who now represents the Illinois Transportation Trade Association (ITTA), a group comprised of taxicab drivers and medallion owners.

Chicago taxi drivers process an average of 13 million taxi fares a year, according to Georges. When you take into account that each trip costs an average of $25, the 3% service fee that will soon take effect adds up to a lost of over $6.5 million annually, she added. “So here we’ve got a partial solution to a problem that is costing the taxi industry millions of dollars annually. This is not a fix for the collapse of the taxi industry. This is a temporary band aid on a problem that is going to cause the taxi industry’s collapse. Without further action by this council to either regulate ride shares or to ease the regulations on taxi cabs, to level the playing field… the taxi industry will no longer exist in the city of Chicago.”  

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) and Ald. Michele Smith (43) joined Ald. Beale in approving the ordinance. Ald. John Arena (45), who isn’t a member on the committee but a strong proponent of creating more parity between taxi drivers and their ride-share competitors, was also present.

“We need to come up with a comprehensive solution, and we need to do it sooner rather than later. Continuing to put in front, to me personally, these nickel and dime ordinances to just chip away at some minor problems is not the approach I would like to see the administration take,” Ald. Arena opined.

He and Georges have both argued the only way to create true parity between the two competing industries is to require that ride-sharing drivers get the chauffeur licenses that taxi drivers are required to get.

Much of the public testimony at yesterday’s committee meeting consisted of recycled testimony heard at a Licence Committee meeting the day before, when cab drivers and taxi industry officials warned aldermen that they can no longer make a decent living due to the flood of Uber and Lyft drivers on city streets.

Aldermen temporarily tabled an ordinance that would “simplify” the city’s licensing fees and application requirements for taxis, ride-share cars, horse-drawn carriages, and pedicabs, after taxi drivers warned they can no longer make a decent living due to the “flood” of competing ride-hailing drivers on city streets.

After a roughly two-hour long hearing that focused more on concerns that the city’s taxi industry is on the verge of bankruptcy than the ordinance at hand, Chairman Emma Mitts (37) announced she would hold on to the ordinance and have the committee reconvene next Monday, after those concerns were addressed.

The ordinance that sparked outrage from the city’s taxi industry sought to modernize and simplify licensing requirements and reduce certain fees and penalties, according to Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner Maria Lapacek. Specifically, it makes the following changes:

• Adds new definitions: A “public chauffeur license” now refers to a restricted chauffeur license or a taxi chauffer license. The former license pertains to divers employed by ride-share companies, the latter to taxi drivers. A licensed restricted chauffeur cannot operate taxicabs. The new definitions were added to “clarify” the different licenses offered by BACP, Commissioner Lapacek said.

• Increases fines for unlicensed activity: Those operating a taxi without a public chauffeur license will have to pay $500 to $1,000 for each offense. Currently, the fine range is $75 to $400.

• “Simplify licensing requirements”: Those interested in applying for a public chauffeur's license only need to have had a driver's license for one year, instead of three. They are also no longer required to have an Illinois driver’s license. This change was made to accommodate drivers from ride-hailing companies who have out-of-state plates but want to pick up customers in Chicago, Lapacek explained.If an applicant had their driver's license revoked within the past three years, they will be rejected. The current moratorium is five years.The number of traffic violations an applicant may have in a 12-month period increases from two to three. It decreases the background check period for a suspended driver’s license from five years to three years. These changes were made to “level the playing field” for taxi drivers and those employed by ride-hailing companies, although several who testified said it didn’t go far enough.

• Investigations: The BACP commissioner can investigate applications for new or renewed licenses, including reviewing the applicant’s criminal record, driving record, complaint history, and “any other information that may be reasonably relied upon to issue a license.”

• “Outdated or burdensome laws” eliminated: This includes the prohibition against loitering, courteous behavior, and the surrendering of chauffeur's licensing, among others. The minimum fine for violations imposed on taxi drivers who violate the city’s licensing rules was lowered to $50 from $75.  

• Changes to Horse-Drawn Carriage Licenses: The ordinance lowers the licensing and renewal fee from $25 to $5, removes the provision requiring applicants speak, read, and write English, and adds “cannabis or other illegal drugs” to the list of substances tested. These licenses would be valid for two years from date of issuance. Currently, it’s one year. The city has 30 horse-drawn carriage licences, so the decrease is minimal and aimed at creating consistency among all the licenses to prevent an equal protection lawsuit, Commissioner Lapacek explained.

• Changes to Pedicab Licenses: Fee for license reduced from $25 to $5. It also adds a section clarifying the definition of a pedicab license: “A person engages in a pedicab business by seeking or accepting a fee, an economic benefit of a donation or gratuity, or any form of compensation (goods or services) for providing transportation to passengers in a pedicab.”

The ordinance was drafted in consultation with a task force Mayor Rahm Emanuel put together in 2014 to “strengthen the taxi industry and create a fairer environment for taxicab drivers.” But several members of that Taxicab Driver Fairness Task Force testified the ordinance barely addressed their concerns.

Over the course of public testimony, divers and industry stakeholders argued since the Mayor allowed ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft to operate in the city, medallion cab drivers have spent hours waiting in taxi lines at city airports and driving around the city for hours without customers. As a result, they say they can barely afford to pay their regular lease payments to their employers.

“Myself and every other member on the task force has told the commissioner, the deputy commissioner, and the mayor’s office, over and over again, that the city needs to level the playing field with ride-share, or the taxi industry will be destroyed,” said Ezzedin Abdelmagid, with Cab Drivers United. “And when I say destroyed, I mean my job will be destroyed. Thousands of full time, family supporting jobs will be gone. Transportation access for disabled people in the city will not exist. Millions in city revenue the city collects from taxis will disappear.”

“The assets and retirements and dreams of many small medallion holders have already been destroyed in the last couple of years. If you think this ordinance is going to do anything to level the playing field, you are mistaken,” he added, saying many are going into debt.  

According to Meg Lewis, a researcher with AFSCME, there were no medallion foreclosures two years ago. Now, there are 97 foreclosures, with 28 in the first month of 2016 alone. In 2013, only five taxi companies surrendered their medallions. This year that number is 524. And only one medallion has been transferred since October 2015, at a measly $95,000. That’s a significant drop from the roughly $300,000 price tag on some medallions three years ago.

Since the city opened up the airports to ride-share drivers, a month-to-month comparison of January 2014 and January 2016, the number of taxi rides has gone down by 40,000, Lewis added.

“Although [this ordinance] does address pedicabs and it does address horse-drawn carriages, [it’s] completely silent on the issue that every single member of the task force said was a number one pressing issue for taxi drivers and for fairness in this city,” Lewis argued.   

Other members of the task force who testified against the ordinance reaffirmed their demand to have the city require ride-share drivers be held to the same licensing requirements as cabbies and that the City Council hold hearings on the impact ride-hailing companies have had on the industry.  

Their pleas struck a nerve with several on the committee, like Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29), who, towards the end of the meeting, expressed concern the city was creating a monopoly that could end up being very costly, not only in terms of the legal ramifications but also the number of jobs lost.

But most of the outrage over the ordinance came from Ald. John Arena (45), who accused Commissioner Lapacek of “misleading” aldermen, because her office “completely failed” to properly regulate ride-hailing vehicles or hand over “specific data.”

“You continue to come before us with not good information, and, I feel, misled us into what we’re doing here and continue to say we’re fixing this problem. But what we keep hearing is the one thing that would fix the problem is to really regulate TNPs (the license for ride-hailing drivers). That’s what the core problem is. So I’m not going to support another change at all. I’m going to continue to block this, because we’re being lied to. Your department is not doing its job,” Ald. Arena charged.

Before Comm. Lapacek has a chance to fully respond to Arena’s accusations, Chairman Mitts stepped to tell him to speak with her after the meeting and announced she would hold the item and recess the meeting until Monday.

“I understand the problem from the taxi industry, I understand the problem from the ride-share industry, it’s the way we have to come together as a whole to fix this problem,” Mitts interjected. “Because we’re taking jobs and people need jobs… we’re here to fix a problem.

The committee also approved a proposal by Ald. Deb Silverstein (50) to legalize certain “cat cafés” in Chicago. Ald. Silverstein’s application would let animal shelters serve non-alcoholic drinks, but beverages could only be sold in a designated cafe area and to prospective adopters. The two-year permit would cost $250, and only applicants with a valid animal care license, or a member of a humane society “whose mission is to rescue animals” would be eligible. The city’s health department would enforce the rules and violators could face up to $1,000 in fines.

A proposal to add a 50-cent surcharge on credit and debit card payments for taxi rides is up for consideration today by the Council’s Transportation Committee. The ordinanceTransportation Committee Chair Ald. Anthony Beale (9) drafted comes on the heels of a 15% taxi fare hike the Council passed in the 2016 budget. It’s aimed at helping cabbies struggling to compete with Uber, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Speaking during yesterday’s License Committee on a separate taxi-related ordinance, Fayez Khozindar, Chairman of the United Taxi Drivers Community Council, says credit card payments have become a burdensome issue for cab drivers. Khozindar argued that since the city mandated each taxi have a credit card machine 12 years ago, drivers have had to eat the cost of the “expensive equipment” needed to protect customers’ credit card information. Cab drivers have also had to pay a significant portion of the 5% credit card transaction fee: $50 for every $1,000 made. “The 50-cents are not going for the driver, the 50-cents is to help pay the expensive equipment and the source credit card data and other related expenses,” he explained.

In the last quarter of 2015, October through December, the Illinois Transportation Trade Association PAC, a fund to support the Illinois taxicab industry, donated $3,000 to Ald. Beale, in addition to giving $10,000 to the Chicago Progressive Reform Caucus and $2,000 to Ald. John Arena, another progressive caucus alderman.  

The city’s Community Development Commission approved the acquisition of the former Old Main Post Office building through eminent domain, as well as a request from the Department of Planning and Development to find a new developer to take over the site, despite significant pushback from attorneys representing the building’s current owner.

DPD Staff Report on Old Post Office Acquisition Authority

DPD Staff Report on Old Post Office Request for Proposals   

The U.S. Post Office sold the historic building in 2009 to International Property Developers North America, Inc. (IPD) for $25 million dollars. In 2013, the same developer bought the neighboring annex property for an additional $14 million.

IPD had planned a $3.5 billion mixed-use development to be completed in phases, including three towers and 16-million-square-feet of residential, retail, entertainment and office spaces. In July 2013, the City Council approved an amendment to the planned development for an additional 2,100 residential units in the old post office building. Plans for a hotel and commercial retail space on adjacent land were also approved.

The first phase of the project was scheduled to get underway in early 2015, but according to DPD, no significant redevelopment work has been completed to date.  

“The site is one of the city’s most prominent riverfront redevelopment sites. The lack of development, progress, and need to safely secure the buildings have prompted the department to take action,” Mary Bonome with the Department of Planning and Development explained in her opening testimony to the mayor-appointed panel.

John George, an attorney representing British developer Bill Davies, voiced his annoyance in a Sun-Times article yesterday morning that detailed the city’s decision to take over the project, saying “it didn’t give consideration to why the man who owns the property didn’t go through with the deal.”

He argued that Davies really only had two years to work on the project, since the amended planned development for the site wasn’t approved until three years ago. “And as all of you know, in terms of obtaining the financing to do the work, you cannot get financing through any reputable financial institution until you have proper zoning. So we couldn’t start going to the financial people until July of 2013.”

Between 2010 and 2013, Georges said, they spent “enormous time and enormous sums of money” trying to get this project approved by various delegate agencies.

“I really think it’s unfair what’s being proposed here. I think we should be entitled to continue on with our efforts… maybe we have been remiss in bringing to the attention of the city all of the things we are doing on this property,” he pleaded.

In 2012, the city filed a complaint in the Cook County Circuit Court alleging 18 building violations. The case is still open. From the initial filing date through today, the developer has “struggled to maintain the building in a safe condition,” Bonome explained.

Local Ald. Danny Solis (25) testified in favor of the proposal, noting various building fires and ventilation issues that he’s had to deal with at the site and the trouble he’s had communicating with the developer.

While DPD has no specific proposals for how to develop the site, the RFP authorization gives the department the ability to find new development team and pay the city’s share of acquiring the property. The city will officially issue the RFP next week and hold a pre-bid conference in April. Based on questions and comments that may arise at that April meeting, the June 10th deadline for submissions may be extended.  

Mayor Emanuel plans to seek final approval of the acquisition from the City Council in the next two months.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Office would not release a list of people who applied to replace 4th Ward Ald. Will Burns on the Council to Aldertrack, but instead responded in an email, “Like vacancies that have happened in the past few years, we won't be releasing a list of applicants' names.”

The application deadline for those interested in applying to fill Ald. Will Burn’s vacancy on the City Council was last Friday. Mayor Rahm Emanuel would appoint the interim Alderman to fill a term until the Illinois municipal elections in March 2017, when a special election would be held for a two-year term.

Aldertrack has learned some names discussed by community leaders include:

• Rev. Dr. L. Bernard Jakes, senior pastor of the West Point Ministry Baptist Church.

• Ghian Foreman, Executive Director of the Greater Southwest Development Corporation, a community development agency, and a member of the city’s Police Board. Foreman was appointed to the Police Board in 2010 by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley.

• Bernita Johnson-Gabriel, Executive Director of the Quad Communities Development Corporation (QCDC), “a non-profit organization focused on economic development, education, and employment in the south lakefront communities of North Kenwood, Oakland, Douglas, and Grand Boulevard.” QCDC oversees two Special Service Areas in the 4th Ward: SSA #54 Bronzeville and SSA #47 Cottage Grove/47th St.

• Tracey Bey, who founded her own mortgage brokerage firm, Bey Financial Corporation, and ran for alderman against Burns in the most recent election, garnering 25% of the vote.

A five-member task force appointed by the Mayor will review the applications submitted and interview candidates. Following their review, the task force will submit the names of three finalists to the Mayor. Emanuel will announce his final pick on April 29, and the new alderman will be sworn in at the May 18th City Council meeting.

At 1:00 p.m. the Committee on Economic, Capital, and Technology Development will take up one property tax incentive application the Mayor introduced to help support a new boutique hotel near Midway Airport.

Parth 13, Inc., a corporation owned by Amit Patel, is applying for a Class 7(c) tax incentive for a new Best Western Hotel planned at the site of the former Alamo Car Rental building at 6501-6549 S. Cicero Ave. Part of Best Western's new upscale lifestyle brand “Vib,” the 31,000-square-foot, three-story, 74-room hotel will cater to business travelers. Other amenities include a cafe lounge, fitness center, and a 2,500-square-foot restaurant.

“With a design intended to reflect the newly-launched brand, along with modern tech amenities, the hotel would be the first to be built in Chicago near Midway in decades, ” according to a press release from the Mayor’s office.

The Class 7(c) incentive reduces the Cook County property tax assessment to 10% for the first three years, 15% in the fourth year, and 20% in the fifth year. Best Western is estimated to save $466,000 in property taxes if the Council approves the designation.

This isn’t the first time this hotel has been brought up at City Hall. In November, the Zoning Board of Appeals approved a special use permit for the hotel. Earlier in 2015, Patel received approval from the Council's Zoning Committee to build the three-story franchise hotel with 69 rooms.

The Council’s License Committee won’t take up any of the shared-housing plans that seek to regulate business like Airbnb, but they will take up an ordinance from Mayor Rahm Emanuel that would amend regulations for horse-drawn carriage and pedicab licenses, in addition to a proposal by Ald. Deb Silverstein (50) to legalize certain “cat cafés” in Chicago.

As previously reported, the competing Airbnb ordinances will be immediately referred to a joint committee of the Council’s License and Housing Committee. The decision to hold a special joint meeting is due to the fact that the plans address licensing and housing concerns, a legislative aide for the License Committee told Aldertrack last week. A date for that hearing is still unknown.   

The ordinance from Mayor Emanuel regarding horse-drawn carriage chauffeur and pedicab licenses was introduced in February on behalf of the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP).

It removes the provision requiring operators of horse-drawn carriages, “speak, read and write the English language,” when applying for the license, and adds a requirement that applicants can’t have been found guilty of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of a “controlled substance or cannabis.” Before, it was just alcohol.

As for changes to the pedicab license, it adds a section clarifying the definition of a pedicab license: “A person engages in a pedicab business by seeking or accepting a fee, an economic benefit of a donation or gratuity, or any form of compensation (goods or services) for providing transportation to passengers in a pedicab.”

According to the Sun Times, the change is aimed at “removing ambiguity,” as to who is required to get a pedicab license, after reports of pedicab drivers circumventing the license requirement by giving rides for free while encouraging tips.

The ordinance also removed the provision requiring that each taxicab licensee submit an affidavit when they renew their license, detailing all lease rates, fees, and charges associated with the leasing of the taxicab.

Ald. Silverstein’s application would let animal shelters serve non-alcoholic drinks, but beverages could only be sold in a designated cafe area and to prospective adopters.

The two-year permit would cost $250, and only applicants with a valid animal care license, or a member of a human society “whose mission is to rescue animals” would be eligible. The city’s health department would enforce the rules and violators could face up to $1,000 in fines.

So far, only one organization in Chicago, Uptown’s Tree House Humane Society, is getting into the cat cafe business. The group plans to open a $7 million, 15,000-square-foot care facility called Cat’fe at 7225 N. Western Avenue this Spring. The state-of-the-art adoption center will house approximately 200 cats, and will include a veterinary clinic, an education center, and a pet food pantry and supply store, according to their website.  

A freshman North Side Alderman who says his office has been inundated with complaints about jet noise around O’Hare Airport since he got elected has a plan to put the City Council in charge of approving all construction projects at the international airport, including those planned as part of the O’Hare Modernization Program (OMP).

Ald. Anthony Napolitano, whose 41st Ward includes O’Hare, introduced an ordinance in January that would prevent Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans from completing or starting any new construction projects at O’Hare until the City Council has a chance to look over and vote on the plans. Specifically, Commissioner Evans wouldn’t have the authority to “manage and control all matters and things pertaining to the construction, reconfiguration, decommissioning, and destruction of runways and taxiways,” without first obtaining approval from the City Council’s Aviation Committee through a public hearing on the matter.

For Ald. Napolitano, the ordinance is about transparency and giving residents an ability to object to any new projects that would lead to more jet noise in their neighborhoods.

“We need to have the ability to talk about what’s going on,” Ald. Napolitano told Aldertrack, giving the example of the 10-year-long rollout of the $1.3 billion O’Hare Modernization Program. “No one has talked about how it has impacted the quality of life with the plane volume.”

The city has a commission that handles issues of jet noise at O’Hare Airport. The O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission (ONCC) holds regular meetings and works with the city to address issues of jet noise, but they can only make recommendations.

Napolitano has publicly asked but been rebuffed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to be named to the Commission to replace Catherine Dunlap, the 41st Ward’s ONCC Designee. She was appointed during former 41st Ward Ald. Mary O’Connor’s term in office.

It’s not Napolitano's first perceived slight from the Mayor. Napolitano has accused the Emanuel of political retribution, saying the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals went against his wishes by approving a medical marijuana dispensary in his ward. Napolitano alluded to DNAInfo the Mayor was getting back at him for voting “no” on the 2016 budget.

Ald. Napolitano says that if Council approval is required for routine traffic signs, it should also be required for runways at O’Hare Airport. “I’m going to go to a [Council] committee to talk about a stop sign, but I can’t talk about a runway. That’s ludicrous.”

In a private briefing on the ordinance Wednesday with various members of the Aviation Committee, the Department of Aviation, and the Mayor’s Office, Ald. Napolitano was told to “make [the ordinance] go away,” he tells Aldertrack. “They said it’s in direct conflict of what they want to do.”

“This ordinance is a step in the wrong direction for the city of Chicago and the residents who live near O’Hare International Airport,” Commissioner Evans responded in a written statement to Aldertrack. “Specifically, the ordinance would result in severe economic implications for the city, stunt O’Hare’s growth as a world-class airport, and jeopardize the important progress the city is making in providing noise relief for residents.”

A halt of construction would mean an end to a big employment initiative from the Mayor. The Emanuel Administration has estimated over the next few years, the OMP “will create more than 5,000 construction and professional services jobs... and an opportunity to turn hundreds of entry-level jobs into opportunities for our underserved communities.”

Other caveats from CDA: it would jeopardize “hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding that the City has already received for O’Hare; violate state law and various intergovernmental agreements with surrounding suburbs; and mandate that CDA operate its airports contrary to FAA safety standards and regulations.   

The morning before the briefing, Ald. Napolitano’s office sent out an email blast to constituents with the subject line: “O’Hare Noise - WE NEED YOUR HELP.”

In the email and to his roughly 3,900 Facebook followers, Ald. Napolitano encouraged residents to email all 18 members of the Council’s Aviation Committee and demand a hearing on the ordinance. A handful of ward offices we spoke to yesterday confirmed that they received a noticeable number of emails.  

Asked if the campaign was an effort to force Aviation Committee Chair Mike Zalewski’shand, Ald. Napolitano said no. He wanted to show his colleagues how big of an issue this is in his neighborhood. “The thing is, that I have received hundreds of thousands of complaints, others don’t realize the flight volume and how bad it is.”

Ald. Napolitano says his ward office gets at least 69,000 complaints a month, and that it was one of the biggest issues in the 2015 aldermanic election. “I have people calling my office in frustration, kids aren’t sleeping, houses rattling, these are people that never had planes flying over their house [a few years ago].”

Following the briefing, Ald. Napolitano sent a follow up email to his colleagues on the Aviation Committee to clear up issues brought up, specifically as it relates to the new 9C/27C runway planned as part of the OMP. The opening of that runway, according to Commissioner Evans’ 2016 budget testimony last fall, will “mark the completion of all O’Hare modernization projects on the south airfield.”

But Ald. Napolitano’s ordinance puts a big dent in that plan. It calls for the immediate reopening of a diagonal runway the Department of Aviation closed last year to make way for the construction of that new runway.

“The Commissioner continues to state that the FAA will not allow 14L/32R [the diagonal runway] to reopen although it was open and being used just seven months ago,” Ald. Napolitano explained in an email sent to aldermen on the Aviation Committee yesterday. “If this Ordinance is passed, The Department of Aviation would be required to notify the FAA of their intent to open diagonal runway 14L/32R. The FAA has complete authority to reject this request if the runway poses any threat to the safety of airline passengers.”

That means if the ordinance passes, construction on the new 9C/27C runway would have to stop until Commissioner Evans briefs and receives approval from the Council’s Aviation Committee.

There won’t be any Council action this month on two competing plans to regulate room-sharing businesses like Airbnb in Chicago. The Council’s License Committee released its agenda for next week’s meeting, noting both plans will be immediately referred to a joint License and Housing committee meeting. The time and date of that meeting is still unknown, a legislative aide for the License Committee told Aldertrack.

In January, Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced an ordinance  on behalf of the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection that would regulate the industry and bring in an estimated $1 million in revenue.

The money would come from a 2% surcharge on the booking of any shared-housing unit, bed-and-breakfast or vacation rental. Hosts and house-sharing companies would be required to register their units with the city. Units that are rented out more than 90 nights a year would be required to register as a licensed bed-and-breakfast or vacation rental. Liability insurance would be required for all rental units. Airbnb, VRBO, and other companies that facilitate transactions between hosts and renters would have to receive a new “short-term residential intermediary license.”

“This new license will require the companies to provide the city with the information and data it needs to effectively monitor and regulate this new license type and compliance with city ordinance,” according to the Mayor’s Office. Revenue generated from the proposal would be used toward initiatives to “promote affordable housing, with a focus on reducing homelessness among families with children.” North Side Aldermen Ameya Pawar (47) and Joe Moore (49), who also chairs the Council’s Housing Committee, are co-sponsors.

The following month, Aldermen Anthony Napolitano (41), Pat O’Connor (40) and Marge Laurino (39) co-sponsored a similar ordinance, but aimed at restricting rentals in single family homes. Their plan includes the 2% surcharge on roomshare stays that would go toward affordable housing initiatives the Mayor’s ordinance has, in addition to proposing a ban on renting out apartments in multiple transactions for overlapping periods, or renting less than the whole space during a single transaction.

The Emanuel Administration is borrowing $220 million to prove the city has the money to pay the rest of its statutorily required FY2015 payment to Police and Fire pension funds, due by the end of this year.

The move, detailed in a letter Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown sent to aldermen this week, is in response to a lack of action in Springfield on the Mayor’s pension fund reform bill, SB 777, which would have decreased the annual payments the city is required to make to its police and fire pension funds.

Under current state law, the city’s Police and Fire pension plans must achieve a 90% funded ratio by the end of 2040. The Police Fund is only 26% funded with a $11.73 billion unfunded pension liability, and the Firemen’s Fund is only 23% funded with a $4.513 billion unfunded liability. The Mayor’s proposed legislation in Springfield would reduce payments through 2020 and push the 90% funding requirement to 2055.

But when the City Council approved the 2016 budget last year, it based its payment schedule on that reform bill, not current state law. The city only budgeted $619M for the FY2015 Police and Fire pension payment, but, under current law, is required to pay $839M, a difference of $220M.

Because SB 777 has yet to be signed by the Governor, state law requires the city deposit the difference with the city Treasurer to demonstrate it can make the full payment, Brown explained to aldermen.“To meet this requirement, the City is utilizing a short-term funding bridge. This short-term funding bridge will be terminated by the City when Governor Rauner signs SB 777.”

That “short-term funding bridge,” is a short-term line of credit, similar to the money the city uses for cashflow purposes to supplement the cost of city services until property tax receipts are dispersed, the city’s budget office told Aldertrack.

The money will be placed into an “agency fund” controlled by Treasurer Kurt Summers. He, in turn, will invest the funds, and use the earned income to offset the cost of borrowing the money, the city’s budget office said.

If SB 777 passes, the city would return the money to the bank and pay a nominal interest rate. But if SB 777 fails, the city would have to give that money to the pension funds and pay back the entire cost of borrowing the money.

City officials remain confident that SB 777 will pass. For them it’s a matter of when, not if. But Gov. Bruce Rauner has said that he’d only agree to it if it’s part of a larger structural reform package that includes aspects of his Turnaround Agenda.

In an attempt to dismiss claims that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposal to increase taxes on tobacco products is a regressive policy that would hurt small businesses and fuel black market sales of loose cigarettes, particularly in communities of color, a coalition of African American doctors and religious leaders assembled at a South Side hospital yesterday to counter that African American communities would reap the most benefits.

“African Americans are bearing the brunt of big tobacco’s relentless marketing and our community must take a stand for the health of our young people, ” said Dr. Javette Orgain with the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians. “I’m disappointed when business owners and aldermen say that selling tobacco is good business, and therefore good for their ward. I say no, we should not take pride in building an economy including products that are addictive and harmful.”

Yesterday’s press conference at Mercy Hospital in Bronzeville was the latest salvo in the ongoing debate over the Mayor’s plan to raise the city’s smoking age to 21, impose new taxes on tobacco products like cigars, cigarillos, and chewing tobacco, as well as prohibit the use of coupons or promotional sales of tobacco.  

It was an effort by proponents to squash claims by business interests and aldermen who say the Mayor’s plan is about imposing burdensome taxes, not public health. That message got lost at a day long City Council committee meeting held last month, where all anyone wanted to talk about was the unencumbered and lucrative sale of loose cigarettes. Yesterday, proponents took the public health angle a step further, framing it as an issue that specifically impacts black youths more than any other group.

“Our youth actually deserve good health, and they deserve to be free of addictive substances….substances that will indeed kill them,” urged Rev. Dr. B. Herbert Martin, pastor of Progressive Community Church in Bronzeville, as he characterized the fight to curb smoking among youths a “moral imperative,” not a political or socio-economic issue.

“Everywhere I go I turn on the radio and I hear [reports] of who died the night before, who was murdered, either at the hands, sometimes of the police, unfortunately, or other African American men. But that pales in comparison to the number of African Americans who die every year from tobacco related diseases,” said Carol McGruder, co-chair of the African American Leadership Council. According to statistics provided by the council, in Chicago, African Americans’ rate of death from stroke is 61% higher than whites, and their rate of death from heart disease is 23% higher.

Leadership Council members argued that fighting “Big Tobacco” in predominantly lower-income, minority communities is on par with addressing other social justice and economic issues.

“We have to deal with these things, we have to multi-task, we can't wait and deal with police brutality… we can’t wait to deal with the blight… and say one day say we’re going to deal with tobacco. We have to deal with those things at the same time, because that is our number one killer,” McGruder added, saying premature deaths of parents and grandparents who were lifelong smokers are detrimental to establishing stable homes in minority communities.

McGruder also made a point to address the issue of loosies. Invoking Eric Garner, who suffocated to death when a New York City Police officer attempted to restrain and handcuff him for illegally selling loose cigarettes on Staten Island, McGruder said, “We were all appalled… but that’s a symptom of a problem, not the cause of a problem, and there are many cases of men being killed by the police.”

Pushing the argument that this ordinance is geared specifically toward curing youth smoking, Dr. Orgain ended the event to respond to a common refrain used by opponents who say that higher prices won’t curb sales because smokers can buy cheaper products in the suburbs or Indiana.

“It’s not typical for youth to cross the borders to [buy] tobacco products. Mostly adults. So our target, particularly as we speak today, are youths. And so if we can stop that, in regards to our legislation, I think we’ll do a good job.”

A coalition of African American leaders who support Mayor Emanuel’s plan to raise the city’s smoking age to 21 and increase taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco related products is holding a press event at 10 a.m. this morning at Mercy Hospital.

The so-called Tobacco Control Leadership Council includes: Dr. Javette Orgain (Illinois Academy of Family Physicians), Dr. Phoenix Alicia Matthews (University of Illinois-Chicago) Rev. Dr. B. Herbert Martin, Sr. (Progressive Community Church). The American Cancer Society Action Network, Mercy Hospital, and Trinity Health System are also part of the coalition.

The choice to hold the event at a hospital on the city’s South Side is likely in response to the fact that most of the opposition to the tax is from South and West Side aldermen who argue it would fuel the underground market of tobacco sales and eat into profit margins for locally-owned shops and gas stations that rely on tobacco sales to bring in customers.

This is the second press conference related to the mayor’s controversial tobacco plan since alderman blocked a vote on it last month. Last week, a group of business industry lobbyists, small business owners, and aldermen opposed to the Mayor’s tobacco plan held a press conference at City Hall to reaffirm their concerns.

Ald. Michelle Harris (8) raised more money than anyone else on the City Council in February, adding roughly $166k to her personal campaign fund as she runs for Clerk for the Circuit Court of Cook County. Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) trailed far behind in second place, reporting about $27K in new money over the same period. Meanwhile, two aldermen received donations from a construction company that has been doing business with the city since 2001, and one alderman reported a $50k donation from one individual, which is significantly higher than the $5.4K cap imposed on individual contributions to personal campaign funds.

Notable Individual Contributions:

• Ald. Carrie Austin (34) reported a $50k contribution from Patrick Heneghan, a business litigation partner at the law firm of Schopf & Weiss, LLP. That amount is well beyond the $5.4k cap imposed on individual contributions to personal campaign funds. (Aldertrack called Ald. Austin’s office to determine if the amount is a typo, but they did not confirm with us by publication deadline.)

• Ald. Austin also got a $1K donation from Ald. Ed Burke’s Burnham Committee. In January, Ald. Austin joined Burke in using a parliamentary procedure to delay a vote by the City Council on plan to put the city’s Inspector General Joe Ferguson in charge of investigating aldermen. That move gave them enough time push a diluted version of the ordinance through the council.  

• Custom Strains, a medical marijuana dispensary that got approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals in November to open a dispensary in the 28th Ward, donated $3k to Ald. Jason Ervin (28). ZBA had previously approved a special use permit for Custom Strains to open a dispensary in Fulton Market (1105 W. Fulton Market St.), but according to the company’s attorney, Jim Banks, who spoke at the November ZBA meeting, unnamed “obstacles” at that site proved too difficult to allow the project to proceed. Instead, his clients found another site: an old car dealership at 1301 S. Western Ave, located within a few blocks from the Illinois Medical District, Garfield Park, and the Union Pacific Railyard. Ald. Ervin spoke in favor of the dispensary at that ZBA hearing, noting its close location to area hospitals and the applicant’s commitment to refurbish a building that had been vacant for over five years.

• Benchmark Construction, a building company that does business with the city, gave money to two aldermen: $2.5k to Ald. Deb Mell (33) and $1k to Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6). In 2014, the company won a $11.2M city contract the 37th Street Sewer Improvement Project, among more than 40 other city construction contracts dating back to 2001.

• The Magellan Development Group, the real estate firm behind the famed Wanda Vista project, donated $2.5K to Ald. Brendan Reilly’s (42) personal campaign fund. The Plan Commission and the Council recently approved a planned development for the “supertall” downtown lakefront skyscraper that will consist of four interconnected, all glass, curve-shaped buildings, each one taller than the next. David Carlins, a developer with Magellan, also donated $2.5k to Ald. Reilly.

• Fred Eychaner, owner of Newsweb Corporation, a Chicago-based company that owns several ethnic and alternative newspapers, gave money to two Aldermen, Deb Mell and Scott Waguespack (32). His $1K and $1.5K contribution to them, respectively, dwarfs the $400K he gave to Cook County State’s Attorney candidate Kim Foxx in February.

• The Peter Kamberos Revocable Trust donated $2.5k to Ald. James Cappleman (46). Kamberos is the husband of Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas.

• Kimbal Goluska, president of the Chicago Consultants Studio, Inc. and a board member of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce donated $5,000 to the 4th Ward Democratic Organization. She is a proponent of opening a casino in downtown Chicago.

Biggest Fundraisers:

• Ald. Michelle Harris (8), who is running for Clerk for the Circuit Court of Cook, raised more money than anyone else on the City Council in February, adding roughly $166k to her newly-created personal campaign fund, Citizens for Michelle Harris. But that number isn’t truly representative of how much cash she brought in for the month of February, since it includes a $48K transfer from her other, older campaign fund, Friends of Michelle Harris, which is still active. That fund closed out the the fourth quarter of 2015 with about $228,600 in the bank, and received only one contribution in February: a $2.5K transfer from Ald. Will Burns (4). Meanwhile, Ald. Harris’ new fund reeled in some sizable checks from MWRD Commissioner Marty Durkan ($50k), the Construction & General Laborers’ District Council of Chicago ($10K), and Grosvenor Capital Management($25K). The Durkan transfer helped pay for these double sided mailers blasting Gov. Rauner.

• Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) was the second highest fundraiser on the City Council for the month of February, reeling in about $27K in political contributions. The largest check came from Michael Bisbee, Owner of LGN Group. He also got a $3.5K contribution from Bill Gritsonis, a consultant with PCG Consulting, Inc., a management consulting firm based in Boston, MA, “that serves primarily public sector education, health and human services agencies, and other state, county, and municipal government clients.” Ald. Reilly also transferred $15k from his personal campaign fund (Citizens for Alderman Reilly) to the 42nd Ward Democratic Organization, which he also controls as 42nd Ward Democratic Committeeman.

• In addition to receiving money from Benchmark Construction, Ald. Sawyer reported campaign donations from the Illinois Hotel-Motel Political Action Committee($1K); Unison Consulting, a Chicago-based, “leading aviation consulting firm” that is certified as a minority and disadvantaged business, according the the company’s website ($1K); Nikki Zollar, a member of the board of trustees for Chicago State University ($1.7K); and Killerspin, LLC, a table tennis facility ($1K).

• Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) reported five $1K contribution checks from Baker Development Corporation, the real estate firm that oversaw the development of the 180,000-square-foot big box retail complex located on the border of Lincoln Park and Bucktown. It’s directly across the Chicago River from the Lathrop Homes, a public housing complex that will soon become a massive mixed-used development once the City Council approves the master plan for the site. That Lathrop plan calls for 50,000-square-feet of commercial retail, which Ald. Waguespack opposes because there’s no shortage of retail space in the area, his Chief of Staff Paul Sajovec told the Plan Commission. Two of those checks Ald. Waguespack reported list a different limited liability corporation (2230 Elston, LLC; Baker Lincoln, LLC) with the same address: 1156 W. Armitage Ave., the headquarters for Baker Development.  Checks from 105 Madison OPCO, Inc. and W & A Baker Building Trust list the same address as the two LLCs. One check from Elston Development, LLC lists a separate address on the SBOE website, but according to state records, the LLC is owned by Baker Development, too. Ald. Waguespack also got $1k from Midtown Athletic and $2.5k from Steven Schwartz, owner of the Midtown Athletic Club.

• IL State Sen. Tony Munoz’s 12th Ward Regular Democratic Organization raised $12k in February. MWRD Commissioner Michael Alvarez donated $1k and Cook County Democratic Party Chairman and Assessor Joe Berrios gave $1k. Meanwhile, Friends of Twelve, the PAC run by Ald. George Cardenas (12), who is running against Munoz for 12th Ward Democratic Committeeman, reported one contribution: a $11.3K check from All Around Amusements, a carnival company located in Lockport, IL. Ald. Cardenas’ personal campaign fund received four checks totaling $8K. The largest donation, $5K, came from Theresa Siaw from Burr Ridge, IL. Siaw’s occupation is listed as “Healthcare.” Her LinkedIn says she’s a Board Member for Centro Romero, a “community-based organization that served the refugee immigrant population on the northeast side of Chicago,” according to its website.

• Ald. Pat Dowell got a notable amount of political support: $5k from State Rep. Mattie Hunter, $3K from State Rep. Lou Lang, $2K from Mike Zalewski (she didn’t specify if the check came from Ald. Zalewski or his son, the state rep. who shares his name), $1.5k from State Rep. Marcus C. Evans, Jr., $1.5k from State Rep. Bob Rita; and $1.5k from State Rep. Silvana Tabares.

• Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) received $2K from Gutierrez for Congress, the personal campaign fund for U.S. Cong. Luis Gutierrez. The two were seen together at a campaign event for Theresa Mah, whom both are supporting in the upcoming election against incumbent State Rep. Alex Acevedo.

• Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29) got some political support, too, with $5K from Ald. Nick Sposato (38) and $2K from Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin.

• City Treasurer Kurt Summers raised $19,700 in February, including three $5.4K checks from Chicago-based investment firm Victory Capital Advisors, the company’s partner and co-founder Brendan Carroll, and his wife, Colleen Carroll, who is listed as a “homemaker.”

• “The Democratic Party of the 49th Ward,” the political party campaign fund for the 49th Ward Democratic Ward Organization, has beefed up its fundraising efforts since Ald. Joe Moore took over as ward committeeman following David Fagus’death last year. The campaign fund reported $17K in new contributions in February, including $5K from State Sen. Heather Steans; $1K from the law firm DLA Piper; $1.5K from JN Pritzker; and $2.5K from Azieb Gebrehiiwet, a day care provider who got an honorary street designation from the City in 2014.

• The 28th Ward Democratic Organization run by Ald. Jason Ervin (28) received $16k in February, all of which came from construction companies.  

Non-Financial Highlights:

• The treasurer for Ald. Scott Waguespack’s personal campaign committee, Angelina Briguglio, resigned in January, according to this letter filed on Feb. 25th with the SBOE.

• Ald. Ervin (28) created a new campaign, “Ervin for Committeeman” on Feb 10. But despite the name, the campaign fund won’t be fundraising for Ald. Ervin’s re-election campaign for Democratic ward committeeman, instead, it will support the campaign of his wife, Melissa Conyears-Ervin, a candidate for state rep.