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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From left: Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33), Ald. Matt Martin (47) and Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20) speak during a committee meeting Thursday.

Aldermen spent nearly three hours on Thursday grilling Chicago Public Schools officials over how they could consider making cuts to budgets in any schools while the city is still under the hold of the pandemic and whether student-based funding for schools is the right way to decide spending.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference on Monday. 

Four days after Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued an executive order directing the Chicago Police Department to “immediately increase” the enforcement of a curfew for minors rolled back from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m., the mayor is asking aldermen to codify the tweaked curfew hours into the city code.

Budget Director Susie Park speaks during a committee meeting on Wednesday.

City budget officials are projecting Chicago will face a $305.7 million budget gap in 2023 — more than $560 million than the figure officials projected last year and that they used again last week to urge speedy approval of a Chicago casino.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez speaks during a news conference in November 2021. [Colin Boyle / Block Club Chicago]

Aldermen are set on Thursday to discuss budget cuts to Chicago Public Schools as the city’s public schools continue to see enrollment dips.

[Pexels]

Members of the City Council’s budget committee are set for a packed meeting on Wednesday when they will consider a water meter installation program proposed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and will hear an update on the city’s finances.

A graph shows a potential timeline for CTA’s electrification of its buses.

The process of switching the city’s fleet from diesel to electric-powered vehicles is slow moving as the city makes plans to phase out old vehicles and waits for federal funding to be unlocked to move the process along, according to information presented Tuesday during a City Council committee hearing. Still, the CTA has charted out an aggressive plan to electrify its bus fleet during the course of the next two decades, agency officials said.

Supporters of the ward map approved by City Council on Monday held a news conference after a special meeting. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

Just one week after they reached a compromise over new ward boundaries, 43 aldermen voted on Monday to support a new city ward map just in time to avoid sending the decision to voters in the June 28 primary.

Ald. Michelle Harris (8), who chairs the City Council’s rules committee, speaks during a Friday hearing on the compromise ward map.

In an anticlimactic end to the city’s monthslong ward remapping process, at least 41 aldermen are expected on Monday to vote in favor of a compromise map, avoiding sending the decision to voters in the June 28 primary.

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) is a lead sponsor on a resolution calling for the city to increase its stock of public bathrooms. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Aldermen are set on Monday to discuss the possibility of a pilot program that would help bring more public bathrooms to Chicago.

Rep. Kam Buckner [D-Chicago] speaks at a campaign announcement event in the South Loop Thursday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Illinois state Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) on Thursday became the third person to officially announce a challenge against Mayor Lori Lightfoot in next year’s Chicago mayoral race.

Buckner, whose name has been swirling for months as a likely candidate for Chicago mayor, made the announcement Thursday outside of TeaPotBrew Bakery in the South Loop to a crowd of about four-dozen people. The bakery is included in his state house district which stretches from South Chicago north to the Gold Coast. 

“A mayor’s job is not just to fight for the sake of fighting. It’s time to bring the people together,” Buckner said during his announcement event as the sun beat down and the temperature pushed past 90 degrees. “We want our mayor to be fearless and compassionate to get things done.” 

The first phase of the floating boardwalk project along the North Branch canal is open for visitors.

Aldermen on Wednesday approved funding for the next phase of the “Wild Mile” floating boardwalk development on the Near North Side, for environmental cleanups along the 606 Bloomingdale Trail and for a “fruit and nut orchard” in East Garfield Park.

The above chart shows how the city plans to reduce its emissions by 62 percent by 2040. [City of Chicago]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot last month set an ambitious goal: to slash the city's carbon emissions by more than half in the next 18 years. But Chicago's track record of falling short on climate promises and the absence of built-in accountability systems has advocates calling for the city to do more.

Lightfoot last month unveiled a draft of the city’s new Climate Action Plan meant to guide the city in reducing emissions by 62 percent by 2040. The 87-page document, the city’s first updated climate plan since Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration published the last one in 2008, plans to reduce emissions through strategies including retrofitting buildings, electrifying the city’s vehicle fleet, diverting waste through a long-promised compost program and expanding the city’s bike lane network.

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1), left, and Ald. George Cardenas (12) speak during a committee meeting on Tuesday.

A proposal from Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) to expand subsidies and protections for people who struggle to pay their water bills was shot down by his colleagues on Tuesday after city officials and the chair of the environment committee railed against the proposed ordinance.