A bust of Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable stands in Pioneer Court along Michigan Avenue, The DuSable Museum of African American History is located in Washington Park, Honorary Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable Way in Washington Park [Erin Hegarty]

A City Council committee unanimously endorsed a proposal to rename outer Lake Shore Drive after Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable in April, teeing up a vote on the council floor this month. But the 18-month push to get the ordinance out of committee is not the first effort in the past few decades to recognize the city’s founder.

A bill to give voters a say in the governance of Chicago Public Schools will likely land on Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk by the end of the legislative session. But will the bill mandate a fully elected school board or a "hybrid" elected-appointed body to oversee the nation’s third-largest school district? The Daily Line reporter Caroline Kubzansky talked to State Sen. Robert Martwick (D-Chicago), who has been championing elected school board legislation since 2015, and Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood), who’s carrying Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s hybrid proposal in the legislature.

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Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett in conversation Thursday

Mayor Lori Lightfoot laid out for city investors on Thursday how she tackled the $1.2 billion budget gap for 2021 and described her priorities for spending the $1.9 billion city officials anticipate Chicago will receive from the federal American Rescue Plan.

City leaders hosted the daylong Chicago Virtual Investors Conference Thursday via Zoom for more than 375 attendees, including real estate investors, according to an introduction from the city’s Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett. 

City leaders rolled out a slate of outdoor summer events. The head of the city’s police oversight agency is out. Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted a City Council proposal to rein in police raids. And a top city watchdog illustrated what she called the Chicago Police Department’s “tangled and convoluted” disciplinary procedures.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25) and Jitu Brown, national director of Journey for Justice, during the subject matter hearing Tuesday.

Expanding job opportunities and widening community resources for kids and young adults could help quell violence in the city this summer following a gun violence spike amid the COVID-19 pandemic, officials and advocates told aldermen on Tuesday.

More than a dozen witnesses  from neighborhood associations, justice advocacy groups, city departments, the mayor’s office and officials from the Chicago Police Department and the Park District described an array of strategies to help stymie violence in the city during Tuesday’s joint meeting of the City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations and Committee on Public Safety.

Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady addresses aldermen Monday.

Chicagoans can look forward to the time-held tradition of residential block parties again this summer while city health officials plan to shift vaccination efforts to a more neighborhood-based effort during the coming months.

"I fully expect that block parties will be back this summer," Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady told aldermen Monday, though she said the popular neighborhood events will likely come back "more in the sort of middle of the summer and on."

GAPA coordinator Desmon Yancy and CPAC leader Tamer Abouzeid in October spoke about their plans during a City Council Committee on Public Safety hearing.

After months of delays, aldermen are not wasting time in the new year moving toward a vote on a civilian oversight commission for the Chicago Police Department.

The City Council’s Committee on Public Safety is scheduled during its 11 a.m. meeting Tuesday to hear changes to two police oversight proposals: one from the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) and one for a Chicago Police Accountability Council (CPAC). 

With the narrow passage of Chicago and Cook County’s pandemic budgets and the initial rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine behind them in 2020, officials this year are tasked with redrawing Chicago ward, Cook County district, Illinois General Assembly and congressional district maps.

Drawing new maps and redistricting across the country occurs every 10 years, following the decennial census count. The purpose of redrawing in its simplest form is to ensure equitable representation as the population of the state and cities waxes, wanes and shifts.

Ald. Howard Brookins and Ald. David Moore during Thursday’s transportation committee meeting.

A proposal to rename Lake Shore Drive after Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable advanced to the City Council floor with unanimous support Thursday after a tumultuous meeting packed with heated discussions, confusion over legal language and one alderman’s extended showcase of a State Farm road atlas. 

Members of the City Council Committee on Transportation and Public Way met for more than two hours Thursday to consider the proposal (SO2019-7918) that had stalled for 18 months after Ald. David Moore (17) introduced it.

Ald. David Moore speaks during a December meeting on renaming Lake Shore Drive.

After months of listening to advocates urge the change, aldermen on Thursday will consider renaming the outer portion of Lake Shore Drive after Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, the city’s first non-Indigenous permanent resident.

The City Council’s Committee on Transportation and Public Way is set during its 1 p.m. meeting to take up the ordinance (SO2019-7918), which is sponsored by Ald. David Moore (17) and backed by groups including the Black Heroes Matter coalition.

Chicago Department of Public Health officials announced on Tuesday a $9.6 million Request for Proposals for a “vaccine engagement program” among other ways the city plans to drum up interest in COVID-19 vaccines.

Chicago public health Comm. Allison Arwady announced the request for proposals during a news conference on Tuesday among other plans on tap to offer vaccinations at new locations this summer, including at block parties and festivals. The city is also working to partner with barbershops and salons to offer incentives for getting the shots.

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.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot made donations to some aldermanic campaign funds in the first three months of 2021.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s political action committee brought in more than $245,000 in campaign donations during the first three months of 2021 and contributed donations of at least $250 each to five aldermen.

State board of election filings show Light PAC made $250 donations to Ald. Pat Dowell (3) on March 4, Ald. Michele Smith (43) on Feb. 10, Ald. Samantha Nugent (39) on Feb. 18, Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10) on Feb. 18. The committee also made two donations of $250 each to Ald. David Moore (17) on Jan. 19 and Feb. 8. The donations all marked tickets that Lightfoot's organization had purchased to aldermen's fundraising events, Dave Mellet, political spokesperson for Lightfoot told The Daily Line Monday.

Erin Hegarty spoke with Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) and Desmon Yancy, director of community organizing for Inner-City Muslim Action Network, about their ordinance and challenges in getting it approved without the mayor’s support.

Advocates behind the Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance are urging aldermen and Mayor Lori Lightfoot to approve the newly proposed measure that would establish civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department. The measure, which comes as a result of coalitions behind the Civilian Police Accountability Council and Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability agreed on a unity ordinance, has stalled as Lightfoot says her own proposal on police oversight is on the way.

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Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) speaking during an April 21 rally for the Empowering Communities for Public Safety Ordinance

Passing the Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance through City Council without support of the mayor would mark an “extremely rare” event, but advocates for civilian oversight of the police department say the city “can’t wait any longer,” they said on The Daily Line’s Cloutcast.

Coalitions previously behind the competing proposals for Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) and Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) earlier this year introduced their compromise Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance, which sponsors said will be filed as a substitute of the GAPA ordinance (SO2019-4132), and are urging Mayor Lori Lightfoot and aldermen to pass the measure.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot answers questions after Wednesday’s City Council meeting

A group of aldermen are calling on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to target the expected $1.9 billion in anticipated federal stimulus money toward the “immediate needs of communities hardest hit by COVID-19 pandemic” instead of using it to pad the Chicago Police Department’s budget, according to a resolution they introduced during Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

Another alderman introduced an ordinance Wednesday that would permanently cap third-party delivery fees, and another introduced a resolution calling for a hearing to discuss Navy Pier’s “lack of transparency” in minority contracting.

Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady addresses aldermen on Thursday.

Aldermen tore into Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady on Thursday, saying city health officials were doing enough to work with ward offices in getting COVID-19 vaccinations out to their areas of the city. 

Arwady addressed aldermen during the City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations meeting to provide an update on how the city is responding to the pandemic. The health commissioner’s testimony came as the city sees an uptick in COVID-19 cases and as the city prepares to widen vaccinations to people eligible under Phase 1C.

News in brief: Hearing on increased carjackings will include range of law enforcement officials; Lightfoot wants Biden to prioritize more COVID vaccines

Aldermen on Thursday approved a $9.8 million tax abatement for a warehouse in the 12^th Ward.

Aldermen approved a $9.8 million tax incentive for an already-built and occupied warehouse in Back of the Yards over the vocal objections of one alderman.

Members of the City Council Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development voted to approve the request from Michael Tadin Jr. of Marina Crossing Owner LLC for a class 6(b) property tax incentive for the 633,000-square-foot industrial warehouse and distribution center at 2075 W. 43rd St. In the 12^th Ward.

Chicago Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady will face questioning from aldermen Wednesday during a regularly scheduled subject matter hearing on the city’s COVID-19 response.

Chicago bars and restaurants can now operate at 50 percent capacity, registration begins Thursday for COVID-19 vaccination appointments at the massive United Center vaccination site  and Chicago Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady is scheduled Wednesday to field questions from aldermen on the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The City Council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations’ regular check-in on how the city is responding to the pandemic comes one day after Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Chicago bars and restaurants can operate indoors at 50 percent capacity or with 50 patrons, whichever is less, and they and can stay open and serve liquor until 1 a.m. The Wednesday COVID-19 subject matter hearing is set to begin at 11 a.m.