Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks a the Pullman Community Center in the Ninth Ward Thursday. 

A report from Northwestern University found a 41 percent decrease in gun violence rates in Chicago and Cook County communities targeted by the state-backed Peacekeeper Program. 

The City Council on Wednesday approved measures prohibiting people convicted of participating in the Jan. 6 U.S.Capitol riot from city employment, assisting two downtown office-to-residential conversion projects and reining in “rogue towers.”

Ald. Anthony Quezada (35) is pictured during a City Council meeting prior to his confirmation on April 7, 2025. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council voted to confirm the appointment of Cook County Comm. Anthony Quezada (D-8) to be the next 35th Ward alderperson at a special meeting Monday, with the young progressive succeeding former Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and allowing Mayor Brandon Johnson to maintain a likely favorable vote in that seat for the remainder of his term.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) is pictured at a City Council meeting in May 2023. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) will ask the City Council Committee on License and Consumer Protection on Tuesday to approve new regulations for tow truck companies that operate within the city to crack down on bad actors. 

The license and consumer protection committee will also consider a proposal to ban the sale of hemp-derived intoxicants, such as delta-8 products, in the Pullman-Roseland area. 

Cook County Comm. Anthony Quezada (D-8) is pictured at a press conference in May 2023. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday announced the selection of Cook County Comm. Anthony Quezada (D-8) to fill the vacant 35th Ward seat on the City Council.

Ald. Maria Hadden (49) asks Environment Comm. Angela Tovar questions at a budget hearing on Dec. 3, 2024. [Livestream]

The City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy will meet Wednesday to hold a hearing on environmental regulation enforcement and to set up a future hearing on single-use plastics.

The committee will meet at 10 a.m. in council chambers.

Renderings for the rooftop of the 79 W. Monroe St. project are pictured. [Provided]

Mayor Brandon Johnson and city officials on Thursday celebrated the groundbreaking for the city’s first conversion of office space to residential units under an initiative to reuse vacant commercial space downtown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The mayor also used the opportunity to announce a new all-encompassing economic development strategy.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) and IPI Chicago Policy Center Executive Director Austin Berg are pictured at the Chicago Charter Symposium on Monday, March 24, 2025. [Jess Plowman/Chicago Policy Center]

Civics nerds, good government advocates and some members of City Council attended a symposium at Northwestern University School of Law Monday morning to hear about the push for Chicago to establish its own charter, an endeavor that bills itself as at least part of the solution to some of city government’s recurring issues, such as dysfunction and corruption.

The symposium was organized by the Illinois Policy Institute’s Chicago Policy Center.