A week’s worth of developing stories, odd events, and signs of the times, culled from the desks, inboxes and wandering eyes of the editors
Charters Catch a Break
4th Ward Alderman Will Burns has been chairman of the Education Committee since late May, and he’s already making waves; his most recent move as chairman of the city’s Education Committee was to block the advancement of a resolution that would create a moratorium on charter schools around the state. Coincidentally, Burns has also received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from charter supporters. The resolution, which was signed by forty-two aldermen, somehow did not find its way onto to the agenda for Monday’s committee meeting. 6th Ward Alderman Roderick Sawyer, one of the resolution’s sponsors, said he was not “overly surprised.”
Cabs v. Uber
Popular taxi service Uber is currently fighting a pitched PR battle on two fronts. While the South Side will soon bear witness to the launch of a new fleet of the company’s drivers—an initiative spearheaded by influential, vocal St. Sabina pastor Michael Pfleger, for those looking to cross a popular name off their topical Chicago Bingo cards—City Hall staged a smaller skirmish this past week, as aldermen played to opposing crowds of drivers for hire in the latest round of budget hearings. The issue under discussion? The plummeting price of taxi medallions, which sold for a mere average of $240,000 this past year, down from a peak of $360,000 in 2013. Many cab drivers accuse Uber (along with its less popular, orthographically uglier cousin, Lyft) of flooding the market with unlicensed part-time drivers (who are, nevertheless, quite good at providing you with free bottled water). Taxi drivers were apparently out in full force downtown, hissing and jeering at Maria Guerra Lapacek, commissioner of the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, but it remains to be seen how well this competitive spirit will help them capture the hearts (and, more importantly, the app storage space) of consumers.
#FlytheW
The Chicago Cubs don’t look great on paper. No Cubs fan wants to be—or Sox fan needs to be—reminded that, barring 2015, they’ve had five consecutive losing seasons and six without a postseason appearance. This season, however, suggests an upward trajectory: the great Victory Flag (white background, big blue W) has sailed atop Soldier Field, and more recently, the Michigan Avenue Bridge, exactly twenty-two more times than the somewhat more familiar Loss Flag (blue background, big white L). A wild card game against the 98-64 Pittsburgh Pirates gives the 97-65 Cubs an opportunity to sneak into the National League Division series. As a result, “Fly the W” deep-dish pies (thanks, Giordano’s) and square, hole-less “FlytheW” donuts (square donuts, Dunkin?) have likely never sold faster. This may be the beginning of a new era for the Cubs, but the Weekly can’t promise that we won’t be watching the Blackhawks season opener on Wednesday night instead.