Public meetings: What good are they? In celebration of the 75th Public Meetings Report…
City, county, and state officials hold thousands of public meetings each year that affect you, your family, your friends, and your neighborhood—next week, next year, or over the next ten years. Have you learned something in the Public Meetings Report that caused you to contact your alderperson or other public official, speak your mind at the next meeting, ask your friends and family what’s going on and what can be done about it? Let us know what you’ve done by sending an email to editor@southsideweekly.com with “Public Meetings Report” or “PMR” somewhere in the title. We want to help you use public meetings—and the Public Meetings Report—to make the right things happen in your community.
June 25
At its meeting, the City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards heard twelve public speakers and fielded nearly forty zoning change requests. The Committee has jurisdiction over all zoning matters, land-use policy and recommendations, and building code ordinances, along with the designation, maintenance and preservation of historical and architectural landmarks. The first speaker voiced support for a project in Irving Park with sixty-nine Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO) units. He complained that approval has been delayed three times since April 16. Another speaker, saying he was a professional urban planner, noted that the Zoning Board of Appeals doesn’t have its full number of members, jeopardizing the proposal process. He was especially concerned about approval of an Uptown homeless shelter. A third speaker asked why the City demolished a property owned by their family since 1972, and by what authority. Thirty-five zoning change requests were passed for forwarding to the full Council for consideration, including two with substitute narratives.
July 10
Echoes of anger from over a year ago were heard at a meeting of the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners as public commenters demanded that the local community’s access, health, and safety be prioritized over revenue when planning private events in the parks. Speakers hailed from Douglass Park to Washington Park. Among their concerns with Riot Fest and other music festivals is that they take over the parks for weeks, cause damage to the park that’s not repaired for months, and force youth sports teams to find other places to practice and play. One speaker called for a summit to encourage “peace and reconciliation.” The park district’s chief administrative officer, Juliet Azimi, explained that the park-use permitting process for large events now includes community engagement, hiring, and park improvement goals. These events also bring in revenue for the parks, she said, which is expected to reach $10.5 million by the end of the fiscal year. “The truth has not been totally told about what has occurred in Douglass Park,” said Denise Ferguson, a local activist. “The park district played a tremendous part in [conflict] happening by putting us in the boxing ring with the promoter.” This year, the three-day punk rock music festival is scheduled to be held in suburban Bridgeview. At this meeting, the Park District Board approved a five-year deal with Sueños, the reggaeton and Latinx music festival hosted in Grant Park since 2022, with expected revenue of at least $1.5 million each year. Myetie Hamilton, a South Shore native and president of the Board of Commissioners, announced that she will be stepping down, and was honored for three years on the board. In her time on the Board, she had emphasized youth participation and established a Center of Accountability for the park district.
At its meeting the Chicago City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate reviewed the status of the ChiBlockBuilder platform, which makes City-owned vacant land available for purchase at a discount. The platform’s website describes it as an “application portal to encourage the purchase and redevelopment of […] land in partnership with community stakeholders.” The goal, the site says, is to streamline the purchase of properties across the “South and West sides and [increase] transparency.” The site offers an interactive online map with information on environmental clearances, zoning, square footage, and market value. Uses eligible for the land include affordable housing, side yards, “market rate” development, urban agriculture, and open space. Committee members had questions about when, to whom, and for what purposes the land is being sold. Among the sales approved at this meeting was that of a vacant lot to Theaster Gates, a world-renowned Chicago artist who is developing several projects on Dorchester Avenue. Gates is a University of Chicago visual arts professor who advises the university on cultural innovation. Committee members also asked the Department of Planning and Development to address market speculation in Woodlawn and to update the program to ensure that purchased properties are maintained and improved.
During its meeting, the City Council Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation heard from Tom Tunney, a former City Council member, about how to bring public art to Chicago neighborhoods. Tunney is a member of the board of Chicago Sculpture Exhibit, a nonprofit organization that connects sculptors and sponsors for one-year public art installations. To date, the program has placed six hundred sculptures in more than thirty wards. If the works aren’t purchased after a year, they return to the artists. Several Committee members were interested in using their discretionary menu money to fund the one-year $4,000 per participant cost. Menu money provides funds to Council members to spend on capital improvements in their wards. The program is a part of the City’s Participatory Budgeting program and has provided Council members as much as $1.5 million annually. The Committee also approved consideration of an ordinance to allow the Chicago Department of Transportation commissioner to deny an athletic event a permit if the event presented a reasonable risk of harm to participants, bystanders, or City personnel.
July 12
A forty-minute meeting of the Chicago City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations could have a long-term impact on rats. Council Member Timmy Knudsen (43rd Ward) proposed an ordinance to penalize “hate littering.” Knudsen proposed the ordinance after plastic bags containing anti-Semitic flyers and possibly rat poison were found on cars in Lincoln Park. The ordinance would provide for fines of from $500 to $1,000 for leaving “threatening materials” on private property. Council Member Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward) introduced a measure designed to reduce Chicago’s rat population by making the feeding of outdoor animals a crime. Enforceable by the City’s Department of Streets and Sanitation, the modification of an existing ordinance would allow fines of $300 to $600 for each day food is accessible to rats outdoors.
This information was collected and curated by the Weekly in large part using reporting from City Bureau’s Documenters at documenters.org.