November 6
At the meeting of the Chicago City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations on the 2024 City Budget, the committee approved several ordinances from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed 2024 budget for a vote by the full Council. These proposals included funding for each member of City Council to hire an additional ward employee; a tentative contract with Chicago’s police union that would add $64 million to the CPD’s nearly $2 billion proposed 2024 budget; and use of state and federal grants to provide the Department of Public Health with $3.2 million for vaccine programming and $37 million for tobacco-use prevention, and the Department of Family and Support Services with $3 million for opioid prevention, and $30 million for the City’s migrant mission.
November 7
At its meeting the Chicago City Council voted to give one of three referendum slots on the March 19 primary ballot to Bring Chicago Home, a proposal that would guarantee funding to address the city’s housing and homelessness challenges. State law requires municipal voter approval for changes to the city’s real estate transfer tax. The proposal would revise the City’s tax policy to institute a graduated tax on real property transfers over $1 million. Advocates for Bring Chicago Home say this change could bring in at least $100 million annually for new permanent housing, housing vouchers, and other services and supports to keep housing. The grassroots initiative was launched in 2018 and struggled to gain traction under two previous mayors, but is a major policy plank for Mayor Brandon Johnson. His proposed 2024 budget contains $250 million for “homelessness supports,” as well as provision for the City’s first chief homelessness officer.
November 9
A preliminary landmark recommendation for the Jackson Storage and Van Company Warehouse in Little Village was approved at a meeting of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. The building’s Venetian Gothic architectural style is rare, especially on such a utilitarian structure. Built around 1890 and rebuilt in 1927, the building is currently home to the performing arts group Theatre Y, according to Melissa Lorraine, the organization’s co-founder and artistic director. Proposed additional uses are as a hub for nonprofit organizations aligned with Theatre Y’s mission, housing for artists-in-residence, food production, and general public space.
November 13
With 707 drivers, the Chicago Public Schools bus service is operating at fifty percent capacity, and members of the citywide Chicago Local School Council Advisory Board heard complaints about long commute times from attendees at their meeting. Kimberly Jones, the Chicago Public Schools’ executive director of student transportation, reported that the system is short more than 1,300 drivers. During the 2022-23 school year, she said, 365 students experienced travel times to school of more than ninety minutes, and some 3,000 had a greater than 60-minute commute. Remedies implemented so far include a five-dollar hourly wage increase for drivers , rolled out over the past two years, and ongoing monthly hiring fairs.
An amendment to the municipal code designed to protect city employees tasked with “enforcement”—that is, those issuing tickets and citations—was approved at a meeting of the Chicago City Council Committee on Public Safety. Under the current law, assaults on a police officer, firefighter, or emergency response worker can be penalized with up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The update expands the law to include building and public health inspectors and parking inspectors. Several Council members said they’ve seen an increase in reported assaults on City employees. The amendment was passed by the full City Council two days later.
The committee also backed an ordinance to establish a quiet zone around a West Loop abortion clinic, where hundreds of anti-abortion protesters have sometimes gathered to harass patients and staff.
November 14
The six individuals attending a meeting of the 2nd Police District Council – Bronzeville/Washington Park/Hyde Park learned more about a proposed CPD union contract that could allow police officers accused of serious misconduct to settle behind closed doors using private arbitration. The Chicago Police Board now reviews such issues using a public hearing process. District council members urged residents to get in touch with their City Council ward representatives to offer their opinions. The City Council would have to ratify the contract for it to take effect.
Grow Greater Englewood will be able to buy land to formalize its operation of a community garden in the 67th/Wentworth Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Redevelopment Project Area. At its meeting the Chicago Development Commission unanimously approved the $4,000 sale. Grow Greater Englewood is a not-for-profit designed, in part, to develop “sustainable local food economies,” according to its website. The Commission also discussed several City land sales to developers and other community organizations.
“This is not what the community voted forward, this is not what we agreed to,” complained Council Member Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) at a meeting of the Chicago City Council Committee on Finance. She was referring to United Yards, a major development planned for her ward, which began construction in March. Taylor said the development, as now envisioned, would create fewer affordable housing units than Back of the Yards, reiterating that the community understood that three sites were planned. The $58 million project calls for retail shops, a health clinic, and affordable housing. Originally, it was slated to receive seven million dollars in COVID recovery funds as part of the INVEST South/West initiative begun under Lori Lightfoot, but it now stands to receive five times that amount in TIF funds ($14.5 million) and, if approved, $22.5 million in Multi-Family Housing Revenue Bonds.
This information was collected and curated by the Weekly in large part using reporting from City Bureau’s Documenters at documenters.org.