January 23
Solar power is coming to the Little Village and West Lawn branches of the Chicago Public Library. At its meeting, the Chicago City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations authorized $2.3 million for a pilot project, to which the U.S. Department of Energy has contributed $1 million dollars. David Powell, a project manager for the city’s Bureau of Asset Management, said he expects the project to be completed by the end of the year if they receive authorization as planned.
January 24
A crowd at a Chicago City Council meeting clamored for “yes” votes on a Gaza cease-fire resolution that was directed at President Joe Biden, and for “no” votes on another resolution supporting arbitration for alleged serious police conduct violations. Public speakers had their say on both issues. A vote on a resolution supporting a cease-fire in Gaza was postponed when an alderperson said it would be disrespectful to consider the cease-fire resolution at the same meeting that Holocaust Remembrance Day was being recognized. The cease-fire resolution passed the following week, with Mayor Brandon Johnson casting a tie-breaking vote. A third resolution congratulating the Lane Tech girls flag football team’s state championship win was passed. New rules that ban metal water bottles and backpacks at Council meetings were in effect and enforced for both the public and the press.
January 30
At its meeting, the City Council Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights heard reports on the status of migrants in Chicago. About 7,000 of more than 14,000 migrants housed in City-run shelters are eligible to receive rental assistance from the state. The City has helped shelter residents apply for work permits. On an average day, residents file five grievance reports of poor treatment or living conditions, and staff file seventy-four incident reports of residents violating curfew or other conduct requirements, according to Maura McCauley of the Department of Family and Support Services. Other statistics provided by Beatriz Ponce De Leon showed the scope of immigrant arrivals since August 2022. Appointed last July, Ponce De Leon is the first deputy mayor of the Office of Immigrant, Migrant, and Refugee Rights. The day before the Council meeting, Mayor Brandon Johnson extended a sixty-day limit on shelter stays by thirty days.
January 30
During a Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability West Side hearing with CPD Supt. Larry Snelling, some West Side residents said their neighborhoods haven’t experienced the citywide decline in crime. In 2023, shootings and homicides dropped by 13 percent in Chicago, returning to pre-pandemic rates. Increasing, however, were the number of robberies (by 23 percent) and car thefts (by 37 percent). Some residents shared personal experiences and wanted answers from CPD and the city. One said their brother was killed in October and that Snelling didn’t respond to several requests for information, including letters hand-delivered to his office. Disappearances and murders of Black women and girls continue to be a serious community concern. Snelling defended Chicago’s use of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology (Mayor Johnson announced the city would not renew ShotSpotter’s contract two weeks later).
January 31
At its meeting, the City Council passed a resolution to support a cease-fire in Gaza, becoming the largest city in the United States to do so. With the Council’s vote evenly split (23-23), Mayor Brandon Johnson cast the tie-breaking vote. (The Council had previously passed a resolution of solidarity with Israel and condemnation of Hamas.) The Council had been debating the resolution’s wording since it was introduced by Alderperson Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez (33rd Ward) in November. Before the vote, the language was updated to advocate for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and cite additional statistics about the scale of the humanitarian crisis, though some Council members weren’t satisfied. Alderperson Samantha Nugent (39th Ward) presented a letter signed by twenty-three Council members, stating that the resolution “directly contradicts” the United States’ stance on foreign policy and undermines the authority of President Biden.
This information was collected and curated by the Weekly in large part using reporting from City Bureau’s Documenters at documenters.org.