August 25
At its meeting, the Chicago Council on Mental Health Equity (CCMHE) heard a report on how the city’s public health department has focused on reducing homicides and opioid overdoses over the summer. The CDPH’s interim deputy commissioner, Miao Jenny Hua, MD, presented the report. The CCMHE evaluates the city’s mental health and substance-use policies, training and crisis intervention methods, which include emergency calls concerning mental health crises. It is co-chaired by the Mayor’s Office and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH.) CDPH’s Healthy Chicago 2025 Strategy focuses on reducing the life expectancy gap between Black and non-Black Chicagoans, Hua said. Homicide and opioid overdoses are two causes of death that contribute most to the disparity. The department implemented an incident command system in the summers of 2024 and 2025 to identify priority reduction areas. To track performance, it looked at whether citywide and priority areas’ reduction rates were similar, and tracked the overall reduction rate, Hua said. Compared to 2024, this year’s opioid overdose emergency medical responses between January and July dropped twenty-two percent citywide and twenty-three percent on the West Side. Homicides citywide decreased by thirty percent (to 237 from 374) and to 144 from 226 in priority areas between 2023 and 2025, Hua said.
September 9
At its meeting the Chicago Community Development Commission green-lit negotiations with the Pullman Hotel Group, LLC, for what would be the Far South Side’s first new hotel in four decades. With the blessing of Council Member Anthony Beale (9th Ward) and other stakeholders, the city’s Department of Planning and Development has the go-ahead to negotiate a redevelopment deal for property at 11030 S. Doty Ave. Billed as the first nationally branded hotel in Pullman, the proposed 101-room facility would include a business center, exercise room, indoor pool, and a market store or gift shop. Cost is estimated to be $30.9 and funded by several sources, including a TIF loan of $2.8 million and other city-funded grants. With groundbreaking planned for later this year, completion would take fifteen to eighteen months. Tax Increment Financing (TIF) dollars come from taxes on designated areas reserved for revitalization and redevelopment projects.
September 11
At its meeting the Chicago Commission on Landmarks designated the Original Providence Baptist Church, 515 North Pine Avenue, a Chicago landmark. The church was founded in 1863 in large part by formerly enslaved people who arrived in Chicago via the Underground Railroad. A designated Chicago landmark must meet two of seven criteria. The church qualified through being a critical part of the city’s heritage, having “significant person identification,” and being “important architecture.” The church’s first pastor, the Rev. Thomas L. Johnson, for example, oversaw the completion of the church’s first building, later serving as a missionary in Africa with his wife, and wrote the book 28 Years a Slave. The church was strongly shaped by urban renewal, politics, and activism, including the NAACP. A regular meeting of the Permit Review Committee followed the Commission’s session.
September 12
At its meeting, amid an ever-changing landscape of federal immigration operations, the Chicago City Council Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights offered general statements about protecting the rights of Chicagoans as its members try to understand federal actions in other U.S. cities. Concerns about detentions and deportation threats intensified here as ICE mounted “Operation Midway Blitz,” announced in a press release three days before the Committee’s meeting. Members urged Chicagoans to educate and prepare themselves for the continued presence of federal agents and increased immigration enforcement. Ed Yohnka, director of communications and public policy at the Illinois ACLU, explained to the Committee how some litigation in Los Angeles could have implications for Chicago, saying the escalation in military enforcement in Los Angeles primarily focused on Black and Brown communities. Raids that have targeted public areas have generated multiple lawsuits. The Los Angeles Press Club and other groups filed a lawsuit claiming Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers violated First Amendment protections when they attacked journalists, protesters, and legal observers documenting actions by federal authorities. Officials claimed the protesters were violent. “They can say that all they want, but it’s protected by the First Amendment,” Yohnka said. The ACLU is monitoring federal behavior on the ground in Chicago, he said, and “will not hesitate to go ahead and file litigation that challenges” inappropriate actions.
September 22
“It appears we’ve been wasting time, energy, and money to do a whole lot of nothing here in the city of Chicago as it relates to lead service line replacement,” said Council Member Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) at a meeting of the City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy. The meeting included a hearing called by Council Member Gilbert Villegas (36th Ward) to determine why the city’s water department has informed only seven percent of residents of the danger posed by lead service lines supplying water to their residences. About nine hundred thousand Chicago renters, landlords, and homeowners with residences built before 1986 are at risk of being exposed to lead-contaminated drinking water. Chicago has the most lead service lines in the country (an estimated 412,000), and city officials don’t plan to finish replacing them all until 2076, ninety years after a national ban outlawed lead service lines in 1986. Under questioning from Committee members, Patrick Schwer, director of water quality for the city’s water department, said full compliance with federal and state law would require mailing 900,000 individual letters and cost $10 million. That money would be better spent on replacing lines, he said. The Committee noted that the city hasn’t yet spent most of the money allocated. The Committee also affirmed its commitment to the goals of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty with a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
September 25
At a one-hour meeting, the Community Commission for Safety and Accountability allowed extra time for public comment on the Chicago Police Department budget but heard only three comments, just one about the budget. The first commenter urged the Commission to find a new leader who supports Mayor Brandon Johnson’s traffic-stop policy and resistance to ICE. The second referred to slain CPD officer Krystal Rivera, 36, who was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow officer in June, and called for increased police accountability. A third reminded the Commission of its obligation to establish a budget for the department that is fair for the community and enables CPD to uphold its motto, “We Serve & Protect.” A new president is to be elected at the Commission’s October meeting. Two members were nominated at this meeting: Vice President Remel Terry and Commissioner Abierre Minor. The Commission is also seeking a new head of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which is responsible for investigating police misconduct. Vice President Terry reported that Commission members have interviewed subject matter experts to inform their search. A representative from the Mayor’s Office of Public Safety reviewed the Welcoming City Ordinance, which prohibits police from cooperating with federal officers in immigration enforcement. The City has not been formally notified about federal deployments, but it does receive updates from local and state authorities. Commissioners asked several questions. From Aaron Gottlieb: When do police have to cooperate with ICE? Answer: CPD may not intervene or assist without a court order, including provide private information. Abierre Minor: How will the city know about National Guard deployment? Answer: Reports from community partners about sightings. Angel Rubi Navarijo: How does the city protect private citizen information? Answer: The Welcoming City Ordinance is designed to protect Chicago residents, regardless of citizen or immigration status, and prohibits city officials from sharing information deemed sensitive.
This information was collected and curated by the Weekly in large part using reporting from City Bureau’s Documenters at documenters.org.