Brandon Johnson
Chicago faces an affordable housing shortfall of more than 119,000 units, and more than half of Chicagoans spend more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities, making them burdened by housing costs.
“I won’t rush to judgment, but I will say this as the chief executive of this city: Constitutional policing ensures that our public employees are adhering to a standard that reflects our values. If you don’t do that, you won’t have a place in the city government,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday.
The 20 homicides recorded throughout the city last month were the fewest for any month in Chicago since February 2015 while marking the fewest for any April since 1962.
If lawmakers don’t reach a deal to reform the northeastern Illinois transit system and introduce new funding before their May 31 adjournment, transit officials say it will result in significant cuts, which would result in a “nightmare scenario,” according to Regional Transportation Authority spokesperson Tina Fassett Smith.
A proposal to allow Chicago Police Department officials to impose a curfew anywhere in the city with just 30 minutes notice is set to face a key test Wednesday amid growing concern the measure is unworkable and unconstitutional.
The injunction issued by U.S. District Judge William Orrick does not apply to Chicago or Cook County but is likely to bolster efforts by city officials to prevent President Donald Trump from blowing a $3 billion hole in Chicago’s budget.
The 40-member task force will be charged with developing “Chicago’s first comprehensive reparations study, a critical step forward in acknowledging, addressing and repairing generations of harm experienced by Black communities,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office.
The task force, formed in February, has met twice, and the next meeting is set for Wednesday, Deputy Mayor Garien Gatewood said.
“The Emanuel administration had immense disdain for public education, particularly for Black, Brown and poor children, and he was vocal about it,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “And now he is prancing around this country, asking people to reconsider him. It is not just frustrating. It is beyond offensive.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday sounded the alarm about the financial crisis facing the city, warning that Chicago “will have to do more with less” as President Donald Trump threatens to upend its finances and officials confront the results of decades of financial mismanagement.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Mayor Brandon Johnson and other public officials lauded the program after a Northwestern University study found that specific “hotspots” where peacekeepers have been deployed have seen drops of more than 40% in gun violence.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s efforts to strip federal funding from cities like Chicago with laws on the books designed to protect undocumented immigrants amount to “terrorism” and vowed again to fight the federal government.
“Look, we have inherited quite the mess,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said, emphasizing that many of the lawsuits allege misconduct that occurred decades ago.
A final vote on both proposals, which would create 104 units of affordable housing, by the full City Council is set for Wednesday.
Even after a four-hour hearing, several alderpeople said they were not prepared to vote on the proposal designed to leverage the city’s financial power to build what the city calls “green social housing,” permanently affordable, mixed-income and environmentally sustainable housing.
With the endorsement of the City Council’s Workforce Development Committee, the measure now heads to the full City Council for a final vote on April 16.