The Chicago City Council voted 44-3 to approve what supporters dubbed the Northwest Side Housing Preservation Ordinance, which expands two pilot programs that began in 2021 and makes them a permanent part of the city code.

The ordinance would expand a pilot program around the area of the 606 Trail that has successfully helped stabilize that neighborhood after it began to experience rapid gentrification.

“I felt like I was back in the South,” said Ald. Emma Mitts, who grew up in Arkansas, during the era of Jim Crow. “I felt like everything in me was shaking.”

Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa said in a statement that he allowed tensions at Thursday's special City Council meeting “to get the better of me and act in a way unbecoming of a leader.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson recently announced a new proposal dubbed “Bring Chicago Home,” which would raise about $100 million dollars to fight homelessness by raising taxes on all sales above $1 million, and then an additional hike on sales of more than $1.5 million dollars.

Chicago could join Alaska, California, Guam, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Washington D.C. in ending the tipped minimum wage.

Chicago is set to join Alaska, California, Guam, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Washington D.C. in ending the tipped minimum wage.

Taken together, the two proposals are likely to form the foundation of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s agenda when it comes to labor. A former organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, Johnson enjoyed the unanimous support of Chicago’s progressive labor organizations.

The appointment of Natalie Toro to represent a wide swath of Chicago’s Northwest Side in the Illinois Senate sets up a fierce battle next spring as the progressive political organizations and labor unions that helped elect Mayor Brandon Johnson push to consolidate their power.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s mayoral campaign platform called for an end to the tipped minimum wage, noting that those who rely on tips to earn a living wage are more likely to be Black and Latina women.

The Kennedy Expressway construction project that kicked off earlier this year had an unexpected effect on some of the 35th Ward’s unhoused residents: the scope of the work endangered those living in viaducts under the expressway.

Led by former allies of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the successful push to rewrite the rules for the City Council — which served as a rubber stamp for decades under Mayors Richard J. Daley, Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel — is the result of years of effort to transform it into a legislative body determined to set policy for the entire city.

The proposal – which has not yet been debated in public – could get a final vote on Thursday as part of supporters’ push for a quick vote before the runoff between Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson set for April 4.

Dozens of Chicagoans who waited hours to get their turn to address the Chicago City Council were prevented from speaking because a majority of the Chicago City Council attended Monday's special meeting.

Representatives of the city’s Department of Transportation and the Budget Office declined to provide WTTW News with a full breakdown of spending during 2021 and 2022 under the banner of Chicago Works.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to close a projected $170.6 million budget gap in 2023 relies on booming tax revenues that she said proves Chicago’s budget has fully recovered from the economic catastrophe caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.