Members of the Chicago City Council meet on Wednesday, May 26, 2021. (WTTW News)

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.

Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia and Ald. David Moore (17th Ward) are among four Democratic candidates vying to fill his seat. “Chicago Tonight” also invited candidate and former state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias who initially accepted an invitation and then later canceled. Also on the ballot is Sidney Moore.

The newly approved 2022 Chicago budget includes several investments proposed and backed by progressives. (WTTW News)

Key components include a universal basic income pilot program, $6.3 million to hire employees at the city’s public mental health clinics, $5 million to expand efforts to renovate single-room occupancy hotels to help prevent homelessness and investments in affordable housing, violence prevention and job programs.

Ald. David Moore (17th Ward) and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, left, celebrate the renaming of Lake Shore Drive to honor Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable on Thursday, Oct. 21. (Credit: Chicago's Mayor Office)

Even though Mayor Lori Lightfoot opposed the push led by Ald. Sophia King (4th Ward) and Ald. David Moore (17th Ward) to honor Chicago’s first non-native settler by changing the name of the city’s most well-known roadway, the three gathered Thursday near Buckingham Fountain to celebrate the compromise all three settled on.

A woman rides a scooter in Chicago during the city’s first pilot program in 2019. (WTTW News)
,

The Chicago City Council is poised to allow shared electronic scooters to return to Chicago streets this spring — including downtown and the 606 Trail, where they were banned in last year's pilot program.

Workers put the finishing touches on the Sunnyside dispensary in Lakeview on Dec. 30, 2019, just two days before recreational marijuana became legal in Illinois. (WTTW News)
,

A push by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to allow cannabis to be sold legally downtown cleared a key city panel on Wednesday, even though it won’t allow Michigan Avenue to become a “pot paradise.”

(docaz / Pixabay)

The vote Friday to change the name of the city’s most iconic roadway came after months of intense and raucous debate that included accusations of racism over how best to honor Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, Chicago’s first non-native settler. 

(docaz / Pixabay)

Leaders of the group that launched the push to rename Lake Shore Drive say they will agree to a compromise plan to call the iconic roadway “DuSable Lake Shore Drive,” but Mayor Lightfoot has yet to endorse the proposal.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, left, listens as Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) responds to her request to allow the Chicago City Council to vote to confirm Celia Meza as the city’s top lawyer at a City Council meeting Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (WTTW News)

A vote to rename 17 miles of Lake Shore Drive for Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, Chicago’s first permanent non-Indigenous settler, was delayed again Wednesday after the Chicago City Council erupted in acrimony over Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pick to serve as the city’s top attorney.

(WTTW News)

While celebrating the full reopening of Chicago on Friday morning as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she does not support the push to rename Lake Shore Drive, again calling it an “iconic” name with national recognition.

Chicagoans took approximately 540,000 rides on electric scooters during a four-month second trial run in 2020, officials said. (WTTW News)

A push to make electric scooters a permanent part of the city’s transportation system stalled Thursday, with several aldermen telling transportation officials that the two-wheelers would create a nuisance on Chicago’s streets and sidewalks.

(WTTW News)

Changing the addresses of the four museums could cost the institutions a significant amount of money and complicate their efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

(docaz / Pixabay)

Opponents of a plan to rename 17 miles of Lake Shore Drive for Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, Chicago’s first permanent non-Indigenous settler, blocked a vote on the measure Wednesday, enraging supporters of the plan, who called the move racist. 

Ald. David Moore (17th Ward) appears on “Chicago Tonight” on Sept. 4, 2018. (WTTW News)

Ald. David Moore (17th Ward) is one of three Chicago elected officials running for secretary of state in 2022.

(docaz / Pixabay)

Renaming 17 miles of Lake Shore Drive for Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, Chicago’s first permanent non-Indigenous settler, would be a massive undertaking without precedent in the city’s history, city officials told aldermen Thursday.

(WTTW News)
,

A new program in Chicago will offer minority-owned firms that have city contracts access to financing from the federal government as part of the city’s effort to help businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.