Nearly 12,000 people, most of them from Central and South America, have arrived in Chicago in the past 11 months, stretching the city’s safety net beyond its breaking point.
Jeanette Taylor
The facility is set to take over some 26 acres of Near West Side property that was part of the Addams-Brooks-Loomis-Abbott homes, known as ABLA. The Fire plans to build a “performance center” building and five and a half soccer fields.
The former Wadsworth Elementary School had been set to open as a shelter in early January, but an uproar forced Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to delay her plans for nearly a month as she and other city officials sought to address concerns from residents.
Tensions rose at this week's Chicago mayoral forum. Our politics team weighs in on that story and more.
A years-long effort by the Norfolk Southern Railway to double the size of its storage yard in Englewood finally got signal clearance.
A years-long effort by the Norfolk Southern Railway to double the size of its storage yard in Englewood failed to pass the Chicago City Council after Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) blocked a vote.
The mayor’s office told WTTW News that officials “have not determined a firm date on when this space will open for shelter” but remains “committed to carefully balancing the needs of both our residents and new arrivals.”
Hiring bonuses, retention bonuses and a raise for new employees are all part of the CTA’s plan to attract and keep bus and train operators and mechanics as the agency claws its way out of a huge staffing shortfall.
“It is not a good look for him to have the oxygen and audacity not to show up,” Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) said.
More than 55% of the department’s 587 seasonal lifeguard positions were vacant as of Thursday, according to Chicago Park District data, eight days after officials announced the city’s 49 outdoor pools would not open on schedule — leaving Chicagoans to swelter during a record-breaking heat wave.
A trio of City Council members blasted Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to fight crime by going after the profits earned by Chicago’s gangs in an interview Monday on “Chicago Tonight.”
Tensions and frustrations are running high in the Woodlawn neighborhood as residents feel the effects of the incoming Obama Presidential Center.
City Council members have yet to redraw the city's ward maps. They’re contending with a controversial ordinance to go after street gangs’ profits. And, the city’s watchdog released two reports on a botched smokestack demolition and a wrongful police raid, while the city's without a permanent inspector general.
The leaders of the Chicago City Council’s Black and Latino caucuses said Tuesday that they could endorse a new Chicago ward map with 18 wards with a majority of Black voters and 15 wards with a majority of Latino voters.
Chicago’s revenue remains stunted by the pandemic. Meanwhile, City Council disclosed millions in investments using federal stimulus funds. And tension heightens between the community and police in the wake of Officer Ella French’s killing. Three alderpeople weigh in on these topics and more.
For the first time since a damning 2019 audit was released by the city’s watchdog, police officials defended their continuing use of records that list approximately 135,000 Chicagoans as members of gangs, citing their need for the data to prevent “retaliatory violence.”
