Pedro Martinez, appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot in September 2021 to lead the Chicago Public Schools, has never answered questions during a City Council meeting.
Susan Sadlowski Garza
At least 13 Chicago wards are set for new City Council leadership come next year due to an exodus of alderpeople. And while a few of those existing City Council members are leaving their seats to run for higher office, many are saying they’re opting out simply because it’s time to move on.
Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza, 62, the first member of the Chicago Teachers Union to be elected to the City Council, said in a statement released on Labor Day that she wanted to start the “next chapter” of her life.
Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th Ward) on Tuesday apologized on the floor of the Chicago City Council chambers for sending profane and misogynistic texts to a former aide about Ald. Tom Tunney (44th Ward) and two women who work at City Hall.
A joint session of the City Council’s Public Safety and Finance committees declined to advance the measure backed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and blasted by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson and other transparency advocates as nothing more than “smoke and mirrors.”
The revised measure is designed to tighten regulations on recycling centers and industrial operations in an effort to reduce air pollution on the South and West sides. A final vote is scheduled for the full City Council meeting on March 24.
Protesters are urging the city to stop a metal-scrapping company from opening on the Southeast Side. What both sides have to say.
The industrial community once marked by steel mills is now lined with other plants, and the proposed opening of a metal scrapping company has become a point of controversy on the Southeast Side and across the city.
Commercial Avenue has long been the main business corridor in South Chicago, but in recent years the strip has struggled to fill vacant storefronts – a trend that was seriously exacerbated by civil unrest and looting this summer.
General Iron’s parent company has applied for its final permit to operate its metal-shredding operation on the Southeast Side, but federal officials have asked the city to hold off on making a decision.
Opponents of the Lincoln Park metal shredder want General Iron closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but if the facility checks all the right boxes, it could eventually restart operations, officials said.
Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza is joining the chorus of 10th Ward neighbors calling for the Illinois EPA to delay consideration of General Iron’s permit to move from Lincoln Park to the Southeast Side.
On the Southeast Side, a community deals with the aftermath of property damage and looting against the backdrop of ongoing concerns over COVID-19 and environmental pollution.
The different caucuses of aldermen that make up the council play a big role in shaping its direction. Their leaders join us for a conversation about their priorities and vision for Chicago.
Several advocacy groups are calling on Chicago to ban storage of materials containing manganese in residential areas following a 2016 study that revealed potentially harmful levels of manganese dust on the city’s Southeast Side.
We get reaction from aldermen to the eleventh hour deal that averted a Chicago teachers strike, as well as the mayor’s budget, police oversight reform and more.