“I loved being the alderman of the 35th Ward,” Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 36, said. “But you can’t turn down a job like this when you love Chicago as much as I do.”

After a career in city government spanning 35 years and five mayoral administrations, Rosa Escareño, general superintendent and CEO of the Chicago Park District, announced her resignation Wednesday.

The Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners approved a special event permit for Riot Fest on Wednesday, a decision that did little to bridge the divide between residents of Lawndale who welcome the fest and those who want to oust it from Douglass Park.

The Chicago Park District board approved the deal Wednesday, along with an option to extend the contract another five years.

On Monday, the Chicago Park District announced that Myetie Hamilton, president of the district’s board of commissioners since February 2022, will step down from the role following Wednesday’s board meeting.

Rosa Escareño, Chicago Park District general superintendent and CEO, announced an $8 million investment in broadband infrastructure that will provide free, public internet service at 60 of the city’s parks on the South and West sides.

Tensions remain as the fight over the building has been seen by some as a symbol of the struggle to maintain Humboldt Park’s longstanding Puerto Rican heritage in the face of gentrification.

After a rough summer in 2022 when a lifeguard shortage left the Chicago Park District scrambling to open even a fraction of its pools, the district doubled down on recruitment efforts in 2023.

The Chicago Park District announced a number of new benefits designed to help with recruitment and retention at the December meeting of the district’s board of commissioners.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot initially opposed efforts by members of the City Council to require the heads of the city’s sister agencies to answer questions from the City Council but dropped her objections Wednesday. 

The funds will be used for repairs, debt retirement and pension contributions.

An amendment has been proposed to the Chicago Park District code, which, if approved, would insert commissioners into the permit approval process for events drawing more than 10,000 attendees. 

With only 55% of lifeguard positions filled, the Chicago Park District is limiting access to “underutilized” beaches in order to redeploy staff to neighborhood pools, 37 of which will open July 5.

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.

Park District Superintendent Rosa Escareño joined “Chicago Tonight” to discuss the ongoing shortage and acknowledged that some neighborhood pools may not be able to open at all if the Park District can’t fill some 300 lifeguard positions.

Chicago Park District officials acknowledged to WTTW News that it had not been able to hire enough lifeguards to allow its 49 outdoor pools to open as scheduled on June 24, blaming a “national shortage” and “several other factors.”