The amount of available workspace in the central business district rose during the first quarter to 22.4%, up from 21.4% at the end of last year, according to data from real estate services firm CBRE. The new vacancy rate is up from 21.3% a year ago and dwarfs the 13.8% vacancy rate at the start of the public health crisis. Note: These occupancy numbers are based on what’s leased. Actual occupancy based on usage is currently about 50%.

Johnson won 29 of 50 wards, including a clean sweep of majority African-American wards. He won six Hispanic majority wards to Vallas’ nine. Johnson sealed the deal along the progressive-minded north lakefront and the hipster Milwaukee Avenue corridor.

“Unless Johnson can somehow calm the business community, he can expect a kind of capital strike—more large businesses leaving Chicago and little new investment, even from small companies with nowhere else to go.”

Perhaps former President Barack Obama thought he had finally succeeded in crushing local opposition to his presidential museum on Chicago’s South Side. But Tuesday’s election results suggest that his construction project inside historic Jackson Park could face new challenges.

John Catanzara, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge 7, says the morale among the union members is “in the basement…And I will not be the least bit surprised if several hundred of them leave in the next 60 days.”

The median asking price was a little more than $333,500, according to the market-tracking tool in Redfin’s data center. That’s up about 1.1% from the same time last year and about 2.4% above the region’s highest median asking price on record, mid-May’s roughly $332,700.

“A recent conditions assessment found the non-historic building, which has

Johnson’s proposed $800 million in new taxes, including a new real estate transfer tax and a new tax on aviation fuel at the airports, need state or federal approval and can’t be done by City Hall alone. Another consideration: millions of pre-pandemic tourists have not returned, nor have thousands of pre-pandemic jobs – a big reason Johnson’s proposed tax increase on hotels could face a fight in the city council.

“This is an unusual thing in modern American cities that a labor union elects one of its own to run a major city,” Democratic strategist Tom Bowen said. “A machine by a different name, by a different sense, a potent one.”

Simply put, more assistant state’s attorneys are leaving. From just 11 resignations in 2012, to 136 who called it quits last year, the highest in a decade. At the same time, more than a quarter of a million cases were pending in 2020. That number ticked down slightly in 2021, but it’s still the highest Cook County has seen in 20 years.

Brandon Johnson said his first order of business will be finding jobs for teens and young adults. He has also taken Mayor Lori Lightfoot up on her offer to help with a smooth transition. “I’m grateful that Mayor Lori Lightfoot has reached out. She recognizes how fast this is going to move for me. I had a great conversation with Paul Vallas. He’s also committed to providing support during this transition,” Johnson said. “Look, the city of Chicago is coming together.”

“Unlike his opponent, Johnson was unafraid to discuss and address that racism and racial disparities still exist in our nation and communities. But, instead of waving off these concerns – and their direct impact on Black Chicagoans – as ‘divisive,’ Johnson took those concerns on directly. He ran and won on a campaign platform that included plans for affordable housing, police reform and protecting and enhancing the civil rights of Chicagoans, including the Black community.”

“Cleveland used to be called ‘The Mistake on the Lake’. I don’t know what we will call Chicago because this was intentional, and born from the autocratic Democratic Machine which brought us crony capitalism on steroids.”

“Fifty-three of the state’s 4,000 schools don’t have a single student proficient in math, Wirepoints reports. Unsurprisingly, many of those failing schools are in Chicago. While not every school fails so spectacularly, the prognosis for public education in Illinois isn’t promising.”

“Today, Chicago has spoken,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said. “Chicago has said yes to hope; yes to investment in people; yes to housing the unhoused; and yes to supporting young people with fully-funded schools. It is a new day in our city.”

The city’s 2012 public pedestrian plan, which cited a primary goal of eliminating pedestrian fatalities by 2022, included intent to install accessible pedestrian signals (APS) at every new traffic signal starting in 2016. By 2019, only one of 39 crossings with new signals was APS equipped and, according to the 2019 complaint, only 11 out of 2,2672 signalized intersections in the city included such APS devices.

“The 2023 mayoral election solidified the Chicago Teachers Union as a major political power in the city. The union took the low-profile relative unknown Brandon Johnson — a paid CTU staffer who is also a Cook County Board member — and made him a contender. Johnson was viable because the CTU, the American Federation of Teachers and other unions — such as the SEIU — threw millions of dollars into the race.”

Black representation on the City Council looks like it will remain the same with 20 members. The number of women will increase from 15 to at least 17 and, depending on final results, could tie the record of 18 set back in 2007. And the number of Asian American City Council members could grow to two.