“Cook County, encompassing Chicago and suburbs, lost 166,000 people in that span, about 3 percent of its population..The challenge for city leaders, urban experts say, is to adapt to remote work: by converting empty offices to affordable housing, by managing public safety in struggling neighborhoods, and by working with public schools to preserve tax-funded education as a viable option for urban parents”

Sanctuary cities are struggling to keep up with the influx of migrants. In Chicago, last month the City Council approved $20 million for things like emergency food and shelter for migrants.

A measure that would curb the influence of the Chicago Teachers Union and other labor groups in city elections could be introduced soon after a new City Council begins its term in May. Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, is crafting an ordinance capping contributions from labor unions to candidates for city office at $1,500. Although he initially planned to introduce the measure this month, he told Crain’s on Wednesday he will do so in May or June after his labor allies reached out and asked to “provide

“The exchange is a notable glimpse at the behind-the-scenes argument between a City Hall worried about liability and prosecutors dealing with a contentious legacy of wrongful convictions in the county. But it’s also a potentially significant transparency violation by Lightfoot’s office…”

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “As a group, Johnson’s team has scant government experience, with only two members drawing city paychecks, for a total of less than six years between them, according to their LinkedIn accounts. The Chicago Teachers Union isn’t represented, a surprise given Johnson’s work as a CTU organizer and beneficiary of the union’s campaign spending. But the Service Employees International Union, whose affiliates trailed only the CTU in campaign contributions to Johnson, got two slots.”

Ald. Gilbert Villegas’s ordinance would have major implications for the Chicago Teachers Union, which donated more than $2.2 million to Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson’s campaign. Unions accounted for 90% of Johnson’s funding.

A holding company spokeswoman said, “with current occupancy, as low as 12%, on average, our real estate team has reconfigured our offices to accommodate 60%-70% of our staff five days a week (3 days a week of attendance).” Omnicom’s Chicago shakeup follows a February move by Publicis Groupe to put 350,000 square feet of its downtown Chicago offices up for sublease.

Venture-capital funding in the first quarter fell to its lowest level in 2 1/2 years as a wobbly economy and sagging valuations in tech took hold. Funding for Chicago startups dropped 59% from fourth-quarter 2022 to $590 million, the lowest total since fall 2020, according to data from the Venture Monitor produced by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association.

The 1996 study showed that the event would generate $24 million in projected tax revenue, which factored in primary and secondary impacts on the city’s economy, including employment and business activity. Allen R. Sanderson, a senior instructional professor in economics at the University of Chicago, believes the city will be lucky to not land in the negatives when the convention is over, mentioning the cost of security measures for such an event.

Homes in Chicago are taking a long time to sell right now: a median of 87 days, according to February Redfin data. In fact, overall sales dropped by around 30 percent in the metro area in February versus one year earlier, according to data from Illinois Realtors.

“I think we’re in line to see this pendulum swing,” said Kristi DeLaurentiis, of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association. “The valuations might very well be unprecedented.” Commercial properties in Calumet township, which includes the suburbs of Riverdale, Blue Island and Calumet Park, saw their collective assessments jump by 81%, while the assessor’s valuation of all the township’s residential properties increased by 50%.

“The incident does not appear to be a random act,” according to Evanston Police. None of the victims were affiliated with Northwestern, though the school issued a shelter-in-place alert out of an abundance of caution.

Officers at the scene estimated that between 100 and 150 people, mostly teens and young adults, were gathered in the area when an altercation involving several dozen people broke out around 9:25 p.m. at Cloud Gate, the sculpture popularly known as “The Bean. Chicago police mobilized bike units and extra resources to clear the park.

Earlier this month, the Cook County Land Bank Authority awarded Elaine Bell-Quinn the deed to the land at 4738 W. Monroe St., which is next to her family’s longtime home at 4742 W. Monroe St. They’ll grow raspberries, strawberries, onions, peppers, asparagus, thyme, elderberries, gooseberries, turnips, beets, collards, kale, tomatoes and corn, helping to nourish

In an examination of of America’s 10 biggest cities, two recognizable patterns prevail. “One is that pension expenditures increased (in inflation-adjusted dollars) in all cities over the last decade. Pension spending in Chicago, Phoenix, and San Jose doubled or even tripled…The other is that a number of cities have reduced or held constant their employment rolls. Chicago, Houston, and Phoenix all had fewer full-time employees in 2021 than they did a decade earlier.”

“The New York real estate firm that owns the Aon Center came up short on its mortgage payment last month and is asking its lender for more time to pay off the loan as a July deadline approaches, red flags that the city’s second-tallest office tower could add to the rampant distress plaguing downtown real estate…. The mortgage trouble is a product of a downtown office landscape that has gone from worrisome to ugly for building owners.”

“At the same time, the state’s education system is a dumpster fire. A recent analysis by Wirepoints concluded that there are 23 public schools in Illinois — including 18 in Chicago — at which no students are grade-level proficient in either reading or math. Not surprisingly, teachers unions have a stranglehold on education policy.”

“Chicago’s pension spending has nearly tripled in the past ten fiscal years, from around $15,700 per full-time employee to more than $45,000. Pension expenditures now total more than $1.5 billion—over 12 percent of the city’s total revenue. For every person Chicago employs, in other words, it is effectively paying $45,000 to a city employee who has already retired.”

Julie Griese, President of the NASCAR Chicago Street Course, said the July race is expected to generate more than $113 million for the local economy. “The people that are coming to this race are going to be eating in our restaurants, riding in our taxi cabs, landing at our airports,” said Michael Jacobs, President of the Illinois Hotel and Lobby Association. “And all of that helps to benefit the downtown area, helps benefit the city.”