The proposed ordinance calls for allocating roughly $100,000 per year — given the current size of the city budget — to the mayoral campaign subsidy program, plus $50,000 per election cycle to the city clerk’s office to run the program. Candidates who wanted to skip the public financing option would be free to raise private contributions in excess of the program limits.

Chicago hotels averaged more than 36,000 room bookings per night from June 30 to July 2, an occupancy rate of about 79%, according to data released Tuesday by Choose Chicago. Chicago hotels saw a record weekend in early June when the confluence of three sold-out Taylor Swift shows at Soldier Field and the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting at McCormick Place filled nearly 97% of rooms.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford said after all the resources that have been given to the migrants, current city residents feel underserved. “What people are feeling is that the people who have been in these neighborhoods for generations, they have been treated inhumanely by the same government that is making efforts to provide good care to the asylum seekers.”

For Chicago, Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon sees just one way out. “To turn things around, I think Chicago would have to embark on a radically new direction of being as progressively pro-business as possible in order to attract more businesses,” he said. “Typically, as the economy grows, empty office space gets absorbed, but I don’t see any prospect for Chicago doing that because the city’s current leadership shows no interest. The only remedy they’ve tried has been trying to convert some office space into housing.”

“Crime rates are directly affected by expectations. If people know there are consequences for committing crimes, they tend to commit fewer crimes. The opposite is also true, with a lack of consequences resulting in more criminal actions. The swift reduction in crime rates after decades of high crime in the 1970’s into the 1990’s happened because our leaders understood that. “

Submitted by representatives of Commuters Take Action, a collective of frustrated Chicago commuters: “But CTA leaders and riders have also found themselves in a frustrating catch-22 — ridership hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, but neither has service. Buses and trains are inconsistent and unreliable, and CTA leaders like President Dorval Carter Jr. dodge accountability and fudge numbers to try to make the CTA seem better than it actually is.”

The health department estimates the program could benefit about 120 residents each year who will receive three meals a day, laundry and security services. The pilot follows what city officials deem a successful run of a similar program during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the city placed Chicagoans living on the street inside swanky downtown hotels where they could safely practice social distancing.

“Almost a quarter century has passed since Chicago Housing Authority’s “Plan for Transformation,” a Mayor Richard M. Daley-era initiative to replace 17,000 units of public housing with mixed-income communities, was announced. Some redevelopment has happened, but bad planning and fiscal shortages hampered the plan, launched in 2000…The new Cabrini development project is expected to be built in two phases, starting with 250 rental units. The zoning application for the entire project seeks permission to go as high as 742 residences, if financing and demand call for it.”