“That’s the goal of this administration. Treatment Not Trauma is the way in which we truly create a better, stronger, safer Chicago,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said at a Saturday summit organized by activists. “My administration is going to reopen the mental health clinics that are publicly funded and publicly run.”

Chicago already has a pilot crisis responder program in place. Deputy Commissioner for Public Health Matt Richardson said CDPH has responded to more than 1,000 calls so far without the use of force, without arrest and without any significant injuries to patients or officers.

Taylor, who lives in the community, said she’s seen incidents like loitering and partying into the late-night hours around the shelter. Other concerns include at least one fight, prostitution, and littering.

“Retailers say that the problem gained momentum about a decade ago, when states began decriminalizing low-level shoplifting, raising the value of goods that a person must steal to enable prosecutors to bring felony charges…Bail reforms that free without bond those arrested for shoplifting have also contributed to the problem… Walmart announced the closure of its only store in disorder-plagued Portland, Oregon, along with four stores in crime-wracked Chicago.”

The 12-year-old was walking in the 2300 block of West Chicago Avenue when four men demanded his property around 12:25 p.m., a CPD spokesperson said. He was nearing Burger King when the men took his wallet and made him unlock his phone.

In a move that could affect Northwestern University’s plans to renovate its football stadium, the city of Evanston has asked a judge to remove the stadium’s parking lot from consideration by a special committee that debates disputes over the school’s land use. “It calls into question, whose side is the city on?” resident Dave DeCarlo said.

For the second year in a row, Cook County has delayed sending out notices to property owners informing them what they owe for the second installment of their property taxes. The county treasurer normally sends out the bills in early July, with taxes due in early August. This kind of lousy customer service — and that’s really how county officials should think of it — would never be tolerated in the private sector. If Kaegi, the Board of Review and the treasurer’s office can’t cooperate to ensure a stable, predictable flow of tax bills and deadlines, then it’s incumbent upon

Illinois Realtors found that as of June, the median sales price of a home in the city limits was $355,000, up from $335,000 and $340,000 in May and April, respectively. It was $349,940 for the Chicago metro area and $291,946 statewide in June. That’s up from $330,000 and $275,000, respectively, in May, and $320,000 and $272,250, respectively, in April.

The statistics vary among the different firms but they tell the same story. Overall office vacancy rates in downtown are more than 20%, at or near record highs for recent years. One firm focused on the added wrinkle of “shadow” vacancies, putting the sublease inventory at about 8 million square feet, amounting to around 5% of everything downtown. Avison Young said in the downtown Chicago market,

It took less than five months for CPD to exhaust the $100 million earmarked for police overtime set by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2023 budget. Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said that, coupled with several years of double-digit increases in overtime spending, indicates a “deep problem” with how CPD is managed and how the city’s public safety resources are allocated.

Last weekend 40 were shot, four fatally, across Chicago.