“During the past decade, Chicago’s commercial property taxes have jumped 93 percent. The city taxes commercial properties at 3.78 percent of their value each year—the nation’s second-highest effective tax rate and more than double the average for the largest cities in each state…Chicago can’t expect to attract new businesses while imposing oppressively high taxes. Fueled by unchecked local government spending, Chicago’s companies and iconic landmarks face a relentless, uphill financial battle. Business prospects will remain thin until the situation is addressed. “

The mayor spoke about the migrant crisis and his hopes for students in the Chicago Public Schools. He said that students’ academic proficiency can not improve until the city improves the living and working conditions of their families.

Chicago police have not detailed where the shots came from or if someone brought a gun into Guaranteed Rate Field.

The joint ask is for Homeland Security to grant asylum-seekers parole through the “Significant Public Benefit” designation, in which states would sponsor individuals to work in critical industries. Among the industries identified in Illinois, according to the letter, are “food processing, clean energy, health care (including in nursing and dentistry), transportation, warehousing and more.”

The Chicago City Council is set to consider the proposal to purchase the now-vacant 10.7-acre property at 3404 W. Foster Ave. for $1.5 million from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District for housing more than 1,600 migrants. Ald. David Moore was the only member of the Housing and Real Estate Committee to reject the plan: “I have not heard or seen a clear strategy” for moving the migrants out of the airport and police shelters. Where is the larger strategy?”

Says Sharon Fairley, a University of Chicago Law School professor who previously served as chief administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority, “…the department’s slow response can be blamed on staffing shortages, insufficient supervision, and weak data collection, management and analysis.”

There are 15 shelters for asylum seekers operating across the city right now. Officials say 300 migrants will be housed at East Hyde Park’s Lake Shore Hotel, slated to open next week.

The online poll was conducted for Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, whose ward includes the central business district. The survey was open to anyone who chose to participate and, thus, is not scientific and may have attracted a disproportionately negative sample. Of the 662 ward residents who responded to the survey, 58% said they were “negatively impact(ed)” by the closure of DuSable Lake Shore Drive and other thoroughfares, compared to just 34.7% who said they were not. The remaining 7.3% were reported as “indifferent.”

Larita Clark is CEO of the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority. Emilia DiMenco is CEO of the Women’s Business Development Center. Jaime di Paulo is CEO of the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Michael Fassnacht is CEO of World Business Chicago. Lynn Osmond is CEO of Choose Chicago. Charles Smith is executive chairman of the Business Leadership Council: “We must do our part to communicate what makes Chicago great to our friends, colleagues and family. Rather than allow misperceptions to define us, we need to stand together as a

One or more people are breaking side windows to access the interiors of locked cars, except in one case in which the thieves took the vehicle’s catalytic converter. The alert said “a vast majority” of the incidents occurred in parking lots and garages.

“It’s the fact that they are so easily taken by criminals who run rampant in the city of Chicago, but we have yet to hear our mayor say anything, one word, about the criminals running rampant in our streets,” Ald. Ray Lopez said. “And all he does in turn is lambast the media, lambast those who try to hold criminals accountable by playing word games.”

They are the second Chicago TV news unit to be robbed this month.

Highland, IN, was noteworthy in the eyes of the ranking because more than 80% of the listing views for properties in the community came from within the Chicago metro area, which also includes Naperville and Elgin.

Last weekend, 40 were shot, seven fatally.

It all started around 5:45 p.m. Sunday. Officials said around 250 teenagers gathered at a movie theater, with many jumping on cars and attempting to break into other businesses located within the strip mall.