“If Dick Butkus hadn’t been born in Chicago, someone would have had to make him up….The funny thing is that off the football field Butkus was a very nice man: whimsically sardonic, self-aware, quite at peace with the idea that others looked at him and in their secret hearts saw what, if caught in a tight spot, they wished they could be.”

About half of downtown office towers are in financial trouble, leading to mortgage defaults, foreclosures and other distress-related symptoms, according to Farzin Parang, of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago. Some downtown property values have fallen by as much as 80 percent.

“If people weren’t complaining, you could come to the conclusion that they didn’t expect much from us. The real disconnect is that you have an unclean spirit that has captured the right-wing extremists in this country. And I call on them to dig deeper and lean on their faith. As Jesus said, who our neighbors really are: the one on the roadside. Those are our neighbors,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Antwain Durham, 28, and Raymond Jackson, 22, are both jailed as threats to public safety while awaiting trial. Durham’s felony convictions include four robberies and attempted robberies in 2014, and possession of a defaced firearm in 2021; the latter charge was reduced from armed habitual criminal. Jackson has been AWOL in two separate gun cases since March 2021, according to court records.

This 38-year resident expresses frustration that residents like her can be summarily displaced from the parks and other rec areas is unfair.

“When asked last week about how all these folks could possibly be housed, Gov. JB Pritzker said, ‘This is a challenge I think the city has been facing since the beginning. You know, we don’t do city planning at the state level. This is, you know, a question best directed at the city.’…What the city has actually done is floated a lot of ideas, but not implemented them and flailed all along the way. And after receiving more than $300 million in state assistance, the city is coming back for more cash, issuing demands in the news media and meeting

In addition to initial $25 million state funding, the center will receive $250 million from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative over 10 years to fund research into inflammation, part of the body’s innate response to irritation and disease. “Gov. Pritzker showed up at the applicant interview day as the top cheerleader of the team presenting their case,” Priscilla Chan said.

Ted Dabrowski of Wirepoints said the proposal runs a risk. “Chicago already hits its businesses with the highest property taxes in the country…The real risk is that you put more taxes and fees onto these commercial properties, and you can make a real mess out of Chicago. That can lead to more poverty and more homelessness.”

O’Hare’s bus shuttle center, across the street from the Hilton hotel and near Terminal 1, is one of Chicago’s 24 temporary shelters, called “staging areas.” As of Friday morning, there were 828 people at O’Hare — up from 363 on Sept. 27, according to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

About a month after Judge Stanley Hill decided Gambino Johns didn’t need to be on electronic monitoring for two pending misdemeanors, he allegedly led Illinois State Police troopers on a high-speed chase across Chicago that ended with a crash in Lincoln Park Sept. 17. He was again released. Days later, around 11:13 a.m. Sept. 23, Johns walked into a Cicero clothing store, prosecutors say, told the cashier he had a gun, and took cash from the register. He has been detained.

By a 36-10 vote, council members served up the ordinance that supporters say will level the economic playing field for waitstaff in Chicago’s world-class culinary scene, but that industry leaders argue will saddle neighborhood restaurants with untenable labor costs.

Basilio Clausen, 51, who worked in the assessor’s office as a residential field inspector under Joseph Berrios, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and formally agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Rothblatt told U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly that the scheme lowered taxes on the properties in question by a total of more than $150,000 in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

More than 60% of respondents in a recent survey believe Chicago’s sanctuary city status should be removed. According to the poll, 70% of voters surveyed say focus on housing new migrants is negatively affecting current Chicago residents in need. This opinion rings true across several demographics, with 67% of Democrats, 74% of women, 79% of Black, 71% of Hispanic, and 75% of West and South side voters agreeing supporting migrants comes at the expense of Chicagoans.

The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago is receiving $25 million from state taxpayers and $250 million from a private foundation to study human tissue with the goal of developing therapeutics. Researchers from the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois and Northwestern University will be involved with the project.

The Chicago Department of Planning and Development estimates that some 700,000 people will visit the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) each year after its completion in 2025. But the future of two sites closest to the campus, The Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge, a would-be linchpin of foot traffic flow from the OPC to the lake, and the Japanese garden on Wooded Island, remains in question.

“Many of our local representatives have simply echoed a common theme — a focus on fighting the root causes of crime. We all agree that this must be done and are supportive of those efforts. However, what we desperately need are clear actions, not a discussion of old thoughts and ideas that at best will take years, if not decades, to make any difference…Despite the chaos that surrounds us, the current mayoral administration and like-minded down-ballot aldermen offer no actionable plan. They recite rhetoric, they have catchphrases, they speak noble words.”

The buses packed with Venezuelan migrants are now arriving in downtown Chicago day and night, doubling in number in recent weeks. City officials are struggling to open more shelters, while more than 2,300 migrants are sleeping at police stations, in lobbies and just outside in makeshift camps.

“It isn’t as if we’re coming in with enormous surpluses,” Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters Thursday. “This is not something where we have hundreds of millions

The Chicago region’s “green economy” — a term referring to efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions and foster sustainable development — produced more than $18 billion last year, behind New York, Houston, Los Angeles and Dallas, according to a World Business Chicago research report. The city should perform better given its diverse economic foundation that includes agriculture, manufacturing and transportation, according to Robin Ficke, the group’s senior vice president of research. She said Chicago currently has about 65,000 jobs in the green economy, which is fifth place in the US.

Windy City Dolphins Youth Football League coach Brion Page said the Amundsen Park shelter plan restricts resources from the residents that benefit from them, including the children. “We’re not just a program, we’re a family. The city is doing something that could be entirely avoided,” he said. “You’re just saying, ‘The hell with our kids.’ I do believe they need help, but you’re putting a problem into an area that already has problems.’”

“Most parents aren’t willing to gamble with their children. They will make the best choices they can among the available options. And if they can’t find or afford suitable options, they’ll simply opt out. And Black parents are now divesting from CPS and the city altogether. Black enrollment in CPS this year, about 113,000, is slightly less than half what it was in the 1999-2000 school year, roughly 227,000, district data show. And over the past two decades, children have been overrepresented in the city’s massive Black population decline: The number of Black children, age 17 and younger, fell by