“We have to make Chicago an attractive place for people to want to come, and instead, people are fleeing,” said Pete Kadens, who made his fortune in the solar and legal cannabis industries before co-founding Hope Chicago, a nonprofit focused on post secondary education. “The business community really understands that, and they’re invested. For the next couple years, I think they’re going to fight, there’s going to be a lot of pushback on Johnson’s agenda.”

It’s been a game of political hot potato for who controls the large and unpopular system seen as overtly restrictive for most suspects and ineffective at stopping violators who go on to make devastating headlines. Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans told the Cook County Board that consolidating the programs under his office was “not something I embrace readily.”

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates demanded in a letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson that the teaching of Black history be included in the teachers’ contract. “We are worried that, in the age of Trump, teaching Black history could be a problem in the city of Chicago because of the restrictions that the federal government may place on curriculum,” Gates wrote.

They also said the poll found that Mayor Brandon Johnson had a 15 percent favorability and 70 percent unfavorability rating among respondents. Only about 16 percent of respondents said they believed Johnson had collaborated on the budget. The mayor has styled himself as a “collaborator in chief.”

While quantum computing companies are getting from state, county and city governments a combined incentive package worth more than $500 million over 30 years for the company to set up at the Southeast Side campus, young people and homeowners on the Southeast Side are struggling.

Ald. William Hall is proposing an ordinance to regulate the sale of hemp products in Chicago through licensing, age verification and compliance measures for hemp businesses. It would also tax the product.

“So it’s fair to ask as CTU continues to make outrageous demands of city and state taxpayers, what exactly are Chicagoans getting for the $30,000-per-student they are currently paying, the highest per-student investment in Illinois? Why is it that all we hear from CTU is demands for more, but we never hear anything from the union about what its members owe the taxpayers (and parents) of this city?”

“It doesn’t make sense, especially the holidays,” witness Noel LaShae said. “Everyone wants to make it home to their families, their loved ones.”

On the campaign trail, Johnson championed the policy backed for years by advocates, then made it the first policy he highlighted in a video celebrating his first 100 days in office. “My question is, what is the cost to the city of Chicago when our seniors and individuals with disabilities can’t move around … because the season has changed,” Johnson said in the video.