“If a high-level political figure becomes perceived as something of a jerk, to use the technical term, they at the very least will have to be regarded as hypercompetent if they hope to further their agenda. When it comes to Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s current mayor, very few outside his immediate orbit regard him as hypercompetent.”

Replacing Martinez is reaching new urgency for the mayor, his school board and their allies at the Chicago Teachers Union, who want to land a new collective bargaining agreement before mid-January, when a new 21-member partly elected school board takes over. The union has accused Martinez of being an obstacle to its demands.

Already Chicago has one of the highest parking taxes in the nation. Depending on the day of the week, as much as 40 cents of every dollar spent goes for a county or city tax, according to officials. By way of comparison, New York City charges an 18.5 percent tax, while San Francisco takes 25 percent.

Union President Stacy Davis Gates said, in part, “And what I think people need to also understand is that the mayor and I, we have a relationship that goes beyond work and that there are boundaries to the work that I do here and the work that he does there. Remember, the mayor of Chicago is in charge of the Chicago Public Schools which effectively makes him the boss of my members that is an adversarial relationship.”

In each burglary, four or five men wearing masks broke in through the front glass door or side window to get in, before stealing money from cash boxes, cash registers, and safes.

The $1.15 billion payout gave the city a quick fix for its budget gap, but critics said the money wasn’t handled wisely. Promises to save some of it for future needs, like pension obligations, didn’t really pan out.

“Johnson would do himself and fellow Chicagoans who must endure another two-plus years of his mayoralty some good if he’d stop playing semantic games and just offer honest answers to straightforward questions.”

Taliaferro said the city’s problems don’t end there, stressing that the steady influx of migrant arrivals over the years may also be taking its toll. “We had tens of thousands of people that have come here by way of immigration that came without any benefits, came without any resources,” he said. “And so, often times when you have that, folks will make a way and I don’t care where they come from. They make a way to survive and if that means burglaries are increasing, or thefts are increasing, shoplifting is increasing, that may be a contributing factor.”

The city remains in the midst of a heated 2025 budget debate that looks likely to go down to the wire, with the City Council recently voting downthe mayor’s proposed property tax hike and negotiations still underway on how to replace that revenue and close a nearly $1 billion budget shortfall.

There aren’t easy answers to these challenges, and this post is more of a strangled cry for help than a detailed set of solutions.

City officials say they found 63 units for people in Humboldt Park’s encampment. They say that’s the most ever for a Chicago tent city. Ald. Jessie Fuentes said last week that 30 households had moved in. Another 33 awaited only some paperwork. Approximately 25 others would be offered beds in a homeless shelter.

Illinois is investing $500 million in IQMP, as the quantum park is abbreviated, and the city of Chicago and Cook County are investing $5 million each. PsiQuantum will receive $200 million in further incentives from the state, requiring the company to create at least 154 full-time jobs as it builds out what it says will be the first U.S.-based utility-scale quantum computer in 2028.

“If there is a danger posed to public education in Chicago, it’s not from Trump but from the Chicago Teachers Union’s radical leadership and the mayor. If you come from a poor family in Chicago, you’re most likely held hostage to a school system dominated by a union that’s become a de facto political party. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“As Mayor Brandon Johnson and the City Council wrestle with the 2025 budget, the people of Chicago should know how philanthropy, business, community and government are collaborating at ‘one table’ to expand community violence intervention (CVI) programs.”