After a teen takeover failed to materialize Friday in River North, teens gathered Saturday along Hyde Park’s commercial corridors, where they were met by around 100 police officers. Between encounters with police, young people were dancing and taking pictures with friends, with no obvious use of drugs or alcohol.

Without mayoral backing, or an organized lobbying push from City Council independent of the administration, more ambitious programs that would add new revenue streams for the city coffers are in danger of languishing through yet another budget season.

“It’s certainly bad news for taxpayers because as these property values go down in the big office properties, that means the property tax bills are going to grow higher for residential,” Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said, as the vacancy rates are up nearly 14 percent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Maybe there’s a few positive signs in the numbers for downtown, but overall it still spells big trouble.”

“There certainly remain progressives in Chicago who back Johnson’s leftist aims. And there’s also a sizable minority in Chicago who are Trump supporters, which some forget. In between is the vast center-left and center-right that currently isn’t represented by either. Aldermen (and state lawmakers) increasingly are figuring that out.”

Matt Paprocki, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “Voters in multiple townships recently showed their frustration with the pension costs that drive their growing property tax bills. In April’s consolidated elections, voters in Palatine, Lemont, Homer, Palos and Winfield townships all approved nonbinding advisory questions for constitutional pension reform ‘to protect workers’ existing retirements and generate savings which could provide property tax relief.'”

“The ethics or ethos of our government cannot just be simply mired in our conversation around the potential to corruption,” the mayor said. “I find that to be a very puerile sort of approach toward how we talk about ethics. Ethics is about how we equitably distribute government in a way that everybody can feel proud of.”

A Texas real estate firm has picked up a vacant 31-acre former Aon office property in north suburban Lincolnshire for a staggering 96% less than it traded for in 2012.

Project HOOD and its founder, Pastor Corey Brooks, were honored for their efforts to reduce violence, eliminate poverty, and build economic opportunity.