Dozens of Chicago alderpeople are calling on the Board of Education to uphold a resolution that demands the next Chicago Public Schools CEO hold a state superintendent’s license, as Mayor Brandon Johnson reportedly pushes for his chief of staff to become the school district’s interim chief executive.

“Just drive down your city streets. Look to your left, and look to your right, and count how many stores are vacant,” said Mario Ponce, the former owner of Takito Street in Lincoln Park, which closed in February.

According to Wirepoints writer Ted Dabrowski, Chicago is suffering from some devastating economic numbers, especially for its most vulnerable citizens. For one, Chicago has the worst unemployment rates for black Americans and by a significant amount. But even when they have jobs, Chicago’s black residents have some of the lowest annual incomes, Dabrowski wrote.

Almost a quarter of a million Cook County homeowners have recently seen their property tax bills spike by 25 percent or more in a single year, according to new data released by the Cook County Assessor’s Office. The typical homeowner with a spike saw their tax bill go up by $1,700.

The Chicago City Council passed Mayor Brandon Johnson’s green affordable housing plan on Wednesday. The city will seed an independent nonprofit residential real estate development corporation with $135 million from a $1.25 billion bond authorization the City Council approved in 2024.
The corporation will finance, buy, own and operate mixed-income, sustainable and tenant-governed buildings that include affordable units, according to the ordinance establishing it.

The lawsuits asserted CPS pressured students into participating in the religious programming, in violation of their First Amendment religious freedom rights.

Johnson wouldn’t say whether he is attempting to close fire stations or eliminate the minimum staffing requirement that mandates five employees on every piece of fire apparatus, with the exception of daily “variances.” He would only say the “infrastructure within our city has been around for so long, it’s not as nimble and flexible as it needs to be.

Joe Ferguson, of the Civic Federation of Chicago: “Getting transit reform right is critical to attracting and keeping a talented workforce and equitably growing our tax base. This means addressing reforms before funding. And to justify funding, the reforms must be transformative”

The lease agreement with Chicago Parking Meters LLC expires in 2083. The group of investors headed by Morgan Stanley paid the city nearly $1.157 billion dollars. In exchange, the private company gets revenue from 36,000 parking meters for 75 years. In total, it only took about 10 years for the company to recoup its initial investment.

According to a presentation given by district officials to board members in late April obtained by the Tribune, the board, staring down the barrel of half a billion in the red, will “need to identify $529 million spending reductions,” to be implemented at both the administrative and school levels. That estimate doesn’t include a $175 million payment for a pension fund for nonteaching CPS employees pushed for by the mayor.

“We have to look forward. If we spend all of our time having a conversation about what I should have, what I could have done, then you would sound like a Cubs or a Sox fan… Maybe more of a Sox fan,” Johnson said through a chuckle. “This is about moving forward.”

Cook County Board of Review commissioner George Cardenas: “According to the Cook County clerk, CPS alone increased its property tax levy from 2014 to 2023 from $2.4 billion to $3.8 billion, respectively. By focusing on appeals, are we missing the primary drivers of property tax increases?”