Fran Spielman Show
Veteran City Hall reporter Fran Spielman’s interviews with Chicago’s movers and shakers.
Zoning Committee Chair Walter Burnett said the City Council gains nothing by further “antagonizing” the mayor. So while he voted to keep ShotSpotter, if the Council tries to override a threatened Johnson veto, he won’t back that effort.
“What do we do when this goes off? ... Upward of 80% in many communities, people don’t call 911 when there is a shooting. That happens in my community over and over again,” Anthony Driver Jr., president of the Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability, told the Sun-Times.
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The Fran Spielman Show
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) is in almost constant contact with business leaders, and “all they want to talk about” is finding a candidate to defeat Johnson in 2027.
Budget Director Annette Guzman said options range from layoffs and pay cuts on the expense side to a property tax increase, video gaming and volume-based garbage collection fees on the revenue end.
Después que el director ejecutivo de CPS, Pedro Martínez, y la Junta de CPS rechazaran la petición del alcalde de pedir un préstamo a corto plazo para cubrir un pago de pensiones de $175 millones y el costo de un nuevo contrato de maestros, el Sun-Times y WBEZ informaron que Johnson estaba haciendo los precedentes para despedir a Martínez.
After CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and the CPS Board rejected the mayor’s request to take out a short-term loan to cover a $175 million pension payment and the cost of a new teachers contract, the Sun-Times and WBEZ reported Johnson was laying the groundwork to fire Martinez.
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley is a Pritzker fan, but knows the pragmatic choice is Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. “There’s no way a Democrat wins in November this year without Pennsylvania. And Shapiro is very popular east-to-west in a massive state.”
“I was concerned the president wouldn’t make the choice or that he would wait too long to make the choice,” U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley told the Sun-Times. “So I was willing, if there was a price, to pay it.”
“They’re going to do everything they can to turn the American people against her,” former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun told the Sun-Times. “There are a lot of people out there who don’t like the idea of a woman telling them what to do.”
When Richard M. Daley became mayor, he “understood more than anybody ... that he had to address what was called Beirut-on-the-Lake at the time because of the racial divide,” his brother Bill Daley told the Sun-Times.
“We have some very good potential candidates out there that ... would excite, not only the Democratic Party, but independents who make the difference in these elections,” the former U.S. Commerce secretary said.
Pat Cleary, president of Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2, predicted “hundreds” of members would participate in the two-hour march on Michigan Avenue on July 6.
As CEO of Gaming USA Corp. and editor of the Gaming Industry Daily Report, Alan Woinski has watched Detroit and New Orleans struggle to complete their ambitious casino projects. The financial hurdles for Bally’s in Chicago are infinitely worse, he says.
On the eve of a City Council showdown, Ralph Clark argued “people will die” if Mayor Brandon Johnson is allowed to follow through on his promise to cancel the controversial gunshot detection technology contract on Nov. 22.
Bears President Kevin Warren has rejected the 48.6-acre Michael Reese site, saying it’s too narrow and doesn’t work because the stadium would have to be built “over an active train line.”
From endorsing a new Bears stadium to revoking the subminimum wage, Brandon Johnson’s critics and allies examine where he and the city are going.
The Bears put the figure at $4.7 billion. But a state official says the tally to taxpayers goes even higher when you include the cost of refinancing existing debt.
Gin Kilgore, acting executive director of Friends of the Parks, is not about to go along with what she called Bears President Kevin Warren’s “Buy now. This deal won’t last” sales pitch.
Ald. Jeanette Taylor, chair of the City Council’s Education Committee chair, said she’s disappointed that Johnson and his allies in the Chicago Teachers Union backed away from the fully elected, 21-member board he once supported. “This is not going to be as easy a transition as people think,” she said. “We’re used to a top-down system.”
The ideas are expected to be part of a report issued within 30 days by a City Council panel overseeing Mayor Brandon Johnson’s search for new revenue.
Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, briefed on the Related Midwest plan, told the Sun-Times “pretty pictures” building public interest are not enough. “If they’re trying to do something in this legislative session, they need to start educating and informing people relatively soon.”
Days after announcing his departure from the job growth agency known as World Business Chicago, Michael Fassnacht urged City Hall and the two major carriers to work out their differences on a massive project that started at $8.7 billion but has ballooned to $12.1 billion.