Join veteran City Hall reporter Fran Spielman as she interviews Chicago’s biggest movers and shakers. Each week, Fran sits down with a local leader, politician or policymaker to get the inside scoop on the latest news in Chicago.
Chicago’s never-ending cycle of gang-violence has triggered a “public health crisis” that requires a “Marshall Plan” to rebuild long-neglected city neighborhoods, mayoral challenger Lori Lightfoot said Friday.
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Mayoral challenger Paul Vallas on Friday proposed a citywide witness protection program to convince fearful residents of neighborhoods plagued by gang violence to provide the cooperation needed to bolster Chicago’s dismal homicide clearance rate.
Millennial community activist Ja’Mal Green said Friday he’s running against Rahm Emanuel because he was unable to convince Ken Bennett, the father of Chance the Rapper, to challenge the mayor who was once Bennett’s boss at City Hall.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Council floor leader said Thursday he will decide in about a week whether to retire from politics and predicted whoever is elected mayor will have their hands full with at least 15 new aldermen.
Gery Chico vowed Friday to establish a Mayor’s Office on Violence Prevention and Reduction to bring a laser-like focus toward solving Chicago’s epidemic of gang violence.
Troy LaRaviere, Chicago’s first declared candidate for mayor, tried to slow down the Toni train by portraying Preckwinkle as a phony reformer and himself as the real thing.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Friday his final city budget will earmark $25.7 million for police reform, including the first-year cost of a federal monitoring team that is likely to remain in place for “north of five years and less than 10 years.”
Chance the Rapper is not only throwing his celebrity power and fundraising muscle behind Amara Enyia. He’s giving her his time and his ideas on how to confront Chicago’s issues, the mayoral candidate said Friday. Chief among those ideas, Enyia said, is their shared plan to bolster mental health services decimated by clinic closings and state funding cuts and bring “equity” to student funding in the Chicago Public Schools.
Bill Daley said there’s a “big difference” between his own style and the way Richard M. Daley ran Chicago and named three differences: He would never have sold the parking meters. He would not have allowed the pension crisis to fester. And he would have closed Meigs Field, but in the daylight.
Mayoral candidate Dorothy Brown proposed a city lottery, the sale of naming rights to government buildings — including O’Hare and Midway Airports — and advertising on city vehicles to chip away at a $1 billion spike in pension payments.
