Fran Spielman Show
Veteran City Hall reporter Fran Spielman’s interviews with Chicago’s movers and shakers.
Ald. Brendan Reilly accused Toni Preckwinkle of using the windfall earmarked for pandemic relief to “balloon” the Cook County budget. Preckwinkle said Reilly’s comments reflected his ignorance or “deliberate misinformation.”
The veteran North Side congressman said he’ll decide whether to enter the 2027 mayor’s race after he sees how the public responds to his tough-love message about what’s needed to solve the intransigent problems of Chicago.
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The Fran Spielman Show
Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, floated a “large event surcharge” that would add $1 to $3 to the price of tickets to major concerts and sporting events.
Senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee said the last thing a booming O’Hare needs after a record-setting surge in summer travel is to follow the lead of the airport in Las Vegas, which has 1,300 slot machines distributed throughout.
Federal regulations may force the former City Council dean to wait one year before assuming leadership of the Chicago Housing Authority.
Home rule authority gives Chicago broad power to govern itself. Mayor Brandon Johnson may ask the Illinois General Assembly to expand that power if lawmakers say no to the city’s pursuit of new revenue sources to fix a looming massive budget shortfall.
“Don’t judge him based on him being my son. Judge him based on what he can bring to the table and what he can do for the ward,” Burnett told the Sun-Times of his 29-year-old former investment banker son.
There are lessons for Democrats from Zohran Mamdani’s strategy of tapping into the frustrations of working-class families and disaffected young people, former political strategist and longtime Chicagoan David Axelrod says.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia are all fathers. Their advice to fellow dads is universal. “Just show up. Just be present. Children do appreciate that,” Johnson says.
“What that curfew would be used for is deterrence. We would like to have something like that in advance when we know that there’s the possibility of a gathering that’s going to lead to violence in a particular area that has a history” of it, Snelling told the Sun-Times Wednesday.
Ald. Bennett Lawson says Mayor Brandon Johnson doesn’t have the votes for his all-or-nothing-approach to give single-family homeowners carte blanche to turn attics and basements into so-called “granny flats.”
44th Ward Ald. Bennett Lawson is so confident that his $30 million security plan will help get Wrigley Field chosen to host MLB’s 2027 All-Star Game, he’s already planning for it.
The city’s new convention and tourism agency chief, Kristen Reynolds, is beating the drum for a so-called tourism improvement district that would more than double her agency’s annual budget by increasing the tax on rooms in Chicago hotels with 100 or more rooms by 1.5 percentage points — to 18.9%.
A former Evangelical Baptist archbishop in the small country of Georgia is behind the “Peace Cathedral,” a Christian church, a synagogue and a mosque all under one roof. It’s an ambitious effort to advance interfaith relationships and global harmony, and a Chicago filmmaker has made a movie about it.
Even if the Bears build a new stadium in Arlington Heights, Soldier Field — owned by the Chicago Park District — remains a “great asset for the city” and will be just fine, said Rosa Escareno, who hands the park district reins to Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa in less than two weeks.
Anthony Driver Jr., president of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, expected to find a “dirty police department.” Instead, he said he discovered a “dirty city.”
“Thank God we live in Illinois because, we’re already Trump-proof,” Welch told the Sun-Times. “We did a lot of the hard work the first time. … We took him at his word the first time when he said he would overturn Roe v. Wade and turn the powers of state government against immigrant communities.”
A tax on prepaid phones and calling cards has been shot down in Springfield. In his proposed $17.3 billion budget, Mayor Brandon Johnson had counted on that tax to bring in $40 million next year.
Three members of Mayor Johnson’s City Council leadership team had demanded that Kennedy Bartley, chief external affairs officer, be fired for calling police “f---ing pigs” and talking openly about defunding police in a series of podcast interviews before taking her city job.
Ald. Anthony Beale predicted an emboldened Chicago City Council will reduce or eliminate the $300 million property tax increase and make other major changes to Johnson’s $17.3 billion budget proposal.
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.