Editor’s Note

Welcome to Newswire — your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what action we can take to make our city great, featuring public meeting coverage by City Bureau’s Documenters.

Quote of the Week

“This is killing our health, our lungs. It's embarrassing that we have to fight for our air.”

—Baltazar Enriquez, president of Little Village Community Council, speaking at a community meeting on a complex demolition. He expressed concern that building a warehouse on the site will also increase truck traffic and pollution in the neighborhood.


[Chicago Department of Public Health, June 26, 2024]

Clearing the air

Ahead of the demolition of a warehouse and former manufactured gas plant in Little Village this summer, Chicago public health officials hosted a public meeting to field environmental and health concerns. City officials assured residents this will not be a repeat of the botched implosion of a former coal plant that covered the neighborhood in a cloud of dust in 2020. But they were short on specifics when it came to the future use of the site (3600 S. Kostner Ave.) and whether it will bring more commercial traffic. The meeting ran just a half-hour and had two public commenters.

Play it cool

A public commenter called attention to recent episodes of extreme heat — during which all but one of the city’s cooling centers were closed on Juneteenth, when temperatures reached 95 degrees Fahrenheit. They urged the Chicago Department of Public Health to provide more cooling center hours and heat mitigation resources.

‘Think before you hate’

Hate crimes continue to rise as migrant arrivals, the Israel-Hamas war and other global and social crises exacerbate tensions in Chicago, according to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations’ annual report. During a hearing with alders, the commission recommended City Council pass an ordinance against “hate littering,” optimize police and 311 staffing models, and implement anti-hate educational programs for youth. Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) asked about offenses against LGTBQ+ and BIPOC folks, emphasizing that the data does not capture the experiences of people with overlapping marginalized identities.

  • Joint meeting of City Council committees on Public Safety and Health and Human Relations by Madeline Davison

Schools of hard knocks

Public commenters decried the layoff of nearly 600 Chicago Public Schools support staff, including teacher aides, custodians, restorative justice coordinators and more, at the monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. District CEO Pedro Martinez said he empathized, but that CPS faces a $400 million budget deficit. This comes as CPS overhauls its budgeting formula to allocate resources according to student need, not enrollment numbers. CPS leadership also presented updates on school improvement and Black student success plans.

Members of City Council’s Finance Committee discussed municipal revenue projections. Income from amusement and transportation taxes are on the rise, but with the clock ticking on federal COVID relief grants, the city will face some critical decisions in the fall budget season.

Pulling out the stops

Last Thursday, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability held its first meeting with new members at St. Sabina Catholic Church in Auburn Gresham. Public commenters called for a July hearing on legislation to limit police authority to pull drivers over for little to no reason (also known as pretextual traffic stops). 

Ahead of this month’s 14th Police District Council meeting, community members held a press conference outside Haas Park Fieldhouse in Logan Square to call for the dismissal of CPD Sgt. Michael Nowacki for his known association with the Oath Keepers, an extremist group involved with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Afterward, 14th Police District Commander Melinda Linas, who was attending the meeting for the first time, said she was not aware of the concerns around Nowacki. 

A version of this story was first published in the July 3, 2024 issue of the Newswire, an email newsletter that is your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what we can do to make our city great. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter here.

Have thoughts on what you'd like to see in this feature? Email Editorial Director Ariel Cheung at ariel@citybureau.org.