Brandon Johnson
News on the 57th mayor of Chicago.
Johnson launches community safety plan focused on investing in at-risk areas on South and West Sides
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced the community-led initiative would focus on “harnessing the full force of government, community organizations, businesses, the philanthropic community and youth and faith leaders to solve decades-long problems in a new and bold way.”
The $16.77 billion plan, approved 41-8, holds the line on taxes and increases spending for an array of popular programs. But it also relies on one-time revenues and budgets far too little for the migrant crisis.
Dr. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige, managing director of programs at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, becomes the first Black woman to serve as Chicago’s public health commissioner.
Johnson said Congress should add $5 billion for migrant assistance. The Biden White House is asking for $1.4 billion. It may be an uphill challenge to get more from the GOP House.
The Chicago Police Department had complied with about 80% of the consent decree’s mandated changes by June 30 but was in full compliance with just 6% of the decree, according to the monitor’s latest report.
Budgeted amount only covers half of estimated cost, but top mayoral adviser says, ‘Tell me the alderman who is standing up saying, ‘I want the city [to] pay $400 million or $500 million.’
The mayor and his team filled the 2024 deficit with one-time fixes. Odds are that next year will start with a budget shortfall similar to this year’s, and the available tax fixes are all regressive.
Eric Adams, mayor of New York, just went to Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia to tell them “New York City is full,” an empty gesture immediately denounced as a “paid vacation.”
A delegation led by Beatriz Ponce de Leon, deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights, will lead a small delegation to four Texas cities.
Spending on mental health, youth jobs falls short of Johnson’s goal, but $16.6 billion budget isn’t “balanced on the backs of working-class Chicagoans,” his Council floor leader says.
Mayor Brandon Johnson will stand before the Chicago City Council Wednesday to disclose how he plans to plug a $538 million budget shortfall, more than $200 million of it tied to the migrant crisis.
Council members backed the new law, which supporters say levels the economic playing field for waitstaff in Chicago’s world-class culinary scene.
Southside Recycling, the rebranded metal-shredding operation, sparked a civil rights complaint and an investigation by HUD.
Johnson helped cut the ceremonial ribbon Tuesday at Medinah Temple, which is expected to take bets for the next three years while a bigger permanent casino is built in River West.
“The driving force has always been inequity and injustice that Black and Brown students and their families experience in this city,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said. “And that injustice did not roll away on April 4. We just got another gladiator in a place of power.”
A downtown parade or festival would help Chicago avoid sporadic, ad hoc celebrations citywide that jammed streets and caused all sorts of problems.
“In the greatest city in the world, no neighborhood should have to suffer the burdens of pollution more so than any other neighborhood,” the mayor said.
Tipped workers — now paid 60% of Chicago’s minimum wage — would receive annual pay increases of 8% starting next July and continuing through July 2028.
Brandon Johnson’s plan to raise the transfer tax on high-end homes is opposed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Democratic legislative leaders.
The mayor called the 223-page document the “foundation for how we will lead our city well into the future.” It’s loaded with ambitious, politically explosive ideas.
The new board will have a different feel than in past years when consultants, lawyers and bankers filled many of the seven seats. Only one of Johnson’s appointees is a lawyer, and she runs a legal aid organization.
With his financial team now in place, the new mayor will do his own forecast and hold several community meetings next month. His predecessor’s “midyear” budget forecast in April claimed an $85 million shortfall — among the lowest in recent Chicago history.
A person was found dead just after midnight in the 5700 block of West Chicago Avenue, according to police.
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