Chicago Amends Vacant-Property Ordinance

At Wednesday’s City Council Meeting, the council voted to amend an ordinance passed in July that aims to hold the lending industry accountable for numerous vacant properties. This ordinance strips out a provision that would have defined lenders as the properties’ owners and made them accountable for code violations and other problems.

Referred to as the Safe Passage Ordinance, community group Action Now members joined the advocates of the bill, Alderman Deborah Graham and Alderman Bob Fioretti, along with the Chicago Teachers’ Union and local residents to push for this provision. However, it drew criticism from bankers and mortgage brokers who threatened to sue before the city officials agreed to work with them to modify the ordinance.
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Lincoln Park’s Webster Square Finally Gets Settled

By: Jon Sedey

With intervention from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the longest-running battle over a Chicago neighborhood development has been resolved.

Sandz Development Company is getting the right to develop at the old Lincoln Park Hospital at Webster and Lincoln. Sandz compromised its plans for the three-acre site, changing the way the grocery store receives its deliveries and scaled back the project making it more residential and less commercial.
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Chicago Disbands Department on the Environment

By: Jon Sedey

At Wednesday’s special City Council meeting, Mayor Rahm Emanuel revealed his budget plan that asks taxpayers, city workers and aldermen to sacrifice to avoid harsher fiscal problems in the future.

Emanuel’s proposed plan includes hitting up visitors and suburbanites for more money, closing three police stations, cutting library hours, overhauling garbage collection, doubling city water bills and restructuring city departments to cut down on waste.
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Motor Row Gets Boost from City Council

By: Jon Sedey

Directly west of McCormick Place lies Motor Row. What once used to be a thriving auto showroom district could soon become Chicago’s newest entertainment district. The City Council unanimously approved a plan that advocates hope will change the area into a center for food, music and other entertainment.
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