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Chicago Taxi’s Could Soon Face Tougher Regulations
December 14, 2011 by jsedey · Leave a Comment
Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans for a set of reforms to the taxi industry that will improve vehicles and regulate taxi drivers. “Reforms to modernize the taxi industry are long overdue,” Emanuel said.
Emanuel said that the changes are necessary to update the city’s taxi industry with vehicle regulations and oversight on cab drivers. The announced the reforms with Alderman Anthony Beale (9th), chairman of the City Council Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and city Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner Rosemary Krimbel.
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Chicago Amends Vacant-Property Ordinance
November 3, 2011 by jsedey · Leave a Comment
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
October 19, 2011 by jsedey · Leave a Comment
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
October 14, 2011 by jsedey · Leave a Comment
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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New Ordinance Encourages More Urban Farming
September 28, 2011 by jsedey · Leave a Comment
By: Jon Sedey
A new zoning code, approved at the last council meeting, will promote the expansion of community gardening and urban agriculture within the city boundaries.
The amendment, first introduced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in July, recognizes urban farming and allows citizens or companies to apply for building permits and zoning approvals to help establish foundations in the urban agriculture sector. The ordinance legalizes urban farming of vegetables, fruits and fish and will permit owners to sell what they raise.
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Chicago River Improvements Include New Boathouses, Pollution Controls
September 21, 2011 by matt · Leave a Comment
Click to enlarge.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced on Monday a plan to enhance the Chicago River’s recreational appeal. The future development would be grounded by four new boathouses, several new boat launches, expansion of riverfront trails and pollution controls of the famed waterway.
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Motor Row Gets Boost from City Council
September 19, 2011 by jsedey · Leave a Comment
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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Emanuel Looks to Clean Up Chicago Recycling
September 14, 2011 by matt · Leave a Comment
By Susanna Weatherford
The City Council adopts the goal of making regular recycling service available by July 1, 1993, to 100 percent of the households in low-density dwellings served by the City of Chicago.
So begins the section of the Chicago Municipal Code regarding regular recycling service. To put that in perspective, Chicago Bulls fans were wearing out the word “threepeat” in July of 1993, the Unabomber was still on the loose and David Letterman was preparing his switch from NBC to CBS.
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Green Building Goes Back to School
September 14, 2011 by matt · Leave a Comment
By Matt Baker
Federico Garcia Lorca Elementary, which opened in the Avondale neighborhood last year, features a vegetated roof over half of the school.
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Local Wholesale Produce Distributor Aims to Reinvent LEED Standards
September 14, 2011 by matt · Leave a Comment
By Jon Sedey
Situated in the Back of the Yards Neighborhood in Chicago’s Stockyards Corridor sits what many hope to be the pioneer in the food service distribution sector. Testa Produce, Inc., an independent wholesale produce distributor, opened its doors to their new, 91,000 square foot, $23 million facility.
On track to become the nation’s first LEED Platinum food distribution facility, everything from the parking lot to the food refrigeration system is a result of President and owner Peter Testa’s vision. “Part of being in the agricultural business is to have a responsibility to take care of the earth a bit better,” said Testa.
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