Fran Spielman Show
Veteran City Hall reporter Fran Spielman’s interviews with Chicago’s movers and shakers.
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.
Podcast
The Fran Spielman Show
“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.
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) is in almost constant contact with business leaders, and “all they want to talk about” is finding a candidate to defeat Johnson in 2027.
Budget Director Annette Guzman said options range from layoffs and pay cuts on the expense side to a property tax increase, video gaming and volume-based garbage collection fees on the revenue end.
Después que el director ejecutivo de CPS, Pedro Martínez, y la Junta de CPS rechazaran la petición del alcalde de pedir un préstamo a corto plazo para cubrir un pago de pensiones de $175 millones y el costo de un nuevo contrato de maestros, el Sun-Times y WBEZ informaron que Johnson estaba haciendo los precedentes para despedir a Martínez.
After CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and the CPS Board rejected the mayor’s request to take out a short-term loan to cover a $175 million pension payment and the cost of a new teachers contract, the Sun-Times and WBEZ reported Johnson was laying the groundwork to fire Martinez.
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley is a Pritzker fan, but knows the pragmatic choice is Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. “There’s no way a Democrat wins in November this year without Pennsylvania. And Shapiro is very popular east-to-west in a massive state.”
“I was concerned the president wouldn’t make the choice or that he would wait too long to make the choice,” U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley told the Sun-Times. “So I was willing, if there was a price, to pay it.”
“They’re going to do everything they can to turn the American people against her,” former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun told the Sun-Times. “There are a lot of people out there who don’t like the idea of a woman telling them what to do.”