The Council's flexing muscle on two fronts today — and the Mayor's already losing one of them before noon. This is Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily — aldermanic revolt on gambling machines, and Edgewater is getting a whole skyline instead of a renovation. Four buildings on one synagogue site — that's either a neighborhood-changer or a neighborhood-ender, depending on which block you're standing on. We'll tease that out — and figure out what it means when the Council says no to the Mayor and actually sticks with it. Here's Chicago Sun-Times:
A Chicago City Council committee has approved a ban on sweepstakes machines, over Mayor Brandon Johnson's objections. The move is aimed at increasing revenue from video gambling terminals and eliminating competition for them.
City Council committee voted to ban sweepstakes machines — the kind you see in corner stores and laundromats — and Mayor Johnson was against it. So this is revenue politics, plain and simple: aldermen want the video gambling terminal money protected, and they don't want a cheaper competitor cutting into it. So they're protecting the gambling setup the city already made room for, and pushing out the smaller operators neighborhoods can actually get to? And then the commissioner starts talking disparate community impact, which tells you exactly whose blocks are getting hit. And, yes, that's another one for Brandon Johnson at the Council table — they already killed his corporate head tax, and now they're overruling him on this. The fifth floor is not exactly calling the shots right now. From Madison Savedra at Block Club Chicago:
EDGEWATER — Plans for the redevelopment of a lakefront synagogue are still being tweaked as the project team announced a new proposal for the campus last week. Leaders of Emanuel Congregation, 5959 N. Sheridan Road, are working with developer Fern Hill to reimagine a home for its place of worship that would add housing and retail to the lakefront-adjacent property.
Yesterday we were talking ADUs; today it's Edgewater asking whether a lakefront synagogue campus can hold four buildings of housing and retail. Block Club has the new renderings, and Emanuel Congregation plus developer Fern Hill went back to the drawing board after the February two-building version didn't quite land with neighbors or congregation members. Four buildings on Sheridan Road, lakefront-adjacent, housing up top and retail on the ground floor — that's the kind of mixed-use density that actually makes a neighborhood work. The 48th Ward alderman is in the loop, the community meetings are happening. This is how it's supposed to go. It's still in the rezoning-request phase, so don't get too attached to those renderings. These things get trimmed down to the bone before anybody puts a shovel in the ground. If Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily helps you keep up with the city, take a second to subscribe and leave a review wherever you're listening. It really does help other people find the show.
You'll find links to every story we talked about today in the show notes. If something caught your ear, they're there for a deeper read.
That's Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.