Public money, public accountability — Chicago's fighting over both today, and nobody's pretending this is polite. This is Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily. I'm Cassidy, Devin's here, and we've got a stack today: tax breaks for the United Center neighborhood, state cash for abandoned buildings, and Johnson taking on Pritzker over local funding. Plus the CTA's actually adding rush-hour service next week — hold your applause, but yeah, we'll take it. And the Midway Blitz special prosecutor decision got punted again. We'll get into what that delay actually means. From Mariah Woelfel at Chicago Sun-Times:
Chicago taxpayers should help bankroll development of a“cultural and entertainment district” around the West Side’s United Center, a key city panel said Monday. The City Council’s Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development voted unanimously to provide $54.7 million in tax breaks for the first phase of the massive development planned by the owners of the Bulls and the Blackhawks.
City Council's economic development committee voted unanimously Monday to hand the Bulls and Blackhawks owners nearly fifty-five million dollars in tax rebates — the first phase of a seven-billion-dollar entertainment district around the United Center. That's the Sun-Times and WBEZ's Mariah Woelfel on the byline, so the sourcing is solid. Seven billion dollars to pave over parking lots on the West Side — I mean, in theory, that's exactly what you want, right? Jobs, density, something other than a sea of asphalt around an arena two hundred days a year. But fifty-five million in tax breaks for the same guys who own the Bulls and the Hawks? Those owners are not hurting for cash. Unanimous out of committee is interesting. Either everybody genuinely believes in the West Side uplift argument, or nobody wanted to be the alderman who voted against "transformative." Andrew Field, writing in RiverBender.com:
The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) is now accepting applications from units of local government for grant funding dedicated to supporting local affordable housing needs and community revitalization efforts across Illinois. Offered through IHDA’s Strong Communities Program (SCP), this initiative provides financial assistance to allow local governments to address vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated residential properties within their communities.
IHDA is opening applications for the Strong Communities Program — grant money for local governments to go after vacant, abandoned, deteriorated residential properties. The pitch is the whole package: property values up, crime down, jobs in, tax base grows. Every block in Englewood, Austin, North Lawndale has at least one of these eyesores rotting next to a family's house. If this money actually gets to those neighborhoods and not just to suburbs looking to flip a cul-de-sac, it matters. That's the real question. "Units of local government" is a wide net — downstate towns, suburbs, Chicago aldermen all qualify. Pritzker's office gets the press release, but who applies and who gets funded is the story to watch. Here's City Life Org:
Service improvements on the 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines during weekday morning and evening rush hours will go into effect on May 18. These schedule adjustments, presented to the MTA Board in January, add more trips during high ridership hours that previously had less service.
Quick geography note before Devin gets excited — the 2, 3, 4, and 5 lines getting rush-hour enhancements May 18 are New York City Transit, not the CTA. This is an MTA story that landed in our feed. And honestly, that stings a little. New York is out here using actual ridership data to add trips where people need them, and we're still celebrating when the Red Line shows up twice in the same hour. The underlying idea is simple: audit your peak-hour schedules against real ridership patterns, then fix the gaps. That's exactly the conversation Chicago should be having with the CTA right now — just, you know, on the right system. From Sean Reed at Advantage News:
As mayor of the largest city in the state, Johnson said the decrease in funding proposed by Pritzker for the coming year would slash an additional $12 million in funding to the city of Chicago, and a combined $60 million statewide. “These cuts inhibit our ability to increase accessibility on our public transit systems, make the investments we need to build safe communities, and build the affordable housing that we need,” Johnson said.
Brandon Johnson made a rare trip to Springfield this week, and he wasn't alone. Mayors from across the state showed up to tell Pritzker: stop raiding the Local Government Distributive Fund. Chicago's looking at a $12 million cut just by itself, $60 million statewide. And let's be real about what that $12 million is — that's transit accessibility, that's neighborhood investment. That's not an abstract budget line, that's the 79 bus not coming on time. What's interesting here is this isn't a Chicago-vs.-suburbs fight for once. Every municipality in Illinois is lined up against the governor. That's a coalition Pritzker can't just wave off as Johnson being difficult. The LGDF was supposed to be 10 percent of state income tax. It's at 6.47. That's not a budget tweak — that's years of the state quietly picking municipal pockets. Someone finally said it out loud. Evanston Now, with Hannah Meisel:
A Cook County judge on Monday pushed off her scheduled ruling on whether to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate alleged abuses by federal immigration agents during last fall’s “Operation Midway Blitz.” Judge Erica Reddick will now announce her ruling on May 21, giving lawyers behind a petition to appoint an independent prosecutor time to supplement the legal record with a major new report from a state panel that memorialized accounts of agents’ behavior toward immigrants and citizens alike.
Judge Erica Reddick pushed the special prosecutor ruling to May 21 — she wants lawyers to fold in that new state panel report on how federal immigration agents behaved during "Operation Midway Blitz." Capitol News Illinois had the courthouse detail, credit where it's due. And she's pressing Burke's office on whether they actually have the authority to go after federal agents for conspiracy and perjury. That's the whole ballgame — if the answer is no, this thing dies in committee with a bow on it. The delay isn't necessarily bad news for the petitioners. Getting that state panel report into the record before the ruling is a real tactical win. But ten more days means ten more days of nothing happening to anyone. If Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily is part of your routine, please subscribe wherever you're listening. And if you have a moment, leave a review — it really helps other people find the show.
You'll find links to every story we covered today in the show notes, so if one caught your ear, you can dig in there.
That's Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.