The sales tax kicked in on June 1, Central Avenue finally has a name on the money — and then, the same week, Pritzker's housing bill died in Springfield without even getting a floor vote. This is Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily — I'm Brian, Sarah's here, and today we're not pretending the money isn't real anymore. We're asking who's already trying to make sure it doesn't stick. West Side routes, a dead housing bill, a US Attorney story built by former federal prosecutors — not advocacy groups, prosecutors — and Injustice Watch asking for tips on retention judges. That's the week, and it's all landing today. Here's Austin Weekly News:
While nearly half of the funding will go toward various safety and security improvements, around $54 million will go toward service improvements. On the West Side, this includes funding to increase bus service on Central Avenue and the extension of Laramie Avenue bus service past Grand Avenue.
We asked two days ago which West Side corridors would actually feel different for riders. Austin Weekly News gave us the answer today: Central Avenue bus service and Laramie Avenue extended past Grand. Real streets, real service, not some vague regional line item. And the sales tax started June 1, so no, this isn't ceremonial. The money is already piling up. What we have to watch now is whether Central Avenue frequency survives past September, when a board that doesn't exist yet inherits the rest of the unallocated pile. That $67 million the current board left for its successors can be read two ways: responsible governance, or a slow leak in accountability. We won't know which until those September appointees are named and we see what they touch first. Also, let's say the quiet part out loud: nearly half of the $132 million is going to security. So yes, West Side riders get some service — but a big chunk of this is CTA hiring more off-duty Chicago police. That ratio matters when you're asking whether the 85 bus actually shows up more often. Here's Olivia Olander at Chicago Tribune:
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois will not broadly allow multiunit housing on single-family residential lots, at least for now, after a package of housing ideas championed by Gov. JB Pritzker failed to pass during the General Assembly’s spring session.
The Tribune's Olivia Olander confirmed it Monday: Pritzker's multiunit housing package — letting middle housing go on single-family lots statewide — is dead for the spring session. The official line is 'concerns about local control of zoning.' That's Springfield-speak for: the votes weren't there. Pritzker's team couldn't get a majority, and the cover is 'local control' — which is exactly the excuse we always hear. Local zoning is how Chicago's suburbs have kept density out for fifty years. The people blocking the fix get to call it a principle, and that is the whole problem. And that's the question we've been circling all week: why does the state step into local zoning at all? Because local zoning doesn't correct itself. But the state move just failed too, so now both levers are jammed. Somebody in the legislature killed this. Pritzker says he's still fighting, but he also said some things took 'longer than a year' — his example was a cellphone ban. A cellphone ban. That's the comparison he's making for housing. People usually think of zoning as a local fight — your alderman, your suburb's planning board. So why is the governor in Springfield trying to override what a town in Joliet or a Chicago neighborhood can build on a single lot? The short version is that local zoning was built to make everything in between a single-family house and a big apartment complex basically impossible — and the market can't undo a rule that forbids the thing in the first place. Pritzker's BUILD agenda, specifically Senate Bill 4060, introduced in February, would have required municipalities statewide to allow what planners call missing middle housing — two-flats, four-flats, small apartment buildings — on lots now zoned only for single-family homes. The idea is pretty simple: if every suburb can veto denser housing on its own, the region never adds enough supply to move rents. Per the Tribune, the bill stalled out in the spring session, mostly because opponents framed it as a local-control issue. A Lockport city administrator called it 'crazy' and a 'one-size-fits-all formula,' per Shaw Local. Cities organized too: the Illinois Municipal League put forward a competing bill that said it shared the governor's housing goals but stripped out the state mandates. And then a Sun-Times analysis pushed back from the left, pointing out that not one bill in the BUILD package actually required affordable units — so this fight was really about deregulation and supply, not guaranteed affordability. So if the state mandate failed, does everything just snap back to the same local-zoning gridlock Chicago already has, or does the pressure actually start moving at the city level? That's the real thing to watch. Springfield's failure doesn't make the housing shortage disappear, and Pritzker is in a reelection cycle, per the Sun-Times, so this fight almost certainly comes back in the fall veto session or next spring, probably meaner. In the meantime, Chicago is the test case: a developer in Uptown is already adding a third floor to a two-story building to make a six-unit development, exactly the kind of project the BUILD agenda was meant to multiply, but only if Chicago's own zoning allows it parcel by parcel. Whether Springfield tries again — and whether it finds a version municipalities won't kill — that's the pressure valve. Bloomberg Law writes:
The implosion of a prosecution against anti-ICE protesters is the latest indication that US Attorney Andrew Boutros is prioritizing loyalty to Washington over the Northern District of Illinois’ longstanding nonpartisan customs, former federal prosecutors said.
Bloomberg Law went and found eight former Chicago federal prosecutors — some named, some anonymous — and they're not advocacy groups or defense lawyers. They're insiders saying Andrew Boutros is running the Northern District with one eye on Washington. Ron Safer is named and quoted. That's a different evidentiary standard than a press release from a civil liberties group, and it matters. The thing that cracked this open is the anti-ICE protest prosecution falling apart — those Operation Midway Blitz cases Safer says were so far outside the office's old practice that politics is the only explanation. We've spent all week watching accountability structures wobble at City Hall and in Springfield. Now the federal layer is doing it too. That's a pattern. And then there's the Carroll investigation thread — Boutros reportedly looking into the financing behind E. Jean Carroll's lawsuit against Trump — sitting right next to his public posture of 'I'm a traditional, nonpartisan prosecutor.' Eight former colleagues just said that posture isn't holding. Here's Injustice Watch:
Injustice Watch is researching Cook County judges who are running for retention in November 2026 for our judicial election guide. Circuit court judges serve 6-year and appellate court judges serve 10-year terms. At the end of their term, judges have to run for retention.
Injustice Watch is building its Cook County judicial retention guide for November — sixty circuit court judges and one appellate judge on the ballot — and they're asking attorneys, defendants, anybody who's stood in those courtrooms to send tips confidentially. You need sixty percent yes votes to keep a seat. That's the line. And this is the accountability lever I keep coming back to: judicial retention is one of the few votes where a regular person on the West Side can actually remove a bad actor from the bench. Injustice Watch doing the work before November means voters get something real to use instead of guessing. The sourcing model is worth flagging too: confidential tips from attorneys and litigants, on or off the record. That's how you build a guide that's actually useful, not just a bar association stamp. Sixty-one judges is a lot of ground to cover before November. If Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily helps you stay a little more plugged in, take a minute to subscribe or leave a review wherever you're listening. It really does help other people find the show.
You'll find links to every story we covered today in the show notes, along with the sources behind them. If something stuck with you, go read a little deeper.
That's Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily for this Wednesday. This is a Lantern Podcast.