There, Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, raced over to Ald. David Moore, 17th, to ask Moore why he had blocked two seemingly uncontroversial proposals of La Spata’s aimed at adding housing in Logan Square.

The answer, Moore shouted in anger and frustration as he stood beside a sun-filled window, was retaliation.

“If you hit me, I’m gonna knock your ass out,” he grumbled as he got closer to La Spata. “If you can’t dish it, don’t give it out.”

TV cameras set up for a nearby interview panned over as the shouting grew louder. Another council member and security guards quickly stepped in to separate the aldermen, ending the tense interaction.

But the effects of the dispute will linger: Now, a $10 million bond to fund a low-income housing development and a much-needed zoning change clearing the way for a storage building to be turned into a 62-loft apartment are delayed for at least a month.

Moore used the “defer and publish” parliamentary maneuver when the items came up for consideration. Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, also backed it. The tactic prevents scheduled votes and is often used by aldermen to delay ordinances they oppose.

Nonetheless, La Spata sat in disbelief after the legislation was blocked. City Council colleagues typically do not touch the day-to-day development ordinances involving another alderman’s ward, a tradition known as “aldermanic prerogative.”

But Moore left no doubt about why he stalled La Spata’s proposals. He blocked them because La Spata had “deferred and published” an ordinance of Moore’s own, he said.

La Spata used the tactic in April to prevent a vote on an ordinance sponsored by Moore that sought to give City Council control over the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system’s future. After the delay, the ordinance finally passed with broad council support in May, despite opposition from Mayor Brandon Johnson.

“This was clearly payback,” Moore told the Tribune. “My thing is: Leave David Moore alone,”

“If you slap me, I’m going to hit you with a bat. If you hit me with a bat, I’m going to shoot you with a gun,” he continued.

Moore said he found La Spata’s complaints after the council meeting “mean-spirited” and took them as political threats. La Spata said he had invited Moore to view the housing developments, an invitation Moore has no plans to accept. Moore only meant to send a message, he explained.

“I don’t have a problem with his developments,” Moore said. “You don’t need to invite me anywhere.”

Moore had made public comments suggesting he would clap back against anyone who stalled the ShotSpotter ordinance as it worked through the City Council. His retaliatory stall tactics Wednesday are not his first.

In 2021, Moore sponsored the ordinance to rename Lake Shore Drive after Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. When the ordinance was similarly stalled, Moore responded by blocking the City Council’s entire agenda.

Moments after Moore yelled at him, La Spata called the retaliation “inappropriate.”

“I think we are called to be better than that, to be bigger than that,” he said. “I try to raise my daughter so that we use words rather than fists. That is what I expect of any adult.”

The two ordinances to build more housing are “critical,” he said. The old Hollander Storage & Moving building in Logan Square is being held up by metal plates now and urgently needs redevelopment to start, he said.

“If that facade were to crumble or be damaged in the next month, I know the individuals who I would hold responsible,” La Spata said. “There’s such a desperate need for affordable housing. There’s such a desperate need to move these two buildings forward.”

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

Ahead of an expected final vote, two aldermen used a parliamentary tactic to stall the ordinance to fine or suspend lobbyists who make contributions to a mayoral candidate’s political fund. The aldermen later denied to reporters that the Johnson administration officials urged them to oppose it, but the maneuver nonetheless bought the mayor time to halt or amend the effort led by Ald. Matt Martin.

Martin said he was disappointed in the delay and intends to bring the ordinance back to the council in July.

Johnson was not enthusiastic about that timeline. In a post-council news conference, he said he wants to wait for a “full comprehensive ethics package” rather than move quickly on one that only addresses lobbyist contributions to mayoral candidates.

The legislation was crafted in response to how Johnson handled lobbyist donations his political committee received. It is part of a larger push by Martin, 47th, a progressive who is Johnson’s handpicked Ethics Committee chair, to ramp up momentum for what he says are much-needed good government reforms that the mayor has left to the wayside.

He expects to keep the proposal focused on mayors but is open to similar legislation in the future including aldermen, he said. The goal, he added, is to stop ethics “backsliding.”

“We just want to maintain the status quo,” Martin said. “What we’re working to do here is very narrow in response to the Board of Ethics’ recommendations.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel first codified the rule in a 2011 executive order, but the city’s ethics board determined in April it does not have the authority to enforce it after running into legal problems that forced it to drop several cases involving registered lobbyists improperly donating to Johnson’s political committee.

In his news conference Wednesday, Johnson dodged questions about what specifically he wants to see changed in Martin’s ordinance, including amendments that would add aldermen and other elected officials to the restrictions. He did repeatedly endorse the idea of enacting public campaign financing in Chicago, and denied his administration is slow-walking ethics reform.

The council’s Ethics Committee passed the measure last Thursday despite resistance from Johnson’s administration, which said it unfairly targets one person and should instead apply to all elected officials. Ald. Chris Taliaferro, 29th, and Ald. Nick Sposato, 38th, used the “defer and publish” maneuver Wednesday to forestall what would have been the final floor vote.

Addressing reporters afterward, Taliaferro said Johnson was not behind his move to block Martin’s legislation and instead said he had questions about how it would impact lobbyist donations to other city officials such as aldermen.

The ordinance only addresses mayors and mayoral candidates. However, Taliaferro would not say whether he is for or against a hypothetical expansion.

He noted City Council members who aren’t backed by unions would struggle without lobbyist contributions, while also asserting “When you’re looking at government reform, it should apply across the board because we’re no different than the mayor.”

“No, I’m not saying I’m a proponent for that,” Taliaferro said about expanding the restrictions. “I don’t know yet. And I can tell you that the reason I don’t know is because I haven’t heard an in-depth explanation of what happens if it does apply to me.”

Meanwhile, Sposato told reporters he doesn’t think it’s fair to single out the mayor or mayoral candidates, but he does not want the restrictions to apply to aldermen, either.

“This is a very accusatory ordinance, like he’s doing the wrong thing and he’s being so evil and bad,” said Sposato, a frequent Johnson critic. “But if it happens for the mayor, it should be the same for us.”

Other aldermen and good government advocates have admonished Johnson’s team for not supporting the plan and said sitting on it would move ethics reform at City Hall backward.

Johnson’s spokesperson previously denied the mayor opposed tightening rules on lobbyist contributions, instead saying Martin and others were unwilling to expand the ordinance to include aldermen and other elected officials. Martin then told the Tribune “that’s not accurate,” adding that Johnson’s administration did not send any concrete suggestions on revising the ordinance.

Under the proposal the committee passed, a lobbyist would be fined three times the amount of the contribution unless it is returned within 10 days, and the second violation could net a 90-day suspension for the lobbyist.

And unlike the Emanuel order, the ban would extend to not just sitting mayors but all mayoral candidates. In addition, the prohibition would apply to any business that hired a lobbyist in the year preceding the contribution or any entity in which the lobbyist has over 7.5% ownership.

Also Wednesday, the council approved a $50 million settlement for four men imprisoned after detectives allegedly forced their false confessions to a double murder as teens. The men were convicted and spent a combined 73 years behind bars but were exonerated after new fingerprinting technology did not connect them to the crime scene.

The costly deal is the largest settlement for alleged police misconduct in Chicago’s history — a record set just three months ago. Aldermen have approved about $300 million to settle Chicago police-related lawsuits since the start of 2021.

“No compensation can give back to these men what was taken from them, but the city’s willingness to settle this matter restores some measure of faith in the system and the belief that justice can be achieved through perseverance and unwavering commitment,” Michael Oppenheimer, an attorney representing Troshawn McCoy, one of the four men, said in a statement Wednesday after the vote.

Later, Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, introduced an ordinance to set an 8 p.m. curfew for unaccompanied minors in downtown Chicago. But the curfew attempt was sent to the council’s Rules Committee by Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th — a stall tactic that will likely block any curfew from being implemented this summer.

Chicago already has a long-running 10 p.m. citywide curfew for unaccompanied minors. Hopkins’ proposal comes a week after a couple was attacked in an “unprovoked and aggravated assault” that led to the arrest of two teens.

Aldermen also passed an ordinance aimed at quieting anti-abortion protests outside a Chicago women’s health clinic. The ordinance, sponsored by Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, had been stalled by opponents last month. Sposato again argued Wednesday the ordinance would infringe upon First Amendment rights of anti-abortion Christian protesters.

“You all have really blown this out of proportion,” Sposato said. “You act like there’s a bunch of biker thugs out there looking to beat the crap out of somebody, and that’s not what’s going on. There’s a bunch of women and children out there, mostly praying, a lot of Catholics.”

But backed by a flood of supportive statements from fellow aldermen before the 41-4 vote, Conway defended the ordinance as a way to respect protesters’ rights, but take away their amplifiers to protect patients.

“We are on firm legal footing here,” he said.

The restrictions outside the West Loop’s Family Planning Associates clinic will ban noise-making devices from directly outside the clinic as soon as signs are placed.

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

ayin@chicagotribune.com

Riot Fest will move from Douglass Park in North Lawndale to a new location set to be revealed Wednesday, its founder shared on social media Tuesday night.

The multiday punk, rock and hip-hop festival has occurred in Douglass Park since 2015, but tensions among festival management and residents have mounted in recent years over issues including complaints of lack of access to the park and disruptions to the neighborhood by a music festival.

Founder Mike Petrynshyn promised to unveil a new concept he called “RiotLand” Wednesday morning in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

In the statement, Petrynshyn thanked Ald. Monique Scott, 24th, for her support of the event and said that the Chicago Park District was “solely” responsible for the festival’s move.

“Their lack of care for the community, you and us ultimately left us no choice,” the statement said.

Scott, for her part, also pinned the move on “challenges” with the Park District as she expressed her support for the festival’s organizers in a statement Tuesday evening. The city department granted the festival approval months late, she said.

“This unnecessary and inappropriate delay in the process, among many other issues, has led to critical setbacks in areas that include, but are not limited to, operational, financial, and community initiatives,” Scott said.

The festival had earned widespread community support with “unprecedented benefits for the local community,” she added. She called the opposition to the festival a “false narrative” and said it came from “only a small group of people,” some of whom do not live in the neighborhood.

The 2024 lineup and ticket sales for the festival running Sept. 20 through 22, will be released Wednesday at 10 a.m, according to the festival announcement.

The city is weighing the results of a test effort to re-legalize additional dwelling units with an eye on passing far-reaching legislation as soon as next month. The three-year pilot program launched by the City Council in 2021 led to “gentle increase in density” and saw “consistent, but not overwhelming demand,” Department of Housing officials said during a council hearing Tuesday.

The findings show a broader rollout of the relaxed rules could spur naturally occurring affordable rental units while giving homeowners a new source of income, they argued.

“We don’t see (additional dwelling units) as a panacea to our housing shortage, but we do see it as a critical part of the mix,” said Matthew Stern, the Department of Housing’s interim policy director.

The pilot tested the policy in five areas scattered across Chicago. During its run, the city issued permits for the construction of 250 additional dwelling units. Nearly all permits involved North or Northwest Side buildings with two to six units.

“It gives you options,” said Ald. Bennett Lawson, 44th, the interim zoning chair. “It provides units. We are in a housing crisis in our city. We have to build units of all types. Big, small, affordable. Basements, coach houses. This is not going to solve all our problems, but we have to use all the tools.”

The proposal did not face a vote Tuesday. Lawson plans to put his ordinance up for a committee vote later this month with hopes of a final full-council vote in July and said he is confident he has a majority.

While the broad aim of the legislation — legalizing additional dwelling units throughout many residential areas — is set to remain, requirements on where and how such units can be built could change in coming weeks, Lawson said.

The North Side alderman’s current substitute ordinance already includes one major break from the pilot: It would allow building owners to add both a coach house and a conversion unit, as opposed to one or the other. It also would allow for ADUs across more zoning designations, but would require special permitting in some areas zoned for detached single-family homes.

A proposal made by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration in April as a part of his “Cut the Tape” initiative would not require such special permitting, instead allowing additional dwelling unit permits by right in more areas.

Changes in zoning and parking requirements caused the construction of additional dwelling units to be banned in Chicago in 1957.

Relaxed additional dwelling unit restrictions could bring a host of benefits to Chicago, Stern said. The units add housing without changing neighborhoods and produce affordable housing without subsidies, he said. They also add an opportunity for intergenerational living and help preserve critical but threatened two-to-six-unit buildings, he said.

Stern added that the proposed change could also help bring potentially thousands of illegally constructed additional dwelling units in Chicago up to code, a view Lawson echoed.

“We have units all across the city in basements and attics that were built to code or close to code that may or may not be legal,” Lawson said. “I think it’s an opportunity for everybody to look at density in a positive way, look at adding stability for families that need multigenerational living and to help pay our taxes.”

Most aldermen appeared supportive of the proposal Tuesday, but several took note of the sharp skew in where additional dwelling units were permitted during the pilot. Just 10 of the 215 permits issued went to buildings in the South, Southeast and West Side pilot zones. The rest went to North and Northwest Side buildings. Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, and Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez, 25th, called for subsidy programs to help homeowners considering the expansions, in an effort to spur development in other parts of the city.

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

The hefty sum would go to four men who were originally convicted in a 1995 double murder. The men were arrested and tried as teens and spent half their lives in prison, but were exonerated in 2017 and certified as innocent after new fingerprinting technology did not connect them to the scene.

The council Finance Committee unanimously approved the settlement recommended by city attorneys Monday, setting it up for a final vote by the full City Council Wednesday.

The four men — Lashawn Ezell, Charles Johnson, Troshawn McCoy and Larod Styles — were accused of robbing and murdering Khaled Ibrahim and Yousef Ali. They were coerced to give false confessions by Chicago Police Department detectives, their federal lawsuits allege.

Ibrahim and Ali were fatally shot on a December night by a pair of attackers at their used car dealership, Elegant Auto. The attackers then stole two cars and sped away from the lot at 75th Street and Western Avenue.

Ezell, Johnson, McCoy and Styles allege police interrogated them for hours, away from guardians and handcuffed, and tricked them to confess only after they were “terrified, confused and utterly worn down.”

Johnson told police during one interrogation that he and his co-defendants planned to steal cars from the lot and strip them for parts. Witnesses later identified him as the shooter at the trial. He and Styles were sentenced to life without parole. McCoy was given a 55-year sentence, while Ezell was sentenced to 20 years in prison and released after 10 years.

Together, they spent 73 years in prison, city attorney Jessica Felker said Monday. But when authorities again examined fingerprints from one of the stolen cars with new technology a decade after the convictions, they were unable to match the four men with the evidence, Felker added.

Instead, the fingerprint evidence was matched to a convicted felon whose mother lived near the spot where the stolen car was abandoned. The Cook County state’s attorney’s office has since interviewed the man, but declined to press charges against him.

Johnson’s lawyers argued he had signed a confession only after he was told it was a routine document that would lead to his release. In addition, the details in the confessions from the men, which formed the bulk of the prosecution’s case, did not match up, they said.

The men’s lawsuits argue Chicago failed to identify and track officers who committed misconduct, such as obtaining coerced and false confessions. Their suits name detectives James Cassidy and Kenneth Boudreau, whose history of getting suspects to give dubious and ill-gotten confessions has been detailed in past Tribune stories.

Cassidy, the first defendant named in the men’s lawsuits, was one of the detectives sued for allegedly framing an 8-year-old boy in the infamous 1998 murder of 11-year-old Ryan Harris. Cassidy was also sued by the exonerated “Englewood Four” who courts determined were wrongfully convicted in a 1994 rape and murder. Those exonerated men similarly claimed Cassidy fed and coerced false confessions.

The four men originally convicted of double murder were first interviewed by police after Cassidy claimed an anonymous caller told him McCoy was involved in the crime, Felker said.

If the deal is approved Wednesday, the city would pay the men $21 million and the city’s insurance provider would pay another $29 million. The $50 million total would make it the largest police settlement in the city’s history, though other settlements for single individuals surpass the size of the payouts each man will receive.

The record had been previously set in March when the city settled with the family of Nathen Jones for $45 million. Jones was left unable to walk, talk and care for himself at 15 years old after a car he was a passenger in crashed during a police chase that violated department policy.

Aldermen have approved around $300 million to settle Chicago police-related lawsuits since the start of 2021.

Police routinely pushed false confessions by intimidating suspects, concealing exculpatory information, sleep deprivation and other illegal tactics, the four men allege. For Ezell, arrested as a 15-year-old, the prison time he faced left him “stripped of the basic pleasures of human experience,” his lawsuit says.

“He missed the opportunity to begin living independently, to share holidays, births, funerals, and other life events with loved ones, to have girlfriends, to fall in love, to marry, and to pursue a career, and the fundamental freedom to live his life as an autonomous human being,” the lawsuit says.

Out of prison now, he has struggled with the stigma of being branded a violent criminal, the lawsuit added.

The committee also approved three additional settlements totaling over $9 million.

A $5.8 million settlement moved forward for four current and former Department of Water Management employees who alleged they faced rampant racism while working at the department.

The plaintiffs’ lawsuits allege they were given worse assignments, denied promotions and faced harassment because of anti-Black discrimination. Racism in the department’s top ranks has long been an “open secret,” according to one plaintiff’s lawsuit. City attorneys reached the proposed settlement just weeks before what would have been a potentially embarrassing trial.

Aldermen also voted to advance a $2 million settlement for the mother of Ronald Johnson III, who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer in 2014. The lawsuit alleged Officer George Hernandez used excessive force when Hernandez fatally shot Johnson as Johnson ran away from him.

In 2016, the Independent Police Review Authority ruled Hernandez was justified in the shooting because evidence supported the officer’s belief that Johnson had a gun. Johnson’s family has alleged police planted a gun at the scene to cover up misconduct. City attorney Caroline Fronczak on Monday said video of the shooting did not conclusively show whether or not Johnson had a gun.

Aldermen also approved a $1.25 million settlement for a woman whose car was struck by a falling light pole at the intersection of East Illinois Street and North McClurg Court. The woman, who suffered a concussion, alleged the light pole was poorly maintained.

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

The Commission on Chicago Landmarks voted unanimously to recommend it get the protection, setting up a final decision next week by the City Council.

The fight over the closed church has pitted Catholic leaders against many former parishioners.

While the Archdiocese of Chicago wants to sell the church building to help fund St. Paul’s Church, which is still operating nearby, former St. Adalbert churchgoers have tried to block the sale with the landmark designation. Many onetime St. Adalbert parishioners hope their former church, closed in 2019, may one day celebrate mass again.

The controversy over the church was not a factor for commissioners, Landmarks Chair Ernest Wong said. The church “met all the criteria,” he said.

“The alderman and the archdiocese have a serious problem on their hands, and they have got to deal with it,” he said. “We as the commission, though, are doing our duty in terms of the structures within the city of Chicago to figure out what is worth preserving and what is not. We are holding by that.”

If approved by the City Council, landmark status would trigger a series of restrictions and landmarks commission reviews of any redevelopment plans in order to protect the church complex’s “significant features” — including its Renaissance Revival facade, as well as a former rectory, convent and school on the half-block plot. Still, a landmark designation would not completely ban renovations and interior changes.

After the vote, Archdiocese general counsel James Geoly promised to “vigorously oppose” the designation as it moves to the City Council. The landmark status could prevent the church from finding a buyer for the site, he added.

“We’re at risk. If this comes out the wrong way, the future ministry in Pilsen is at risk. St. Paul’s is not sustainable if they cannot monetize this asset,” Geoly said.

The church was called “one of the finest in Chicago” by the Tribune when completed in 1914 and, at its peak, served about 4,000 families. But its membership declined as Pilsen shifted from a more heavily Polish community to predominantly Mexican.

Protesters, many of them proudly Polish, have ardently pushed back since the archdiocese shut down the church five years ago. They decried the removal of a statue from the site and led the charge for its landmark status. A 73-year-old woman last year was arrested for trespassing while protesting the removal of stained glass windows and art.

That fervent support was on display again Thursday as supporters and opponents of the landmark status filled the City Council chambers, just as they did during a May hearing.

Former St. Adalbert parishioners highlighted in public comments the importance of the site to Chicago’s Polish community and shared hopes that it could become a Catholic shrine. Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, again backed their landmarking effort.

Speakers opposed to the designation, many parishioners of St. Paul’s, warned the landmarking designation will make their church unable to sell the St. Adalbert site it now owns and leave it crippled with debt. They criticized as too harsh protests by St. Adalbert supporters, including a man running into St. Paul’s to demonstrate during a mass last week.

The crowd backing the landmark designation shouted its dissent — often in Polish — as archdiocese representatives argued the closure and sale of St. Adalbert is a necessary move to keep Catholic churches afloat in Pilsen amid declining attendance.

“It’s a painful thing for a church to close. But if we did not do it, there would be no church in Pilsen at all,” Geoly said. “The church has the right to make this decision. And public entities and governments should not be used as tools to interfere with these core ecclesiastical decisions.”

The main church building’s facade is now covered in scaffolding while it faces major structural issues. Needed repairs could cost as much as $8 million. The landmark designation would deter demolition, but would not compel rehabilitation.

After the decision, Geoly said the archdiocese has no plans to use the church buildings if the City Council passes the protective status.

“As long as we own it, there will not be a future use of the buildings,” he said. “The parish has been closed. The building is unusable. It is not entirely safe. You wouldn’t go in there without a hardhat.”

The archdiocese tried to turn the church into affordable housing, a museum and an event venue in past redevelopment efforts that would have included repairs to the church building, he said.

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, wants an 8 p.m. curfew for unaccompanied minors in the city’s central business district, he told constituents in an email. The “unprovoked and aggravated assault” that prompted his call occurred during one of many “chronic youth gatherings, which have proven to be an incubator for violent and lawless activity,” Hopkins said in the email.

“I do not believe every minor present during these recent gatherings have ill intentions,” he wrote. “But it is painfully clear that a few agitators and ring leaders have instigated violent and chaotic actions time and time again and this activity cannot be tolerated.”

Hopkins plans to introduce an ordinance in the City Council next week to enact the stricter curfew. The ordinance would include exemptions for scheduled events and commuting to work. The intention, Hopkins said, is to give police a tool to break up the large teen gatherings that he believes are increasingly common.

“We’re not trying to discourage young people from coming downtown,” Hopkins said. “We’re trying to discourage large groups from gathering with either no purpose or the purpose of engaging in mayhem or crime.”

A spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson did not reply to questions about the proposed curfew. Chicago has a citywide 10 p.m. curfew for children 17 and under who are unaccompanied by a parent or guardian.

The area in which Hopkins hopes the City Council will enact a new curfew includes the Loop, River North, Streeterville and the West Loop.

In an anonymous interview with Fox 32, the couple that was attacked last Friday showed cuts, bruises and images of pulled-out hair. They were repeatedly kicked, punched, stomped on and even pepper-sprayed, they said. The woman who was attacked said she was two weeks pregnant at the time and found out afterward that she lost the baby.

Police said a group attacked the couple shortly after 9 p.m. near Grand Avenue and McClurg Court. A 14-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl were arrested at the scene and each was charged with one count of misdemeanor battery, according to police. Hopkins called on the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to make the misdemeanor charges instead felony charges.

At Millennium Park, Johnson has chosen to maintain a 6 p.m. teen curfew enacted by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, according to a city website. In May 2022, a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed in the park at a nighttime teen gathering. In April 2023, chaos broke out nearby at another so-called teen takeover.

At the time, dozens of teens attacked downtown passersby, sparking viral videos and yet another crackdown of stricter enforcement. Two teen boys were shot during the mayhem.

Johnson said in May the Millennium Park curfew is “not in line with my vision for the people of Chicago,” but did not answer when directly asked if he would change the park’s curfew policy.

Instead, Johnson highlighted his effort to expand investments aimed at giving teens safe and enriching summertime opportunities. The mayor increased funding this summer for Chicago’s primary youth employment program, One Summer Chicago, adding capacity for 4,000 young people to fill now as many as 28,000 jobs.

“The most important thing that we can do is to invest in young people. And that’s what my sole purpose is,” Johnson said.

At least one downtown alderman has some skepticism about Hopkins’ proposed curfew. Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, said he would defer to the Police Department on whether the policy is needed.

“They would be in charge of enforcing it. It seems like it’d be pretty difficult to enforce. I would have to ask them if this is a helpful tool,” Conway said. “It’s hard to see how this curfew would be helpful.”

Conway added that he does not see a reason why downtown should have an earlier curfew than other parts of the city. Chicago needs to focus on giving young people “meaningful opportunities,” he said.

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

With a crowd of high-powered business leaders watching, Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren repeated his pitch for the new domed stadium in a keynote address. He presented the stadium as a surefire growth starter for downtown Chicago.

“You cannot make progress only playing defense,” Warren said.

But by the time he gave his impassioned plea, the two most pivotal members of the audience — Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. J.B. Pritzker — had left the event. Pritzker has not yet met with Bears officials about their stadium plan, and has publicly expressed deep skepticism about the funding aspect.

In their first public appearance together since the team’s pricey proposal that’s backed by the mayor floundered during the Illinois General Assembly’s spring session, Pritzker and Johnson stayed mum on the topic during their own remarks to the chamber audience. Warren filled the void for onlookers curious about the plan, carefully appealing to nostalgia, business interest and ego alike as he re-upped the hot-button request.

Warren began his speech by invoking the memory of legendary team founder George Halas and celebrating the Bears’ fleecing of the Carolina Panthers in a 2023 trade that landed a cache of top picks. The team on the field is coming together, he promised. And the field itself should come together too, he added.

Ninety-three of the 100 top television programs last year were NFL broadcasts that gave viewers a look at cities across the country, Warren said.

“Every time that we play on television here in Chicago, and especially when we pay on national television, the entire world is looking at Chicago,” he said. “We have a unique time here with the Chicago Bears to not only build a great football team, to build a great organization, but to build a world-class stadium that will only empower everyone in this room.”

After lauding the business promise of a new stadium, Warren questioned the city’s outlook. He cited Chicago’s slide in a ranking of the world’s best cities and noted downtown has high commercial vacancy and few cranes in the sky.

“It’s only so long that we can lean on the fact that we are Chicago,” Warren said. “We got to start coming together and doing big jobs, putting people to work, closing the economic gap between people of color and non-people of color.”

Despite a lack of success in Springfield so far, the general outlines of Warren’s proposal for the glitzy stadium did not change as he presented Tuesday. He once again touted the over $2 billion in private money that would go into the project, claiming a local parallel for private investment “does not exist.”

The team’s investment would amount to 72% of the stadium’s cost, he said. The Bears have previously called for the rest of the $3.2 billion cost of the stadium alone to be paid for with $900 million from the state.

But the true public cost of the project would likely be far more expensive. The Bears have requested the city and state refinance $430 million existing debt for previous stadium projects, set up a $160 million so-called liquidity fund to help Chicago cover any unexpected tax revenue shortfalls and pony up as much as $1.5 billion more in infrastructure money.

Counting interest and other long-term costs, the proposed new borrowing would tally up to at least $4.8 billion over four decades.

The team’s plan would include 65,000 seats for football, a translucent roof and the potential for year-round events.

Johnson called it a future “crown jewel of the city of Chicago” when it was unveiled. At the time, Pritzker said parts of the proposal were “probably nonstarters” — a stance that seems to have taken hold in Springfield.

“The deal that was presented didn’t take into account that taxpayers really aren’t going to do well under that proposal,” Pritzker has said.

But both the mayor and the governor steered clear of the topic Tuesday. Instead, they highlighted their different visions and accomplishments to the business community.

Pritzker focused his remarks on his efforts to balance budgets while attracting new businesses with “pro-growth policies” and “red carpet” rollouts.

“For a couple of decades, our state was plagued by fiscal challenges. And it weighed on our businesses and residents,” he said. “My hope is that decades down the line, our children look back on decades of prosperity and recognize commonsense decisions that we all made to invest in ourselves and our future. And the way we make that possible is, of course, by working together.”

Johnson zeroed in on the importance of equity in Chicago’s economy. He called attention to his effort to spur housing development with a new $1.25 billion bond plan and red-tape-cutting proposals he said will help the city “get out of its own way.”

“We can spur development all throughout our city and not just within wealthy TIF (tax increment financing) districts,” Johnson said.

As he asked business leaders to join the city’s mentoring efforts for teens and young adults, he underscored the tale of two Chicagos. In South and West Side neighborhoods, unemployment is far higher than in other thriving areas, he said. Supporting the Chicagoans with the most needs will help the whole city, he argued.

“We must confront the difficult truth and we must do it head on,” Johnson said. “When we look closer at the numbers, we can see the real story of this city. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

Chamber President and CEO Jack Lavin closed the meeting taking shots at positions favored by Johnson and other local progressives. He knocked the mayor’s paid leave ordinance as a policy that stunts growth and halts job creation and called the county’s property tax system “a mess.”

“The best way to address these issues is a pro-growth jobs strategy,” Lavin said. “We will continue to reject this narrative that businesses do not pay their fair share because business has always led our economic growth and built the global city that we are today.”

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

At a City Council committee hearing, Carter highlighted his efforts to right the troubled transit system amid post-pandemic struggles, but focused first on the more personal attacks he faces. It was one of his first attempts to publicly address what he called “the elephant in the room” as political pressure against him has mounted for months.

“As an African American man, this city has a history of attacking and trying to bring down their African American leaders,” Carter said during 20 minutes of opening remarks. “What I would hope is that we would work together to find a way to support our agency and make our agency better.”

Carter’s emphatic defense comes a week after 29 of 50 aldermen signed on to a resolution calling for Mayor Brandon Johnson to fire him. Johnson has declined to discuss Carter’s future, and the resolution was sidelined by a legislative maneuver.

But during Thursday’s Transportation Committee hearing, Carter said the criticism has made it hard for him and his employees to do their jobs.

“I have been turned into a caricature,” he said. “I have been turned into something that is less than a human being.”

The embattled appointed official walked aldermen through his childhood growing up on the South Side and his hopes for a more equitable Chicago. He described returning from a federal job to work at the CTA knowing the transit system and the city had experienced years of disinvestment. The harsh criticism of the CTA risks more disinvestment, he said, limiting the opportunities for the agency to advance.

Carter cited rising ridership from pandemic lows as evidence the agency was on the right path. But he acknowledged wanting to work to make the agency better, saying he would rather talk about the issues raised by riders or about funding than personal specifics.

“We’re spending a lot of time talking about my salary, talking about statistics,” he said. “Instead of, as one (public) commenter said, talking about the people.”

Carter has come under fire in recent months as complaints mounted about the transit agency’s ability to provide frequent, reliable and safe service. The agency, like others in the region and across the country, also faces a looming financial cliff when federal pandemic aid runs out, and transit agencies are looking to Springfield for solutions.

Among the challenges the CTA has faced are cutbacks in service as the organization struggled to hire and retain enough staff to operate buses and trains. The CTA slashed schedules on some train lines by as much as 25% to 30% compared with 2019 service levels, a 2023 Tribune analysis found, leaving riders with long wait times and crowded buses and trains.

Carter has previously promised to restore transit service to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, a vow he reiterated Thursday.

So far, the agency added bus service back on 29 of 127 routes under new schedules unveiled in March. On the rail side, schedules that took effect in April showed few service additions.

CTA spokesperson Catherine Hosinski said at the time that the agency was still working to add service as previously proposed, and planned to regularly roll out updated schedules through the summer as more rail operators are trained and available to head out on the tracks.

Chicago’s transit woes have already rippled across City Hall. Earlier this month, Johnson nominated a politically connected West Side pastor, the Rev. Ira Acree, for the Regional Transportation Authority board that oversees Pace, Metra and the CTA.

Acree drew sharp criticism for showing little knowledge about the region’s biggest transit struggles, including an impending $730 million funding shortfall, even as his nomination was advanced by a council committee. After the pushback, he withdrew his name as a candidate for the position last week.

But Carter has mounted a more determined defense. He met with members of the council’s Black Caucus Wednesday, several aldermen told the Tribune. During the call, he asked the caucus members to oppose the resolution calling for him to be fired. It is unclear whether the resolution’s author, Ald. Andre Vásquez, 40th, will push for it to go back up for a vote.

After Carter’s opening speech Thursday, several aldermen who have called for him to be fired said he should have focused less on defending himself and more on the status of CTA’s service.

“I’m feeling a little disappointed in your approach,” Ald. Jessie Fuentes, 26th, said. “I was hoping that today we would have learned about the challenges and the solutions that maybe you are putting in place.”

Vásquez asked Carter a question about attrition, a nod to Carter’s statements that staffing challenges are at the core of the agency’s inability to run more trains and buses. Carter should focus more on those types of service issues and less on personal attacks, Vásquez said.

“I get criticism all the time. I have taken criticism for decades. I have been a public official my entire career,” Carter fired back. “What’s going on here goes way beyond that.”

“We’re just holding people accountable more than we did a decade ago, which is a good thing for government,” Vásquez responded.

But as Carter’s critics maintained their frustrations, several Black aldermen rallied behind him. They praised his work and distanced themselves from the criticism he has faced.

Ald. Stephanie Coleman, 16th, chair of the council’s Black Caucus, said the pushback on Carter is “mean-spirited and lacks respect.” Other leaders of struggling city departments have not faced such critique, she said.

“I am not disappointed in your approach today,” she said. “I appreciate your honesty, your humility and your courage.”

She thanked Carter for his leadership and promised him the Black Caucus will not call for his resignation.

Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, noted that most of the backers of the resolution calling for Carter to be fired “did not come from my community.”

“I support you and your leadership,” she told Carter.

Ald. David Moore, 17th, said he does not get many constituent calls concerning CTA service and believes Carter is doing “an exceptional job.” He commended Carter’s ability to secure funding from the federal and state governments.

“I don’t think you get enough credit for getting funding for the Red Line extension project,” that will bring the Red Line south to 130th Street, he said. “For the ones that have concerns, I respect them, but I don’t think this is the time to get rid of someone who can help us address those concerns.”

Johnson is set to announce the moves Thursday morning outside the city’s closed Roseland clinic on the Far South Side, now set to reopen by the end of the year. The city will also add mental health services to a Chicago Department of Public Health clinic in Pilsen in August and inside the Legler Regional Library in West Garfield Park as soon as June, according to a plan the Johnson administration shared with the Tribune.

The move comes more than a decade after former Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed six of the city’s 12 public mental health clinics. Emanuel’s decision sparked fiery protests by patients and union members who lost jobs at those clinics, which developed into a campaign that has badgered Chicago’s politicians ever since.

After former Mayor Lori Lightfoot backed away from her own campaign promise to reopen clinics, activists have apparently found their champion in Johnson. His plan to broadly expand the city’s mental health resources in large part by reopening clinics offers “a path for us to begin reversing decades of disinvestment,” he said in a report announcing the plan.

The mayor cited the memory of his brother, Leon, who he said struggled with mental illness and died addicted and homeless.

“I believe a commitment to mental health and to treating individuals experiencing trauma and not criminalizing them would have extended his time on this Earth,” Johnson said. “For me this work is personal.”

The three expansions are the first clear-cut plans from Johnson’s administration to execute the campaign promise. They mark a new direction in mental health care for Chicago after past administrations sharply cut the city’s use of publicly-operated clinics and instead funded private mental health care often carried out by nonprofit providers.

A report prepared by the working group Johnson launched through the City Council in October lays out the administration’s vision for the policy.

In a draft copy of the report shared with the Tribune, the working group made up of administration officials, first responders, clinicians and community organizers shared plans for the city to gradually, but dramatically expand its mental health care by opening new clinics and growing its non-police behavioral health crisis response teams. Five city-run clinics remain open. It isn’t clear exactly how many more Johnson plans to add beyond the three sites he will announce Thursday, but the report said there is support for further expansion.

Johnson’s team had shared few details about its Treatment Not Trauma plan in recent months, leading some supporters of the campaign to fear the administration would tone down their sweeping vision. Their ideas go far beyond a few clinic reopenings and include calls for the creation of a “community care corps” of workers tasked with proactively preventing mental health crises.

But the Thursday announcement drew high praise from Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, 33rd, Treatment Not Trauma’s chief City Council proponent. The close Johnson ally called the mayor’s plan a “new beginning for mental health care in the city of Chicago.” Efforts to push Lightfoot to expand city-run mental health services went nowhere for years, Rodriguez-Sanchez said.

“We were met with a lot of opposition and rejection to these ideas. Finally seeing that it’s moving, that we are being able to deliver on the demands we have been making for so long, it’s a beautiful thing,” she said. “This is just the beginning.”

Rodriguez-Sanchez said the city’s past pivot to funding private mental health providers was less sustainable than a public system because it led to worse working conditions and a reliance on impermanent grants.

“In that model, we lose a lot of the things that make us able to deliver the actual care that people need,” she said.

Some nonprofit mental health care providers have criticized the plan, expressing concerns it will take away city funding for their work and that the expense of the additional city-run bricks-and-mortar clinics Johnson proposes will make it harder to provide as much care as people around the city need.

The clinic reopenings are a long-held goal of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a strong Johnson labor ally whose members lost jobs when Emanuel shuttered six city-run clinics in 2011.

The AFSCME International Union PAC contributed $100,000 to Johnson’s mayoral campaign last year, according to state campaign finance records. And AFSCME Illinois Council 31’s PAC contributed $56,750 to Johnson in 2018 during his successful run for Cook County commissioner.

The city has already altered the CDPH’s slow hiring processes to add around 20 clinical workers since January to staff the three expansions, according to the report.

The Johnson administration has far more work to do to make community groups’ full hopes for Treatment Not Trauma a reality, Rodriguez-Sanchez said. It took decades for the city to so decisively shrink the city’s public mental health care system, she said.

“Reversing that will take a while, but we have started,” she said. “They definitely showed us that there is a will to expand public services, to expand public care.”

In November, Johnson included $5.2 million in his first budget earmarked for opening up new clinics. His administration plans to ramp up spending on alternative response and clinical services from $21.4 million in 2024 to $36.5 million in 2026, according to the report.

The report does not identify where the added funding will come from, but offers possibilities such as better Medicaid reimbursement, new grants and money from the city’s general fund. It focuses on ways to cut costs as more clinics are reopened, such as layering mental health services into other city-run facilities, including schools and libraries.

While the push from community groups for reopenings has often been tied to specific sites shuttered by past administrations, the city may ultimately pick future locations based on where the greatest need is now, the report said.

“The solution to this harm is not always as simple as merely reopening those centers,” it said. “Simply put, what worked in 2012 may not work today,”

The report also lays out a plan to grow the city’s Crisis Assistance Response & Engagement (CARE) program. The program, piloted by Lightfoot and expanded by Johnson, uses a new branch of first responder teams to respond without police to non-violent emergencies such as overdoses and mental health crises. CARE teams should get more emergency calls, be able to work in more areas and be able to respond to more kinds of emergencies, the report said.

The city should also consider creating around-the-clock mental health clinics and building out a new training academy grow a larger workforce for the expanding public mental health care system, the report said.

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com