Thank you mister market. $lulu

There is a draft ordinance circulating around city hall that would allow duplexes to be built by right in areas currently opted into Chicago’s ADU ordinance. My understanding is that it has votes to pass. The chair of the zoning committee won’t call it for a vote. Why?

Hepatitis C used to mean cirrhosis, cancer, liver transplant. Now it's 8–12 weeks of tablets and a cure rate over 95%. Science did that.

One of the world’s biggest data centers, in Memphis, uses about as much water in a year as 2.5 @innoutburger locations Chicago’s current strategy is to have neither

13 Chicago high schools are at least 80% empty. 35% of CPS schools are less than half-full. 1 high school had just 28 students last year. We brought our reporting to a national audience on @NewsNation with @KeleighBeeson ...

Rent is WAY too high across Chicago. Here’s why rent keeps rising. It takes 3 to 4 years just to start building affordable housing in Chicago. That’s nearly triple the national baseline. As Mayor, I'll slash the red tape, fast-track permits, and build more housing for less money. That's how we bring rents down. #chicago

My favorite piece on this wrote that Tokyo "has remained affordable by becoming the world's largest city. It has become the world's largest city by remaining affordable." Tokyo shows a vision of inclusive building others can pursue and does so while eschewing traditional means.

Reminder: US schools serving low-income and non-white communities get more money per pupil not less and have for a long time

Nikole Hannah-Jones and I will likely never see eye to eye politically, but the more I think about this article, the more I respect it. She wrote something that directly undermines her own project because her daughter told her she was hurt. That is an act of love.

NEW: Chicago Public Schools operates 158 schools that have more empty desks than students, according to Chicago Policy Center research. Among these 158 schools where enrollment is 50% or less of ideal capacity: ⏺️ The median share of students proficient in math is 9%. ⏺️ The median share of students proficient in reading is 22%. ⏺️ There is an average of one full-time employee for every five students. ⏺️ More than 43,700 students attend these schools, 14% of total CPS enrollment. Dollars spent on empty desks are dollars that aren’t available for student enrichment. And with CPS enrollment down 122,000 students since its 2002-03 peak, the district needs to ensure its facilities are operating in students’ best interests. But how? California's "Best Practices Guide for Potential School Closure" offers a much-needed framework. Go deeper in this week's edition of The Last Ward. thelastward.org/p/158-chicag…

This school receives $52,389 in funding per student. Yes, per student.

It would have been easy for NHJ not to write that desperately sad article about New York City public schools and her decision to send her daughter to a troubled one. I respect her for writing it and for writing it honestly and in a way that wasn’t an exercise in self-flattery.

Sorry, no dice we need 45’ so go ahead and lop the first 15’ off each building and increase road deaths by 7x. For safety.

I can't believe we are even debating an apartment tax. $20/mo may seem small, but that's a 2% tax on a $1,000/mo apartment. Now consider the $30,000 a month penthouse at the spire site. They pay only 0.06%. @maxdubler yet another unfunded tax on supply. A regressive one too.

Spoke passionately in favor of that!

Either “free Palestine” is completely vacuous, or it is something that will upset some people. Same with “black lives matter” and “all lives matter.” Obviously no one is offended by the literal meanings of those phrases. It’s what they’re in response to and how they’re used.

pretty city - let's build more housing so more people can stay and move here

If you’re in Chicago School Board District 6A: River North, Streeterville, Gold Coast, Old Town, parts of Wicker Park, VOTE for ISAIAH WHITE, he is *NOT* @CTULocal1.

Unpopular opinion: City and transportation planning only needs about 10% of the public meetings it currently holds. Asking an entire neighborhood their opinion about how tall a building should be or if a speed bump should be installed does more harm than good. The Hyper-Public-Meeting-Era of planning was an understandable response to urban renewal demolitions and Robert Moses style highway building, but it's been taken way too far and needs to stop.

Housing in Chicago: it's worse than you thought. Last year, we permitted less housing than 38 other jurisdictions - including Frisco TX (population 236,955). Per capita, we're now dead last among big cities. citythatworks.substack.com/p…

This pic isn't a warning to us. It's a warning to other countries. We will take your smartest, hardest-working citizens and turn them into Americans. We're a machine and you can't stop us. Look upon our soft power and despair.