Not sure where to post this so I thought I’d make a catch all thread for great (and potentially terrible) things Chicago is or can do. Park District Reveals New Grant Park Framework Plan https://chicagoyimby.com/2025/07/park-district-reveals-new-grant-park-framework-plan.html It’s a beautiful plan.
Another great move by the city: On July 16, 2025, Chicago City Council passed a landmark ordinance (O2025-0015577) that dramatically expands areas where residential developments can proceed without parking mandates. This map visualizes the new landscape of parking-free development zones across the city. Key Findings The new ordinance represents a major shift in Chicago’s approach to parking requirements: 165.2 square miles (70.6% of the city) are now considered transit-served 150.6 square miles (64.4% of the city) can build residential developments without any parking 12.2 square miles (5.2% of the city) require an Administrative Adjustment to reduce parking This means that approximately 64.4% of Chicago is now free from residential parking mandates, enabling more affordable and sustainable development near transit. https://misterclean.github.io/chicago-parking-reform/chicago_parking_reform_map.html
It's the vibe right now. We can change our vote and treat the poll as a barometer of the moment. One of our ball sucking mods could stick this at the top. Is there more than one mod? Are there any mods here?
The LSD Deck-Over is the biggest idea, and it's great. Especially Option A, option B would be a pretty big disappointment.
Why only cap DLSD (& the IC tracks) through Grant Park? There should be at least a half dozen caps of a half mile to mile length up and down the entire lakefront. Foster to Lawrence Irving to Belmont North to Oak 31st to Pershing 43rd to 49th Adjacent to Promontory Point
This is burning up the local tweeters. I never heard of State Rep.Curtis Tarver before, but he's got a head start on my vote. Recommend watching Rep. Tarver’s full opening statement ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ex5xOgYPkv— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) July 31, 2025 WATCH: Illinois state Rep. Curtis Tarver delivers a stunning rebuke of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson at a special hearing earlier today, responding to Chicago Public Schools board member Michilla Blaise’s demand for more money from Springfield. Blaise was appointed by Johnson and… pic.twitter.com/mOA3cAwJsf— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) July 31, 2025
I don’t agree with everything Johnson has done, but I don’t see much reason to vote against him, and nothing this guy is saying makes me want to vote for him. As a rule, anything Austin Berg and Illinois Policy (his little ‘media’ outlet) promote is promoted in bad faith, so that makes extra skeptical of any candidate he’s platforming.
I got a list of things about what Johnson has done in office that I have issues with. That said, Lightfoot purged ALOT of the institutional knowledge of how to effectively run city departments, making it very unnecessarily difficult for whoever the politically appointed department heads are.
Johnson’s got issues but the “worst mayor ever” talk is just stupid people repeating talking points they’ve heard.
I can really only judge for our lifetime. I'm not sure who is arguably worse, and I had huge issues with every mayor.
So maybe let's go with "most ineffectual". I would argue he is the least effective mayor of my lifetime. He is not the most evil, but I don't think we can argue he's a good guy anymore, given the way he's cleared out institutional knowledge for ideological hacks who are incompetent. His level of nepotism harkens back to the Daley era
Agreed. He could theoretically turn things around while other recent maters did things that were unforgivable.
It seems that whatever side of the political spectrum wins elections there is more cultivation of ideology than competence. In this respect I place Johnson & Trump as both sides of the same coin. While this president has way much more power, local policy affects us more. Other than following him on twitter I don't know a lot of back story on Austin Berg. I find a lot of what he thinks makes sense so I'd like to know what you believe is in bad faith. I'll concede he's self serving. Maybe there's something I don't see.
I thought his opening of "16% of the voters is not a mandate" was pointless and stupid. It got better from there.
I mean, politicians are elected based on their ideals so, yeah, I guess. But Johnson has delivered on some of his promises, and we also are in the middle of a large drop in crime, and he vetoed that stupid, racistass snap curfew ordinance, so I can forgive him somewhat for the mess he made with the school board. Austin Berg (and Illinois Policy, inherently) is a right wing shitheel - if you find yourself agreeing with him frequently then itprobsbly won’t be possible for me to convince you of much. He was against the progressive income tax and tried to make it seem like it would hurt working class people more than the rich, he amplifies any bad news around the state and city as if he actively hates both while ignoring or dismissing any measurement of success, and does so, through the Illinois Policy handle, in a way that tries to pass his opinions off as objective (the Institute claims to be non-partisan lol)- to the point my Apple News feed shows me slop from that site despite me hitting not interested 8 billion times. I can’t take anything passed off as non-partisan in good faith if it always aligns with one party’s ideology.
Fair enough. I'll keep that in mind when I read his stuff. I see him leaning right,maybe not as far as Vallas,but I don't see either of them as full throated MAGAs.
Can you elaborate? Crime has dropped nationwide in big cities, so I believe we're in the midst of a bigger trend but I will give him credit on that. The curfew veto is meaningless, but whatever. What exactly has Johnson delivered on that as a City resident I would be excited about?