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Chicago Tribune
17 hours ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: Gov. Pritzker needs to veto this pension bill. Chicago can't afford it.
Memo to Springfield: Chicago is broke. Gov. JB Pritzker has a bill on his desk that would sweeten pension benefits for Chicago's police and firefighters hired in 2011 or later, to the tune of $60 million more out of the city budget in 2027 alone and more than $11 billion over the next three decades, according to the city's own projections. The measure passed unanimously in both chambers at the end of the spring session, allowing for next to no debate and, astoundingly, was supported by every Chicago House member and senator. At the time of the bill's passage, we wrote that the entire Chicago delegation had effectively had voted to increase property taxes on their constituents. Property taxes, of course, are the main means municipalities have of financing their pension obligations to their workers. Interestingly, the governor acknowledged the conundrum last week. Asked about the bill, he said, 'One thing to consider, of course, is the finances of the city of Chicago. How will they pay for it?' The other important consideration, he said, was ensuring Chicago's first responders are 'well taken care of.' We're glad to see Pritzker explicitly state why he's mulling whether to veto despite the strange prospect of rejecting legislation that passed without a single dissenting vote. By asking rhetorically if Chicago can 'pay for it,' the governor has answered his own question. Of course Chicago can't pay for it. The police and fire pension funds have a mere 25% of the assets needed to meet their current and future obligations as it stands. Since we wrote about this measure in June, the city has estimated what it would do for its woefully underfunded first-responder funds. That percentage would drop to an almost unfathomably low 18%. To those who say it's nonsensical to veto a bill with such overwhelming support, remember that GOP lawmakers mainly went along because of the Chicago delegation's unanimous backing and the fact that only Chicagoans' taxes would be affected. All the Chicago Democrats who voted yes could justify reversing their positions by saying (truthfully) they didn't have the city's projections on just how much these changes would cost taxpayers. Chicago taxpayers already are chewing their nails wondering how the city will plug a 2026 budget deficit exceeding $1 billion. The following year looks even worse. Pritzker already tossed an $80 million hot potato in Chicago's lap with his 2023 initiative to phase out the state's 1% tax on groceries, the proceeds of which had been distributed to municipalities. More than 200 municipalities have approved their own 1% grocery taxes, as the state allows them to do. Mayor Brandon Johnson wants the City Council to do the same for Chicago, which must happen by a state-set deadline of Oct. 1. There are no guarantees, given Johnson's fraught relationship with the council and Chicagoan's understandable resistance to tax hikes of any sort, that aldermen will do as he wishes. Meanwhile, this pension time bomb would cost the city nearly as much as repeal of the grocery tax and in the future will cost far more. Speaking of the mayor, while he has spoken tepidly against this bill, he ought to be forcefully urging Pritzker to veto it and Chicago lawmakers to vote to sustain that veto, despite their earlier support of the measure. The city essentially has been missing in action on this issue, and Johnson apparently is struggling to balance his political brand as an ardent union backer with his duty to Chicago taxpayers. This is no time for such timidity. At this stage, it's worth laying out the origins of this bill. In 2010, in a bid to reform Illinois' public-sector pensions, the state created a second tier of beneficiaries hired in 2011 and thereafter — so-called Tier 2 workers — whose retirement payouts were to be substantially less than the overly generous benefits of existing employees and retirees that had gotten Illinois so deeply in pension debt. Six years ago, Pritzker signed into law sweetened pension benefits for Tier 2 cops and firefighters in Illinois outside of Chicago as part of a consolidation of downstate police and fire pension funds. Ever since, Chicago police and fire unions have argued their Tier 2 workers ought to get the same treatment. In addition, proponents cite concerns that the benefits for Tier 2 workers don't rise to the level of Social Security benefits, which would violate federal law. This page has been consistent on the issue of Tier 2 pension benefits and Social Security. State policymakers should do no more than ensure they are compliant with the law and rebuff union efforts to use the Social Security argument in effect to do away with Tier 2 and pension reform altogether. As much as we appreciate and rely on Chicago's first responders, everyone who went to work for the Police or Fire departments after 2010 knew — or should have known — what their retirement benefits were. In a perfect world, their pensions would be equivalent to those earned by their counterparts outside the city. We don't live in that world. Far from it. Mayor Johnson, you should advocate for your city's beleaguered taxpayers and call on Gov. Pritzker and Chicago's Springfield delegation to do the right thing. And, Governor, adding to Chicago's fiscal crisis hurts the whole state. Whether the mayor asks or not, veto the bill.
Chicago Tribune
29-06-2025
- Climate
- Chicago Tribune
Last weekend's heat wave shows gaps in Chicago's network of cooling centers
Record high nighttime temperatures, a dangerously high heat index and intense humidity swept through Chicago from June 21 to 23, marking the city's first major heat wave of the summer. Ahead of the heat wave, Mayor Brandon Johnson told residents at a June 20 news conference that the city was 'prepared to demonstrate the full force of government' by offering city-run cooling centers. The city's website promotes 288 cooling center locations across the city, which are intended to 'offer residents air-conditioned refuge' during extreme heat advisories. Of those, 110 are outdoor 'splash pads' — water features operated by the Chicago Park District that don't offer any indoor cooling space. In addition, only two-thirds of the indoor cooling centers were open at least part of the day every day during the three-day heat wave. 'This is a lot of show, not a lot of meat,' said Monica Dillon, who works with the Northwest Side Outreach Volunteers, a group that provides support to homeless people. 'It all looks good on paper, but in reality, on the ground, it's just not working.' Of the 178 indoor cooling centers listed on the city's website:From Saturday, June 21, to Monday, June 23, the heat index — a combination of atmospheric temperatures and relative humidity that determines how the heat really feels to the body — peaked at over 100 degrees each day. According to the city, besides the splash pads, 152 cooling locations were open last weekend. But a Tribune analysis found all 79 public libraries were only open for four hours on Sunday. Five community colleges and 27 Park District field houses were closed at least one day during the heat wave. Five of the six community centers and all 21 senior centers were closed for the whole weekend. On Monday, all of the city cooling centers were open for regular business hours. When asked by the Tribune how many cooling centers do not have air conditioning, city officials from the mayor's office, the Office for Emergency Management and Communications, the Department of Family and Support Services and the Department of Public Health said in a joint statement: 'All facilities on the map have air conditioning.' But they did not specify which sites only had one air-conditioned room. The Tribune visited 10 cooling centers over the weekend and found that Warren Park field house in West Ridge did not have air conditioning. Also, Chase Park field house in Uptown had only one room air-conditioned, and the King Center in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood had a ventilation system but not central air. The remaining seven were air-conditioned. The availability of cooling resources raises questions about whether the city's network can fill the gaps in Chicagoans' needs as climate change makes heat waves hotter, more humid and longer, experts say. According to an analysis of Cook County data by Elevate, a nonprofit that studies energy efficiency, only about 30% of single-family homes in Chicago have central air conditioning, compared with 76% of homes nationwide. Despite repeated calls from community activists for the city to expand cooling center hours and increase outreach to homeless and other vulnerable residents, resources have remained limited. Without reliable access to a cool space to rest, heat waves can be deadly. At last weekend's news conference, Public Health Commissioner Olusimbo Ige said the city has recorded 485 heat-related deaths in the past three years, mostly affecting seniors and people with pre-existing medical conditions. What made last weekend's heat wave especially dangerous was the record-high overnight temperatures. During the summer, temperatures in Chicago typically fall to 75 degrees or lower at night, according to Brett Borchardt, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service who spoke at the news conference. When nighttime heat indexes don't fall below this mark, the health department typically begins to see an increase in heat-related illnesses, he said. For context, people generally don't need cooling to be comfortable indoors when outside temperatures are under 65 degrees, according to weather experts. From June 21 to 23, the nighttime heat index didn't fall below 80 degrees, save for one hour right after sunrise on June 23 when the index was 79, according to the weather service. The lows on June 21 and 22 broke records at 78 and 80, respectively, with Monday hitting a low of 79. 'Long-lasting exposure to heat can be really harmful for your health, and can result in things like heat stroke, disturbed sleep quality and respiratory problems,' said Paige Neri, a senior research strategist at Elevate. 'If the body's not able to cool down at night and kind of get a reprieve from the heat, then there could be compounding impacts from that as well.' Human-made climate change is making summers in the Midwest more humid overall, even as seasonal high temperatures have rarely broken records in recent years. According to experts, sweltering summer nights, in particular, have become more common. In Chicago, while overall summer average temperatures have warmed by 1.7 degrees between 1970 and 2024, average overnight lows have increased by 2.5 degrees in that same period. Elevate collaborated with IIT in 2023 on their study of the impact of extreme heat in Chicago homes. The average Chicago home was designed to retain heat, Neri said, and the study found that non-air conditioned homes often reached dangerously high indoor temperatures during heat waves, even at night. During this heat wave, only 22 cooling centers were open overnight, all of which were police stations, according to OEMC's cooling center map. While the police stations often offer seating and air conditioning, many advocates said that homeless people, people of color, immigrants and other groups who have historically been targeted by the police may not feel comfortable seeking shelter at a station. 'If you're living on the street and have a complicated relationship with the police, is it really a place where you might feel comfortable and welcome?' Dillon said. In their statement to the Tribune, city officials said they evaluate weekend and holiday options based on the 'operational feasibility' of facilities with special consideration for spaces that have existing weekend and overnight operations. Additionally, through its five-year plan to address homelessness, the statement said, the city will consider initiatives that require larger investments across departments and sister agencies, such as 24/7 sites for weather safety. The People's Response Network has been calling on the city to expand hours and outreach for its official cooling centers when an extreme heat advisory is issued. In a September letter sent to Johnson and the Chicago City Council, the group asked the city to implement an expanded cooling center policy, opening all cooling centers and libraries 24/7 once the heat index rises above 80 degrees. They said the city did not respond to their letter. 'Most people die at night, not during the daytime,' said Lonette Sims, chair of the network, a local group advocating for better public health infrastructure in Chicago. 'The body accumulates all the heat exposure, and for the most vulnerable populations who are elderly, children and people with health conditions, they need immediate access to cooling centers.' Meanwhile, in suburban Cook County, three courthouses — in Skokie, Maywood and Markham — were activated as 24/7 cooling centers from June 21 to June 24 in response to the heat advisory. According to Natalia Derevyanny, director of communications for Cook County, the courthouses provided water and snacks donated by the Salvation Army, offered cots and seating for people to rest, and even worked with the Department of Animal Control to provide carriers for people coming in with pets. 'We understand that different people might have health conditions that make being without air conditioning dangerous,' Derevyanny said. 'So we just want to ensure that these are amenities that are available to everyone as they need.' Dillon, a retired nurse, spent most of the weekend trying to help unsheltered residents of the Northwest Side find places to cool off. She used the city's list of cooling centers to locate any in her area, and then drove around and visited each one to make sure it was suitable for her to recommend for the residents with whom she is working. 'The (Skokie courthouse) was really good, really appropriate,' said Dillon. 'If I could get everyone on a bus and just send them there, I totally would.' The Cook County sheriff's office handled staffing for the three courthouses designated as cooling centers. According to Matthew Walberg, communications director for the sheriff's office, operating the cooling centers 24 hours a day from noon on June 21 to 5 p.m. on June 25 required approximately 300 hours of overtime at a cost of about $17,800. Chicago's cooling center network is anchored by six community service centers. Run by the Department of Family and Support Services, they routinely offer a range of social services, from job training programs to domestic violence assistance. When temperatures reach 90 degrees or more, cooling areas are activated in these centers Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the city. Only one of these centers, located at 10 S. Kedzie Ave. in Garfield Park, was open the weekend of June 21-22 from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., expanding its cooling hours into the evening, according to an email sent out by the city. The center has, during past heat waves, remained open overnight for those needing shelter. The other five community service centers were closed over the weekend, and some struggled to deal with high outdoor temperatures when they reopened Monday. The King Center, at 4314 S. Cottage Grove Ave., doesn't have central air conditioning and instead uses fans and a ventilation system. According to security guard Chanel Olivas, the second floor of the building, which houses its mental health services, computer room and job center, frequently closes down during heat waves. On Monday afternoon, when the heat index was again over 100 degrees, these second-floor offices had to close because of problems with the ventilation system. One man, who came to the center hoping to print his resume at the job center, was turned away due to the office closure. Though a handful of people were waiting for the bus or sitting on benches just outside the King Center's doors, nobody came inside to rest in the building's designated cooling center space — a row of folding chairs in the lobby, positioned beneath a paper sign reading 'waiting area.' In its statement, the city said the online map lists various types of cooling sites and features so residents can choose what is 'best suited for their needs.' 'The splash pads are included because they may be sufficient relief or temporary respite for certain populations, like families with children,' according to the statement. In the absence of enough citywide cooling resources, local community leaders say they have partnered with ward representatives to step in to offer the community other options. Public health data shows the 60620, 60623, 60628 and 60651 ZIP codes have historically seen more heat-related emergencies than other locations, Ige said during last week's news conference. 'I'm careful about using the word 'historical,'' said Ald. David Moore, 17th, whose ward is in the 60620 ZIP code. 'It seems like since I've been alderman, we haven't had any major issues — and I've been alderman for 10 years.' The ZIP code has six indoor cooling locations, including the Englewood community service center, which operates only on weekdays; the Brainerd and Thurgood Marshall public library branches, which have limited Sunday hours; the Auburn Gresham satellite senior center, which closes over the weekends; one field house at Foster Park; and the 6th District police station. Moore said residents are welcome at church partners in the community if needed. 'We want to get them somewhere cool, even if I got to get them cool at my office,' he said. Even in neighborhoods with more robust cooling center networks, very few residents are actually using these centers. Only 3% of Chicagoans used a cooling center last year, according to Ige. None of the cooling centers the Tribune visited had signage indicating that they were an official cooling center, and the Office of Emergency Management's map of cooling centers is only accessible online. The number of people in cooling centers visited by the Tribune ranged from zero to 10, and most visitors were there to use other services offered inside the cooling centers, such as a library or DFSS office. 'Most vulnerable populations, they may or may not have access to the internet,' Sims said. 'Language barriers can be an issue too. We want (the city) to be making sure that (information is) in Spanish and in Mandarin and Polish, and making sure that people who aren't native English speakers are aware of the cooling centers, so that they can get relief as well.' For some residents, the cooling centers lack convenience and security. According to advocates, some Chicagoans say it feels riskier to leave home than to stay put; they worry about the security of their personal items and a lack of privacy in a communal environment. 'It's been probably 20 years since I've gone (to a city cooling center),' said Carol Vaxter, an Englewood resident. Vaxter stopped inside the lobby at Kennedy-King College on Monday afternoon to cool off during a walk with her daughter, Skye, but didn't go to the designated cooling space on the college's campus. Vaxter's apartment doesn't have central air conditioning, so during heat waves, she tries to stay out of the house during the day. She said she doesn't necessarily mind the city's cooling centers. However, it's much easier for her to stop at places such as local gyms or fast-food restaurants — places that are reliably open, well-marked and entertaining for her daughter. 'Wherever I go, they have the air conditioning, so that's the reason,' she said. 'If I didn't have no other place to go, I would go (to the cooling centers). But when I go to other places like McDonald's, they have the air on.'
Chicago Tribune
29-06-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: Why Chicago has a restaurant crisis
The hit TV show 'The Bear' chronicles an independent restaurant's existential struggles and celebrates Chicagoans' determination to survive. But you need only traverse one of the city's real-life arteries, such as North Broadway through Edgewater or along 26th Street in Little Village, to see the the state of one of Chicago's most celebrated and artful industries: shuttered restaurants pockmark almost every block. Chicago's storied restaurant business is mired in crisis. If you doubt our word that this is a dire emergency, we suggest you swivel your head from road or sidewalk and look for yourselves. Fine dining. Trattorias. Taquerias. Vietnamese cuisine. Italian beef. It seems not to matter. Chicago has never been a locus of chain restaurants, unlike many cities in the south. The fame of the city's restaurants has sprouted from the creativity of independent operators, some craving (and winning) James Beard Awards and international acclaim, and others merely wanting to serve and nourish their communities. We hardly need to tell you that many locally owned restaurants are the foci of their neighborhoods, which accounts for why there was such a howl of anguish in recent days when the cozy Gale Street Inn on Milwaukee Avenue in Jefferson Park announced its closure. Its famously genial operator, George Karzas, had owned and run the restaurant since 1994. Among his many other good works, he supported his local Jefferson Park theater, The Gift, storefront theaters and storefront restaurants sharing much of the same homegrown DNA in this city. At the Gale Street Inn, you always knew you were in Chicago. The problem? The current headwinds are many in the restaurant business, including the well-documented rise in food costs. But top of mind of those in the hospitality industry in Chicago is the high cost of labor and the city's shortsighted decision to get rid of the so-called tipped minimum wage following a campaign by an out-of-state activist group, One Fair Wage, which had worked its agenda on Mayor Brandon Johnson and enough of the aldermen in the City Council. Karzas' decision to close the Gale Street Inn comes as the tipped minimum wage was set to increase again Tuesday, rising from $11.02 to $12.62 an hour as part of a phased-in approach that has been a progressive nightmare for restaurants. One Fair Wage is led by Saru Jayaraman, a Yale University-educated lawyer, activist and academic who runs the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California at Berkeley. Back in Chicago, Christina Gonzalez from Taqueria Los Comales told us this past week that she worries not about political campaigns, but the price of her burritos at a family business with a 50-year history. 'I can't charge $24 for a burrito,' she told us. 'My customers won't come.' Gonzalez thus defined the Catch-22. While fine-dining establishments that attract the wealthiest customers can raise (and have raised) their menu prices to eye-popping levels, restaurants that appeal to ordinary Chicagoans know that they have already hit the ceiling of what their customers can afford to pay. Their only option often is to close. 'You raise prices, you lose customers,' Sam Toia, head of the Illinois Restaurant Association told us. And that is exactly what has been happening, Gonzalez said. Counter service is looking to her like the only way to go, which means laying off servers and defeating what the rise in the tipped minimum wage sought to achieve. Anyone who attended the National Restaurant Show in Chicago last month was smacked in the face at booth after booth by a single agenda wrought from desperation: how to harness technology to find ways to use fewer human workers. But while fast-food joints can and will have a robot flipping burgers, independent, table-service restaurants are all about human interaction. We think there is a preponderance of evidence that the end of the tipped minimum wage, which Johnson has consistently defended using racially charged language, is a major cause of the current crisis. Even some servers agree, because their hours are being cut and they're being cross-trained to juggle multiple roles as owners try to cut costs. They can see that their workplaces are on the cusp of going out of business. 'None of us want this,' said Jose Garcia, a veteran server at The Dearborn in Chicago's Loop. In Massachusetts, hardly a conservative state, a ballot initiative that would have eliminated the tipped minimum wage was defeated by voters last fall by a margin of roughly 2-to-1 after the state's Democratic governor, Maura Healey, came out against the proposal, saying she was convinced it would lead to the closing of restaurants. The arguments for the drastic rise in labor costs hardly make sense because it forms only a relatively small portion of servers' actual income. Hard as it may be for some in City Council to understand, the health of their restaurants matters more to most servers than the size of their base paycheck, because the bulk of their income comes from tips. Most servers of our acquaintance have no interest in being paid a flat hourly wage that discourages tipping; they know that will hurt their earnings. What they most want is to be working in a dynamic restaurant where they can offer excellent service so that the tips flow. It long has been state law that in the event tipped employees such as servers and bartenders do not at least make the prevailing minimum wage, their employers must make up the difference. Few need to do so but still, most do. And, even in the case of the few bad actors, fairness demands that the law be more strictly enforced, rather than forcing all restaurants to increase their wage bills. Toia told us his group would support the prosecution of those who do not do right by their workers. It's axiomatic in the restaurant business that servers make better money than those in the so-called back of the house. Korina Sanchez, vice president and general counsel at Third Coast Hospitality, told us that information from point-of-sale systems tells her that her servers typically make $40 an hour (good, this is hard work). Elsewhere, Toia said, it can be far more. Restaurants generally now know what their servers are making because cash tips have become rare. The change in the law is causing yet harsher inequity with non-tipped employees. Before these changes, servers were making significantly more than line cooks and dishwashers, who are more likely to be immigrants shouldering the support of a family. If Congress passes Donald Trump's tax-and-spending bill, which contains new tax breaks for tipped workers, that will tip the balance (no pun intended) even further in servers' favor. Sanchez said that one of the saddest aspects of the crisis is that it is preventing her from doing more for her kitchen workers. So what to do? Simply put, City Council should stop this craziness before we lose any more restaurants. Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington, D.C., proposed last month to repeal Initiative 82 — the three-year-old law that eliminates D.C.'s tipped minimum wage. She knows it did not work. 'We think our restaurants are facing a perfect storm with increased operational and supply costs, higher rent, and unique labor challenges,' she said, arguing that it was part of her job to 'ensure our restaurants can compete, survive, grow and employ D.C. residents,' Axios reported. Amen. Meanwhile in Chicago, Mayor Johnson has made no such statements, insisting that the city will push ahead with its increases. His mouthpieces on City Council have been arguing that the sector is doing just great. This is nonsense. Only restaurants funded by chains and private equity groups are growing in Chicago. For independents, it's an existential crisis. At a bare minimum, City Council should stop the increase in the tipped minimum wage and leave it at its current rate, $11.02 an hour. Most likely, it would need to take this action with a two-thirds majority, so as to prevent a veto, given that the pleas from Chicago restaurants so far have fallen on unreceptive mayoral ears. There is an ordinance waiting in committee, as proposed by Ald. Bennett Lawson, 44th, that would repeal this entire misguided mishegoss. Ideally, City Council would listen to fellow Democratic leaders in Washington and Boston and admit this did not work. When pressed by us, Toia said that the Illinois Restaurant Association, which he described as 'progressive and pragmatic,' could live with a pause rather than a repeal. It is the least City Council should do to save Chicago's restaurants.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Aldermen advance measure allowing Airbnb bans in Chicago precincts
Aldermen took a step Wednesday toward giving themselves the power to ban Airbnb's and other short-term rentals from opening in their wards. The City Council's License and Consumer Protection Committee advanced the ordinance that would allow aldermen to unilaterally block new short-term rentals one precinct at a time. It could now face a final vote by all aldermen as soon as next week. Sponsor Ald. Anthony Napolitano, 41st, called the city's current ordinance made a decade ago 'extremely sloppy.' The existing law allows short-term rentals to be blocked only when 25% of a precinct's registered voters sign a petition calling for it. 'This is the only ordinance written in the city of Chicago where, when there is a problem in the industry, the onus is put on residents to fix it,' Napolitano said. The Far Northwest Side alderman's ordinance seeks to reverse that, allowing aldermen to block short-term rentals in a precinct on their own. It would then give companies the chance to overturn the ban by collecting signatures from 10% of the precinct's voters. Most aldermen in attendance backed the ordinance in a voice vote. Several cited issues in their ward with disruptive parties at short-term rentals, a problem Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, said is 'on steroids' in dense downtown high rises. 'The guests are taking over common areas, pool decks, lobbies, fitness rooms,' he said. 'With the late night parties and noise complaints, et cetera, God help you if you own a condo next to one of these nightly rental units.' Napolitano argued the ordinance will not hurt short-term rental companies, but instead simply gives aldermen a tool to advocate for residents when issues arise. But Airbnb is strongly opposed to the proposal. 'Alderman Napolitano's ordinance amendment is an over-broad and misguided violation of Chicagoans' property rights, which would punish responsible homeowners and local businesses who rely on the income from travel on short-term rentals — especially in neighborhoods outside of Chicago's traditional tourism hubs,' Airbnb spokesperson Jonathan Buckner said in a statement Wednesday. Mayor Brandon Johnson is continuing to not take a side on the issue. Asked where he stood on the ordinance at a Wednesday morning news conference, he said he wanted to 'continue to ensure that we are building a safe, affordable city.' 'This particular measure, quite frankly, I'll have to look into a little bit deeper,' Johnson said. 'But I know that there are a number of alders who mean well and are trying to show up for their particular pocket of the city.' Several aldermen noted the absence of staff from Johnson's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, adding that they wished someone could answer questions about how bans could affect tax revenue. Alds. Matt O'Shea, 19th, and Bill Conway, 34th, voted against the measure, with O'Shea noting taxes on the rentals sent around $4 million to fight domestic violence. 'Have we thought of how we are going to replace that?' O'Shea asked. 'It's been my experience working with Airbnb that when a problem is identified, it's addressed.' Ald. Marty Quinn, 13th, used the city's current process requiring residents' signatures to ban short-term rentals from every precinct in his Southwest Side ward. The whole-ward ban took 12,000 signatures and seven years to complete, he said. The ward is '95% single family dwellings,' and short-term rentals 'would have an adverse impact on our quality of life,' Quinn said. Asked what he thinks of Airbnb's argument that the ban is similar to historic racist efforts to keep Black and Latino people out of certain neighborhoods, Quinn called it a 'desperate statement from a company who got exactly what they wanted' when the original ordinance passed. 'I'm not saying that Airbnb isn't good in some parts of the city,' he said. 'It's just not good in the Bungalow Belt, and I have 12,000 signatures that would suggest that.' Aldermen also Wednesday advanced a measure to crack down on illegal pedicabs with potential impoundments.
Chicago Tribune
11-06-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Aldermen advance measure allowing Airbnb bans in Chicago precincts
Aldermen took a step Wednesday toward giving themselves the power to ban Airbnb's and other short-term rentals from opening in their wards. The City Council's License and Consumer Protection Committee advanced the ordinance that would allow aldermen to unilaterally block new short-term rentals one precinct at a time. It could now face a final vote by all aldermen as soon as next week. Sponsor Ald. Anthony Napolitano, 41st, called the city's current ordinance made a decade ago 'extremely sloppy.' The existing law allows short-term rentals to be blocked only when 25% of a precinct's registered voters sign a petition calling for it. 'This is the only ordinance written in the city of Chicago where, when there is a problem in the industry, the onus is put on residents to fix it,' Napolitano said. The Far Northwest Side alderman's ordinance seeks to reverse that, allowing aldermen to block short-term rentals in a precinct on their own. It would then give companies the chance to overturn the ban by collecting signatures from 10% of the precinct's voters. Most aldermen in attendance backed the ordinance in a voice vote. Several cited issues in their ward with disruptive parties at short-term rentals, a problem Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, said is 'on steroids' in dense downtown high rises. 'The guests are taking over common areas, pool decks, lobbies, fitness rooms,' he said. 'With the late night parties and noise complaints, et cetera, God help you if you own a condo next to one of these nightly rental units.' Napolitano argued the ordinance will not hurt short-term rental companies, but instead simply gives aldermen a tool to advocate for residents when issues arise. But Airbnb is strongly opposed to the proposal. 'Alderman Napolitano's ordinance amendment is an over-broad and misguided violation of Chicagoans' property rights, which would punish responsible homeowners and local businesses who rely on the income from travel on short-term rentals — especially in neighborhoods outside of Chicago's traditional tourism hubs,' Airbnb spokesperson Jonathan Buckner said in a statement Wednesday. Mayor Brandon Johnson is continuing to not take a side on the issue. Asked where he stood on the ordinance at a Wednesday morning news conference, he said he wanted to 'continue to ensure that we are building a safe, affordable city.' 'This particular measure, quite frankly, I'll have to look into a little bit deeper,' Johnson said. 'But I know that there are a number of alders who mean well and are trying to show up for their particular pocket of the city.' Several aldermen noted the absence of staff from Johnson's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, adding that they wished someone could answer questions about how bans could affect tax revenue. Alds. Matt O'Shea, 19th, and Bill Conway, 34th, voted against the measure, with O'Shea noting taxes on the rentals sent around $4 million to fight domestic violence. 'Have we thought of how we are going to replace that?' O'Shea asked. 'It's been my experience working with Airbnb that when a problem is identified, it's addressed.' Ald. Marty Quinn, 13th, used the city's current process requiring residents' signatures to ban short-term rentals from every precinct in his Southwest Side ward. The whole-ward ban took 12,000 signatures and seven years to complete, he said. The ward is '95% single family dwellings,' and short-term rentals 'would have an adverse impact on our quality of life,' Quinn said. Asked what he thinks of Airbnb's argument that the ban is similar to historic racist efforts to keep Black and Latino people out of certain neighborhoods, Quinn called it a 'desperate statement from a company who got exactly what they wanted' when the original ordinance passed. 'I'm not saying that Airbnb isn't good in some parts of the city,' he said. 'It's just not good in the Bungalow Belt, and I have 12,000 signatures that would suggest that.' Aldermen also Wednesday advanced a measure to crack down on illegal pedicabs with potential impoundments.
