The American Dream is grounded in the idea that everyone ought to be able to pursue happiness. That idea has positioned the United States as a land of opportunity, motivating countless millions to flock here for over two centuries. Yet the notion that we can all enjoy prosperity and success if we work hard enough is now under serious threat: a 2023 survey by The Wall Street Journal and NORC at the University of Chicago revealed only 36% of voters believe the American Dream is still achievable, down from an already worrying 53% in 2012.

With 37.9 million Americans living in poverty every day, it’s no surprise this dream looks like a mirage for so many. That’s especially true in urban environments such as Chicago, where I live and where prosperity is simply out of reach for too many individuals. While the overall poverty rate in America is already an unacceptably high 11.5%, in Chicago it is an even worse 17.2%. That means over 450,000 Chicagoans live with poverty daily. Their unjust situation threatens the American Dream itself.

Parents of Chicago school students are suing the Chicago Teachers Union seeking damages over a teachers strike during COVID-19 that kept children out of school longer.

The lawsuits, filed by attorneys Patrick Hughes and Daniel Suhr from Hughes and Suhr LLC, stem from a strike that took place in January 2022. The attorneys said the strikes forced Chicago parents to face unexpected childcare costs, take unpaid leave from work and cope with additional financial strains.

Chicago White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf pushed back last summer against rumors the team could abandon its South Side home for Nashville, but his December meeting with that city’s mayor kept the rumors alive. And some worry the team will eventually use a possible move as leverage in negotiations with Mayor Brandon Johnson, perhaps forcing the city to funnel scarce tax dollars into a new downtown stadium.

“We have too much evidence that sports stadiums don’t pay for themselves, and do not come anywhere close to it,” said Allen Sanderson, a senior professor at the University of Chicago who studies the economics of sports. “I’m not anti-sports, I’m a sports fan, but I am also an economist, and anti-wasting money. I’d rather the city spend money on things that don’t cost as much or on things it needs.”

The City Council’s Progressive Caucus on Monday responded with “We heard you” humility to the defeat of a binding referendum that would have authorized the Council to raise the transaction tax on high-end property sales to generate $100 million in a year to combat homelessness.

Mayor Brandon Johnson had struck a defiant tone after his signature “Bring Chicago Home” referendum was rejected by a margin of about 4.6 percentage points. After Wednesday’s Council meeting, he vowed to keep fighting for a dedicated revenue source to combat homelessness, and warned anyone who might assume the defeat would make him put the brakes on his progressive agenda to “buckle up” for a rocky ride.

Alderman of Chicago’s 42nd Ward, Brendan Rielly, said alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez speaking to a group of pro-Palestine protestors while they burned an American flag is “a disgraceful act.”

“This is totally unacceptable and a disgraceful act,” Rielly said in a post on X. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans have fought under that flag to protect our democracy & our freedoms. They fought for the freedom of expression my colleague makes use of often – for him to desecrate the flag that symbolizes those freedoms is unpatriotic & wrong.”

Buying just about anything in Mundelein will cost more starting this summer.

The village board on Monday approved increasing the local sales tax rate a quarter of a percentage point to 1.25%. That means the overall sales tax in town will be 8.25%, up from 8%.

Chicago Ald. Chris Taliferro is calling for a united front in countering a trend that has seen homicides across the city jump by nearly 50% over the last decade, with much of the violence targeting young people.

“We have to build a better relationship between our public and our police,” Taliaferro told The Center Square. “That’s something that we’ve worked on for decades. I was a new police officer as we ushered in CAPS, which is our alternative policing strategy program. When we ushered that in, there was a whole lot of emphasis placed on community engagement, community participation.”

As Chicago begins evicting migrants from shelters, lawmakers in Springfield are weighing new spending.

By the end of April, The Chicago Tribune reports the city plans to evict 2,000 migrants after a 60-day shelter stay limit went into effect earlier last week. More than 37,000 asylum-seekers have been to the city from Texas since August 2022, leading city officials to continue plea for further assistance from the state and federal government.

The past five years have brought a Chicago Teachers Union strike and two pandemic-era school reopening showdowns with the mayor’s office.

The teachers union is heading back to the bargaining table to work out a new contract this spring. But it should be smoother sailing this time with one of its own as mayor in former union organizer Brandon Johnson — right?

Not necessarily.