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Zagat: Food Trucks Reach a Boiling Point in Chicago
Let’s face it: Chicago might not be a food truck city. After years spent trying to develop an identity for the scene — in spite of the strictest legal restrictions of any U.S. city — City Hall just tightened its vice grip on mobile vendors. This could either be a nail-meets-coffin moment, the culmination of a drawn-out saga or the impetus for a new era of harmony between the city, restaurants and trucks.
City Hall is yanking the dusty rug from beneath urban vendors. Some of the regulations causing debate lately include not parking within 200 feet of a restaurant and that they can’t stay in the same spot for more than two hours. These aren’t new rules, by any means, but they’ve gone unenforced until now. The whistleblowers were the Chicago Sun-Times and ABC-Ch. 7, which performed a joint investigation targeting food trucks breaking the law and incited a response from Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The consequence for breaking one of these rules? Major fines.
Unlike Portland and Austin, where trucks thrive thanks to designated mobile parks that serve as pseudo-permanent food courts, Chicago’s landscape is a frenzied, social media–fueled dash. We have to hunt down roving vehicles on a regular basis. It’s why so many trucks have tried to simplify things by setting up shop in high-traffic areas, like the Loop, where thousands of workers and passersby patronize their businesses on a regular basis. It’s a smart model, aside from the fact that trucks frequently park in loading zones, bus stops and other regulated no-go areas. This — coupled with the fact that brick-and-mortar restaurants don’t appreciate the blatantly direct competition — has pushed the food truck issue to the brink. We’re now in between a rock and a hard place, which is unfortunate considering the sheer opportunity these trucks offer with their low barrier-to-entry.
Sun-Times: Equal opportunity for all voters always comes first
Every effort should be made to make it easier for citizens to vote, but never in a way that gives some voters an unfair advantage over others.
On Tuesday, a federal judge imposed an injunction against an Illinois voter law that, to the judge’s thinking, would do just that, and his legal reasoning is persuasive. The law, which requires certain counties — but not other counties — to allow voters to register at polling places on Election Day, appears to violate a bedrock constitutional principle that everybody should have an equal opportunity to vote.
Reuters: Illinois sets sale of up to $1.7 billion of bonds for October
Illinois plans to sell as much as $1.7 billion of general obligation bonds next month even as the state, which is limping through a second straight fiscal year without a complete budget, faces relatively steep borrowing costs.
The nation’s lowest-rated state is preparing to issue around $400 million of new bonds to fund road, transportation and school projects, and $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion of refunding bonds to take advantage of lower rates in the U.S. municipal market, Governor Bruce Rauner’s office said on Wednesday.
A budget impasse, huge unfunded pension liability and chronic budget deficits have pounded Illinois’ credit ratings into the low-investment grade triple-B level.
AP: Federal judge OKs improvement plan for Illinois child agency
A federal judge has approved an improvement plan for Illinois’ child welfare agency that includes reforms for helping children with psychological, emotional and behavioral problems.
U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Alonso signed off on the overhaul on Wednesday. The roughly 60-page document is part of a longtime consent decree aimed at improving care. It follows an American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois lawsuit.
The plan outlines leadership structure, pilot programs and more training. It was submitted to the court in February. The judge has since sought clarification on how the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services would implement it.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago Teachers Union sets Oct. 11 strike date
The Chicago Teachers Union on Wednesday set a strike date of Oct. 11, moving one step closer to shutting down schools for the second time in Mayor Rahm Emanuel‘s tenure and increasing the heat on negotiations to replace a contract that expired more than a year ago.
The CTU is required to give 10 days’ notice before a walkout, and a strike remains only a threat that the union can use for leverage in ongoing talks. Even with a strike date set, the union could opt to stay on the job if negotiations show progress.
“Technically it means that we’re on strike as of Oct. 11 if we have not reached a tentative agreement,” CTU President Karen Lewis said after the vote by delegates.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago loses major food trade show at McCormick Place
Chicago has lost one of its bigger trade shows, as the Food Marketing Institute said Wednesday it is pulling the plug on an event that traditionally has drawn thousands of food manufacturers and retailers from around the world to the city.
In announcing its decision to cancel FMI Connect, scheduled for June 2017, FMI President and CEO Leslie Sarasin said the group needed to refocus its event strategy after the trade show “has fallen short of achieving the precise formula necessary for meeting today’s industry needs.”
This year’s show brought 6,500 attendees and 490 exhibitors to Chicago, but attendance was down from past years, said David Fikes, vice president of communications at Arlington, Va.-based FMI.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago Heights agrees to $15 million settlement for man in prison for 20 years
Six months after Chicago Heights police arrested Rodell Sanders for a 1993 slaying, his girlfriend received a letter that was purportedly a confession from the real killer.
“I know that you are still mad at me for helping the police to lie on Rodell about that murder,” the letter said, according to court records. “But I was scared. Like I told you before, the police told me to lie on Rodell and put his name on this (expletive). … They wanted Rodell instead of me because they need me to come to court on another case, then help them put Rodell away forever.”
On Wednesday, nearly 23 years after that letter was sent, Sanders stood in his lawyer’s West Loop offices to announce a $15 million settlement in his federal lawsuit alleging corrupt Chicago Heights police officers framed him for the murder, sending him to prison for more than two decades.
Sun-Times: Chicago State University needs to clean up its act
Chicago State University has become an embarrassment.
It wasn’t always that way.
The South Side public university started out as a place where students, especially those from working-class and low-income backgrounds, could get a quality education while holding down a job and raising a family.