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Chicago Tribune
5 hours ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Laura Washington: Chicago mayoral wannabes are already edging to the gate
Elections, elections. They never seem to stop coming at us. The next Chicago mayoral election comes in February 2027 — 19 months from now. The race unofficially kicked off last week. While no contestant has formally announced, the wannabes are already edging to the gate. Starting with Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza. Word is, she has been mulling a challenge to Mayor Brandon Johnson for months. Before her three-term stint as the state's chief financial officer, this high-energy politician served as an Illinois state representative and the city clerk for Chicago. She ran for mayor in 2019, coming in fifth in a nine-candidate field. If Mendoza were reelected as comptroller in November 2026, she would take office just months before the Feb. 23 mayoral election. Running for one office while turning around to bid for another is bad optics, not to mention a perilous juggling act. Hence, she called the news media to a restaurant in the Little Village neighborhood last week to announce that she would not seek a fourth term. Mendoza has pledged to serve out her current term, but she is surely testing the waters for a second mayoral run. 'I'm definitely leaving the door open,' she told reporters. She has plenty of not-so-indirect criticisms of Johnson's leadership. 'I think that Chicago is in dire need of competency, someone who understands the needs of the city,' she told reporters. 'I think we've had two very unsuccessful mayors in a row. So, Chicagoans, let me just say that Chicagoans deserve better; they deserve a lot better.' Johnson pushed back when he was asked about her comments: 'I don't think much about her candidacy,' he said. 'In fact, she tried this already, and apparently Chicagoans did not think too much of her candidacy, either.' Touché. Still, a chorus of critics and supporters alike has been weighing in on Johnson's tenure, spurred on by his low performance ratings in recent polls. A series of missteps and controversies have hamstrung Johnson's progressive agenda. Potential challengers are making the rounds to test the political waters. Given Johnson's vulnerabilities, he's sure to face a raft of challengers. Our incessantly talkative mayor isn't saying much about 2027, but he has heard the message. He's been hitting events and rallies in the city's African American neighborhoods, to bulk up his strongest base. The potential competition is getting itchy. That includes contenders such as Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias. He is running for reelection in November 2026 and was endorsed by the Cook County Democratic Party last week. He's widely believed to be hankering for a mayoral run. Unlike Mendoza, Giannoulias declined to pick a lane. Chicago business owner Willie Wilson has continued his philanthropic ways, hosting gas and grocery giveaways, writing op-eds and boosting his profile. He cultivates the limelight, with three previous runs for mayor and even a try for president of the United States. While Wilson captured about 10% in his mayoral forays, he may not be able to resist a fourth time around. Maria Pappas, the flamboyantly popular baton-twirling Cook County treasurer, has been feeding mayoral rumors, declaring at one point that she was open to a draft. Will Paul Vallas return for a grudge match? He lost the 2023 runoff to Johnson by 4 points. Since then, he has been a ubiquitous and angry Johnson critic. He would lean on his experience as a former Chicago Public Schools CEO and City Hall budget chief. That didn't work the first time, but who knows? Brendan Reilly, Bill Conway and Brian Hopkins are high-profile aldermen who know how to maneuver a microphone and have cultivated deep ties to the downtown corporate types. Their problem: If they mount a mayoral run, they must give up their City Council seats. That would be a rare move for a sitting City Council member. Janice K. Jackson, who also served as a CPS CEO, is stepping down from a four-year stint as the founding CEO of Hope Chicago, a nonprofit that offers debt-free college scholarships and wraparound services to students and parents. She has just been named executive director of Aspen Institute's education and society program. Jackson, who earned solid reviews for her leadership at CPS, could tout that experience in an appeal to voters. My wild card: Lisa Madigan. The former Illinois attorney general might resume her political career with a mayoral run. She left office in 2019 after serving four terms as the state's chief legal officer and previously served her North Side district as an Illinois state senator. Now in private practice at the law firm Kirkland and Ellis, Madigan could bring credibility and credentials to a serious campaign. Yes, Michael Madigan, the disgraced former Illinois speaker of the House, is her father. The sins of the father should not be visited on the daughter. While a certain U.S. president might wish so, elections are not going anywhere. More to come in the race for City Hall, and soon.
Chicago Tribune
5 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: Slots at Chicago O'Hare airport? A tacky choice.
Pop quiz: How many U.S. airports have slot machines operating among the departure and arrival gates? The answer is two: Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas and Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Reno. Those airports are in . Gambling is central to the zeitgeist of that state. People expect the chance to feed bills into slots as they wait out their flight delays. But savvy gamblers know not to touch these airside temptations, airport slots being notoriously tight, a consequence of convenience and captured customers. Moreover, it's hard to imagine that whoever is Chicago's mayor when the epic O'Hare reconstruction is completed will want to be photographed on opening day with Megabucks or Wheel of Fortune machines as their backdrop. That would be tacky. In global cities outside Nevada, cities showcase airports with fountains, play areas, soaring ceilings, even verdant lounges. They don't want to be known for trying to take Aunt Sally from Salt Lake City for twenty bucks as she changes planes to one bound for Sarasota. We understand the aldermanic temptation to squeeze revenue from every corner of Terminal 3, especially if they can plausibly argue the money is not coming from Chicagoans (although that's a debatable point). Faced with a mayoral administration allergic to any kind of trimming of expenses, aldermen cast around like they're pulling up couch cushions looking for dimes. Even aside from the above objections, it's by no means clear that Chicago would actually make money from airport slots as distinct from syphoning off revenue from a casino that has yet to open. The tax regulations surrounding different kinds of automated ways to lose your money — slots are not the same as video terminals — are complicated and come at varying rates. Plus we imagine the highly successful Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, just a dice throw from O'Hare, would have a lot to say if airside slots came to pass. And let's not forget that Rivers coughs up millions in taxes to both Des Plaines and the state of Illinois. For all of those reasons, we think the ordinance authorizing slots at Chicago's airports, as introduced by Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, is a losing proposition. At minimum, the city should wait until its new casino opens and a clearer picture emerges of the current state of (legal) gambling in our metro area. In the meantime, aldermen could press the administration to find some ways to cut the city some slack.
Time Out
a day ago
- Lifestyle
- Time Out
Two of the best malls in America are located in the Chicago suburbs, per new ranking
Remember when your mom would drop you off at the mall all day with only a five spot in your pocket? You can act out at that nostalgia at the best malls in the country, two of which are located right here in the Chicago suburbs—or so says a new readers' choice report from USA Today. The outlet recently released its Readers' Choice Awards 2025 for a variety of shopping experiences and destinations throughout the country—a panel of travel experts nominated their top picks from hundreds of available choices, and then they handed the list over to readers so they could pick the winners. And it turns out that Illinoisans still love to shop in person. In the ' Best Shopping Center ' category—which focuses on malls that are not only enjoyable, clean, and safe environments, but also important community gathering spaces—Oakbrook Center in Oakbrook, IL was awarded the fourth-place spot for its lovely open-air shopping experience full of green spaces, art installations, chef-driven dining establishments and more than 170 prosperous stores. Plus, the mall has plenty of seasonal events to keep Chicagoans busy connected and engaged all year. Oakbrook was joined on the list by The Shops at La Cantera in San Antonio, TX (at No. 1), Peddler's Village in Lahaska, PA (in second place) and Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, HI, rounding out the top three. And in the ' Best Outlet Mall ' ranking, Massachusetts and New Jersey malls took the gold and silver, but Fashion Outlets of Chicago in Rosemont, Illinois took home the Bronze. This two-level indoor shopping center has plenty of designer outlets and name brands to choose from, as well as dining options and a fun atmosphere filled with interesting art.
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: A new CTA day for Edgewater and Uptown. But what about Broadway?
'This is Berwyn,' insisted the voice of the CTA as our train pulled into the new Argyle station on the CTA's Red Line Monday afternoon. Teething troubles, surely forgivable, for the big reopening of four stations on the CTA's Red Line, the transit agency's flagship artery that can take you from Wrigley Field to Rate Field or, for many Chicagoans, from home to work. New stations reopened Sunday with the monikers and (locations of) Lawrence, Berwyn, Argyle and Bryn Mawr, all abutting North Broadway, a street about which there currently is much dissent. We thought we'd check them all out. Our takeaway? None of these stations are architectural marvels and they all have the utilitarian design long familiar to CTA riders. But they're also all improvements. They all have functioning escalators to take you up (but not down) from the turnstiles to the platform. They all have elevators that smell like new cars, not the disgorging of human bodies. We're not crazy about the angled platform seats that seem ready to tip you off at any moment, but we assume the CTA has its reasons, just as it surely does for the endless customer service scrolls that get in the way of what most people at a CTA station really want to know, which is when the next train might be expected. More significantly, all four stations have translucent roofs that, aside from offering decent shade and shelter, feel to us like a bit of a neighborhood nod to the grand terminals of old. At Lawrence, the new design showcases terrific views of the (sadly unrestored) Uptown Theatre and the upper reaches of the historic Aragon Ballroom, just a few feet from the train line. We spent a while drinking in those vistas, which somehow feel more impactful now. But the biggest takeaway? The impact of significantly wider platforms. Not only do these stations feel (and surely are) significantly safer, but the broader expanse of concrete makes standing there all the more pleasant. There's room to walk around (or away) without feeling crammed toward an oncoming train. The stations have more weight and substance. They have the effect of elevating Edgewater and Uptown. Those diverse Chicago neighborhoods have been the subject of much zoning mishegoss of late. In one corner is the 48th Ward's alderman, Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, and Mayor Brandon Johnson, both of whom want to 'upzone' Broadway from Montrose Avenue to Devon Avenue so it might accommodate taller buildings and more affordable housing. In the other are neighborhood activists who argue this will ruin their quality of life. We published the thoughts of one of them, Steve Weinshel, on Sunday. Wienshel argued that Johnson's desire to eliminate the parking mandate for new multifamily developments would be catastrophic and he foresaw masses of new housing on Broadway, with most needing somewhere to park. 'To contemplate adding 10,000 housing units along Edgewater's adjacent stretch of Broadway with minimal off-street parking requirements constitutes urban planning malpractice,' Weinshel wrote. 'Such lunacy will plague Edgewater for generations to come.' Standing on each of those station platforms and looking over at Broadway, you see a streetscape that seems bizarre to defend. Except for the historic Uptown entertainment district, one of the city's overlooked assets, it's a hodgepodge of car washes and mini-malls with surface parking lots that don't feel like they belong, and certainly are no things of beauty. Frankly, they're eyesores. That said, they're filled with small-business owners who fear their convenient parking being swept away by a lobby that often demonizes their needs. And if you live on or around Broadway and struggle to find somewhere to park your car (and most households in this area have at least one), you understandably are nervous about the future. Progressive activists, of course, argue that city leaders should not listen to 'motorheads' and force a change in that behavior. They have a case, and the new stations on the Red Line, making travel by the CTA more attractive, certainly bolster their argument. Meanwhile, the other side says creating an avoidable parking crisis will negatively impact the very people who've worked so hard to improve these neighborhoods over the years, neighborhoods that often offer a first stop for new immigrants to the city and are already dense by the standards of elsewhere. On Monday, we certainly saw a lot more cars on Broadway than people on the CTA platforms, which largely were deserted during the lunch hour. There again, though, it may take time. Thanks to the delays and dysfunction plaguing new public-funded construction in cities such as Chicago, these relatively simple stations were closed for four years (there were some temporary options, at least). People will have to get used to their opening again. And, of course, new stations alone won't get people out of their cars: for that we need more frequent trains, a greater perception of safety and faster journey times. We could use a CTA that expands operations with regard to use and population. All that said, we saw CTA functioning at its best and smoothest Monday afternoon; you might even say the trains glide into the new stations. In an ideal world, denser housing, the elimination of required parking and the end of those mini-malls would be a no-brainer for Broadway because far fewer cars would be needed. But in the meantime, some sort of compromise has to be found that involves Chicagoans respecting the needs of others and refraining from insulting perfectly reasonable positions. These new stations deserve a Broadway that rises to meet them.
Time Out
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A brand-new music festival is coming to Edgewater this summer
Chicagoans love a summer music festival: From Lollapalooza to Chicago Blues Festival to Pitchfork Music Festival to Chicago Jazz Festival, there's no shortage of good tunes that entertain concertgoers. And now there's a new music celebration coming to Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood this summer. For the first time ever, Edgewater Music Fest —not to be confused with the Colorado-based festival of the same name—will bring more than 35 live musical acts and 100 vendors to North Broadway, between Thorndale and Ardmore Avenues in Edgewater, on September 5–7 for a three-day festival unlike any other, especially for this part of the city. Headliners include former Against Me! performer Laura Jane Grace, performing on Friday; Chicago's own, rapper Ric Wilson, lighting up the stage on Saturday; and groovy rockers Foxy Shazam, playing on Sunday. The rest of the weekend's live bill includes Sludgeworth, Bev Rage & The Drinks, Devon Kay & The Solutions, Pinksqueeze, The Brokedowns, OK Cool and Uniflora, among others. 'Edgewater has been craving a dynamic street festival for quite some time. Not just the same copy-and-paste fest we see in other places,' said Garrett Karp, Executive Director of the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce to Secret Chicago. 'We're excited to launch a new music-centric experience that feels edgy and exciting, features local food and drinks, and will bring tens of thousands of visitors and new economic investment into our business districts.' The Edgewater Music Fest runs from 5–10 pm on Friday and noon–10 pm on Saturday and Sunday. The CTA Red Line is your best transportation option as parking will be limited. The event is free; however, a $10 donation is suggested. And the fest is open to all ages, with a Kids' Zone activity area for the youngins.
