CHICAGO - Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announced Sunday that he will seek a second term in office in next year's election after a tumultuous first three-and-a-half years leading the city.
Southwest Side veteran Ald. Matt O'Shea will call it quits after four terms.
Hardest working member of the city council.
Boots will be hard to fill.
Major loss for the neighborhood.
On his way out the door, O’Shea (19th) bemoaned the changes that have turned the job of a Chicago alderperson from a visible presence in the neighborhoods they’re elected to represent to part of a legislative body that spends the majority of its time “speaking out on things that happened halfway around the world.”
Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) looks on during a Chicago City Council meeting this spring. O’Shea says he’s not seeking re-election next year.
Bemoaning how the job of a City Council member has changed, Ald. Matt O’Shea, who helped to lead
The team and its billionaire owner-in-waiting aren’t formally obligated to answer that once their lease at the state-owned ballpark ends after the 2029 season.
But Ishbia’s push to help Amtrak build a new maintenance facility next to Rate Field — and eventually put a new stadium on the South Loop rail yard it would replace — is forcing the issue into public discourse sooner than expected.
He now faces intense resistance to the potential Amtrak facility from neighborhood officials and residents worried they’re about to trade a professional baseball team and key economic engine for an unsightly, industrial nuisance.
Leaving behind an empty, taxpayer-funded stadium on the South Side with outstanding debt would be an awkward outcome for a developer needing zoning and permit approvals to realize that ambitious vision. That makes the future of a 35-year-old ballpark and the 80 acres on which it sits fertile ground for negotiating how to mitigate the rail facility’s impact and establish the stadium’s next chapter.
Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dZddAKz9