Good afternoon, and glad Friday! Sprouts, a specialty grocery chain, plans to open its first Chicago retailer. Right here’s what else it’s good to know at this time.
1. Chicago’s invisible property homeowners
For a lot of Chicago renters, their landlord is a faceless entity referred to as an LLC, a restricted legal responsibility firm. That anonymity makes it powerful to carry drawback landlords accountable, my WBEZ colleagues Amy Qin and Esther Yoon-Ji Kang write.
Within the final twenty years, LLCs have change into an more and more widespread approach to personal actual property in Chicago, in keeping with a first-of-its-kind evaluation of 26 million property information by WBEZ, Injustice Watch and the Mansueto Institute for City Innovation on the College of Chicago.
If a landlord who owns a property utilizing an LLC will get sued, a choose or lender can’t come after another properties the owner owns.
However specialists say the difficulty with LLCs isn’t their safety towards authorized legal responsibility however the lack of transparency.
“Any person is managing the LLC. Any person is investing within the LLC, and when there’s an issue and also you wish to discover out who that anyone is, you run right into a brick wall,” mentioned Susan Tempo Hamill, a professor on the College of Alabama College of Legislation who has studied LLCs because the Nineties. “You possibly can’t discover what I name ‘the wizard behind the scenes.’” [WBEZ]
2. Volunteers are on ICE patrol in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, searching for brokers
Elias Cepeda and his crew wish to warn individuals in Pilsen, the place many Mexican immigrants stay, in the event that they see federal brokers. They plan to doc each interplay, my colleague Adriana Cardona-Maguigad studies for WBEZ.
Since President Donald Trump started his mass deportation marketing campaign in January, immigration enforcement and arrests have elevated considerably exterior Chicago colleges, immigration courts and throughout the town’s immigrant communities.
Cepeda and his group of volunteers kicked into excessive alert this week, when Trump introduced that federal brokers had been “getting in” to Chicago. A few of them have already arrived at a naval base in north suburban Chicago; greater than 200 are anticipated. Trump additionally threatened to deploy the Nationwide Guard to Chicago, as he has finished in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. [WBEZ]
Deploying Nationwide Guard troops to Chicago may price taxpayers practically $1.6 million per day, in keeping with a nonpartisan federal finances analysis group. The estimate is predicated on 3,000 troops, although no official quantity has been made public. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Town’s Latino leaders referred to as on residents to stay peaceable throughout protests that may come up from a Nationwide Guard deployment. [Chicago Sun-Times]
The Loop will host a strong lineup of occasions this weekend, from Style of Chicago to the Printers Row Lit Competition. However potential federal exercise may curb foot visitors, WBEZ’s Courtney Kueppers studies.
“The notion of federal people coming to city simply places a damper on anyone’s choice to come back downtown for any motive, whether or not it’s a restaurant or a resort keep or an occasion,” mentioned Michael Edwards, CEO of the Chicago Loop Alliance, which places on Sundays on State.
That chance comes simply as Chicago’s downtown has begun to essentially get well from the drastic lower in foot visitors because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Edwards mentioned. Sundays on State initially started as a approach to appeal to individuals again downtown.
Amy Danzer, director of programming on the Printers Row Lit Fest, mentioned the occasion crew is watching what unfolds from the federal authorities. However, she mentioned, she additionally sees this second as an vital time to collect and assist the humanities, which have additionally been beneath fireplace from the Trump administration. [WBEZ]
4. The CTA will host city halls this month on subsequent 12 months’s potential service cuts
The Chicago Transit Authority has been planning for service cuts as much as 40% because the state legislature didn’t go a funding invoice in Might. Legislators get one other likelihood to go a invoice within the fall veto session subsequent month, David Struett writes for the Chicago Solar-Instances.
The CTA additionally mentioned it is going to share a imaginative and prescient of its future within the city halls if lawmakers go a funding invoice that as an alternative raises funding for Chicago-area transit by $1.5 billion a 12 months.
You possibly can see a listing of scheduled city halls, in addition to the place to go away feedback on-line, within the hyperlink. [Chicago Sun-Times]
On the invitation of Select Chicago, the town’s official tourism bureau, visible artist Theaster Gates, Plain White T’s lead singer Tom Higgenson and actor, producer and Steppenwolf co-artistic director Glenn Davis made the case at an occasion yesterday that Chicago is the place to be for creatives.
The occasion, deliberate months earlier than any discuss of the Nationwide Guard coming to Chicago had begun, was meant to raise the town as a world hub for arts and tradition.
“There are moments when individuals wish to stigmatize the town and I’ve to say, ‘Oh, you simply don’t know the attractive issues there,” mentioned Gates, an internationally acclaimed visible artist who was born and raised on the West Aspect.
“Our tourism numbers are wanting good no matter what’s occurring on the earth,” mentioned Lisa Nucci, Select Chicago’s chief advertising officer. About 41% of the guests coming to the town cite the tradition as the explanation for his or her go to, in keeping with survey information collected by the tourism group. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Right here’s what else is going on
- The U.S. added solely 22,000 jobs final month, displaying cracks within the labor market. [NPR]
- The Trump administration is investigating Medicaid spending on immigrants in Democratic-led states. [AP]
- Listed below are 3 ways the Jeffrey Epstein scandal may go for Trump. [BBC]
- Hundreds of new child stars dazzle within the newest snapshot by NASA’s Webb House Telescope. [AP]
Oh, and yet another factor …
Though Grammy-nominated musician Margo Value made a reputation for herself in Nashville, she says she is going to at all times contemplate Illinois her house, Tricia Despres writes for the Chicago Solar-Instances.
Value will shut out the Evanston People Competition this weekend, the place she expects to see some household and buddies within the crowd as she headlines Sunday.
“I’ve so many cousins and folks [I know] that also stay again house, and I’m at all times glad after I can get in contact with them. We’ll see who exhibits up,” Value mentioned with amusing in a latest interview with the Solar-Instances. “You simply by no means know.” [Chicago Sun-Times]
Inform me one thing good …
What cultural occasions are you wanting ahead to this fall?
Beatriz writes:
“I sit up for the Día de Los Muertos/Day of the Lifeless exhibit on the Nationwide Museum of Mexican Artwork. All the time so stunning and compelling. And lunch in Pilsen afterwards. It’s a household custom!”
Thanks for all of the responses this week!
Earlier than you go: Chicago is making ready for an elevated presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers and Nationwide Guard troops this month.
We wish to know: What questions do you will have about ICE or the Nationwide Guard in Chicago?
Reply to this e mail (please embody your first and final identify) and we’ll work with our information workers to reply your questions. Thanks to everybody who has already despatched in questions; I’ve been forwarding them to my colleagues, and we’ll handle as many as we are able to right here and in our tales.
A number of of you requested in regards to the legality of the Trump administration sending within the Nationwide Guard and federal immigration brokers in addition to what native leaders can do to cease the deployment. My colleague Araceli Gómez-Aldana solutions these questions in this FAQ.
