Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, March 30, 2017.
- Emanuel wants undocumented immigrants and the homeless to get city-issued IDs
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city clerk Anna Valencia want the city to issue municipal identification cards to undocumented immigrants, homeless people, and Chicagoans with a criminal record, according to DNAinfo Chicago. The ID cards would potentially help recipients gain access to benefits and services as well as to the city’s cultural institutions. Personal information wouldn’t be kept on file, the mayor said, so President Donald Trump’s administration wouldn’t be able use the cards to target immigrants for deportation. The mayor also introduced legislation Wednesday to loosen regulations on gun ranges in the city. [DNAinfo Chicago] [Tribune]
- Get ready to see more police patrolling the lakefront when the summer months hit
Chicagoans could be seeing more cops patrolling the lakefront this summer, according to DNAinfo Chicago. Mayor Emanuel also proposed legislation Wednesday that would see the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Park District add more police at “mutually determined Chicago park locations.” The police would try to prevent violent and drug-related crime at the lakefront parks, according to the mayor. [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Alderman Munoz proposes spending $25 million to prevent gang and gun violence over the summer
Alderman Ricardo Munoz is worried about a “bloody summer” in the city, so he’s proposing to spend “$25 million in excess earnings on the city’s $7 billion investment portfolio” to fight gun and gang violence, according to the Sun-Times. Under his plan, each of the city’s 50 wards would get $500,000 to invest in after-school and job-training programs and violence-intervention initiatives. “We need to do this now,” he said. “Our city is bleeding.” [Sun-Times]
- Trump just can’t stop talking about Chicago violence
President Donald Trump has gone from describing Chicago as a “great city” and “stunning” in 2004 to constantly ranting about the city’s violence issues as a presidential candidate and as president, according to the New York Times. “It’s clear that he has a bone to pick with Chicago,” Cook County Commissioner and former mayoral candidate Jesus “Chuy” Garcia told the paper. The newspaper summarizes Trump’s up-and-down relationship with Chicago and speculates about the reasons why he chooses to pick on it so often (e.g., former president Barack Obama). [New York Times]
- How the Chicago Housing Authority’s plan for mixed-income housing failed
As part of its 2000 Plan for Transformation, the Chicago Housing Authority tore down Cabrini-Green, the Robert Taylor Homes, and other public housing complexes. It was to be the first phase of a program that moved residents from public housing to mixed-income housing in order to “reintegrate low-income families and housing into the larger physical, social and economic fabric of the city.” But more than 17 years later, only 7.81 percent of the families affected live in mixed-income housing. A joint report and study from WBEZ and Northwestern University’s Medill Social Justice News Nexus investigates how the CHA’s plan failed and what the rest of the families are doing now. [WBEZ]
- Elizabeth is planning a Stranger Things-themed menu
Lincoln Square restaurant Elizabeth will be serving a Stranger Things-themed menu in July. Available from July 18 through July 29, the prix fixe dinner based on the Netflix show will cost between $100 and $145. The restaurant is still working on the food, according to Chicagoist. “Expect in our own special way—fries, eggos, chocolate pudding, our version of a Benny’s Burger, and whatever else our brains cook up,” the restaurant said in an e-mail. “Shrimp noodles may need to make a come back, just because.” In the past chefs at Elizabeth have served menus based on The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Game of Thrones. [Chicagoist]