chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Pilsen landmark designation, demolition moratorium both fail in city zoning committee hearing: ‘A bi

Pilsen landmark designation, demolition moratorium both fail in city zoning committee hearing: ‘A bittersweet win for the community’

“ Landmarking was not the right tool to protect our community due to the adverse effects and impact it would @ @ @ @ @ but the community does care about preservation , ” Skolnik Muñoz said , citing the @ @ @ @ @ which community members participated .
“ The response to the demo-free zone actually doesn ’ @ @ @ @ @ the one hand the Building Department said , ‘ we are going to tether your @ @ @ @ @ , ’ but when that failed , now they are saying that they don ’ @ @ @ @ @ have any preservation capacity .
”

Historic buildings along 18th Street in the Pilsen neighborhood are reflected in the storefront of Ochoa Sporting Goods on Dec. 1, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Two plans designed to slow the destruction of buildings in parts of the fast-gentrifying Pilsen neighborhood failed Tuesday, one opposed by the local alderman and one he supported.
An ordinance to create a landmark district along a stretch of 18th Street and adjacent streets in the Near South Side neighborhood fell unanimously in the Zoning Committee after Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, spoke against it.
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The landmark proposal has drawn stiff resistance for months from working-class Latino residents worried the rules to protect historic buildings would make it expensive and difficult for them to perform repairs on their homes.
With the writing on the wall that Sigcho-Lopez’s colleagues were going to support him in opposing the landmark district, city Planning Commissioner Maurice Cox washed his hands of it at the beginning of the meeting. Cox noted the landmark proposal predated his hiring, and that the community opposed it at a series of meetings.
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Sigcho-Lopez instead proposed a six-month moratorium on nearly all building demolitions within the same boundaries, saying it would give him more time to come up with density rules and affordable housing programs to try to slow gentrification.
The sun shines on buildings along 18th Street in Pilsen on Dec. 1, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Art lines the walls inside the CTA "L" Pink Line stop along 18th Street in Pilsen on Dec. 1, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
City officials opposed that idea, saying the moratorium would be tough to enforce and might not withstand a legal challenge from property owners. It too failed, with seven votes for it and 10 against.
That leaves Pilsen residents facing the same gentrification pressures that have intensified in the neighborhood in recent years.
Zoning Committee Chairman Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, said he looked forward to Sigcho-Lopez introducing ways “to do preservation a different way, without the demolition (moratorium).”
Sigcho-Lopez called the Zoning Committee decision a victory for residents despite the defeat of his demolition moratorium, saying it was most important to stop the landmark designation.
The alderman said he hopes to introduce an ordinance in January to make it harder for developers to convert buildings with apartments big enough for families into warrens of fancier studio and one-bedroom apartments. And he wants to expand a pilot program requiring certain amounts of affordable housing in new developments to cover more of the ward.
“People organized in the community and stopped the landmark ruling. We came through a long process and defeated that,” he said.
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For longtime Pilsen homeowner Dalia Radecki, the Zoning Committee’s decision on Tuesday was “a bittersweet win for the community.”
Before the vote, the 73-year-old retired teacher spoke before the committee and urged members to “listen to the people of Pilsen” by voting against the landmark designation and in favor of the demolition moratorium.
Buildings along 18th Street in Pilsen on Dec. 1, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Radecki, a leader at The Resurrection Project’s Mi Hogar campaign — which advocated for affordable and accessible housing — later said that she is worried because the moratorium was voted down.
“But I’m hopeful that the alderman and we, the people, will continue to work together to find a good alternative to stop developers from displacing our working families,” Radecki said.
With both the proposed landmark district and the six-month demolition moratorium failing, historic preservationists and city officials expressed concern that developers who want to tear down buildings in Pilsen now have few roadblocks in their path.
“Zero protections for Pilsen,” Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago wrote in a text message.
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Restrictions against demolitions or unsympathetic alterations to Pilsen buildings — which have been in place since the Commission on Chicago Landmarks approved preliminary landmark status for the proposed district in 2018 — will expire Dec. 16, city officials said.
The only mechanism to slow or prevent teardowns in the neighborhood is the city’s demolition delay ordinance, said Peter Strazzabosco, a spokesman for the Department of Planning and Development. The ordinance mandates a delay of up to 90 days when a developer seeks a demolition permit for certain buildings that might qualify as city landmarks. The delay is supposed to give city officials time to propose rehabilitation and other alternatives to demolition.
Caroline Skolnik Muñoz, another property owner whose home would have been in the designated landmark district said she is concerned and worried that the demolition moratorium did not pass.
The decision over that, she said, is a political one.
“It seems like it either has to be on the mayor’s terms, or none at all,” she added.
A mural of Frida Kahlo under the CTA "L" tracks along 18th Street in Pilsen on Dec. 1, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
“Landmarking was not the right tool to protect our community due to the adverse effects and impact it would have on the community, but the community does care about preservation,” Skolnik Muñoz said, citing the surveys and many meetings in which community members participated. “The response to the demo-free zone actually doesn’t make sense; on the one hand the Building Department said, ‘we are going to tether your community to stringent landmark restrictions,’ but when that failed, now they are saying that they don’t even want us to have any preservation capacity.”
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Moises Moreno, executive co-director of Pilsen Alliance, a community organization that organized against the landmark designation, said that he feels “a sense of relief, for now.”
“Knowing that all the people who were going to be impacted were finally taken into consideration and their voices were heard is what feels relieving,” Moreno said. “It has taken far too long for politicians to listen to them.”
The community leader, however, acknowledged that it wasn’t a full victory for the people and against the displacement in the area adding that the organization was ready for “any decision from the committee.”
The next steps, he said, will be to work with residents, the alderman, and City Council to protect the Mexican American neighborhood from further gentrification.
“Since their voices were heard, they’ll be more willing to participate and mobilize to come up with a plan,” Moreno added.
That’s the sentiment from Marissa Meza, a mother of two raising her children just a block front from the rehabbed Casa Aztlan.
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When Meza learned of the implication that a landmark designation would have on her property in December 2018, she began participating in the community meetings and informing her neighbors about it.
She was a part of an advisory committee that met with Sigcho-Lopez, administration officials and representatives of the Landmarks Commission, Meza said. Despite presenting constant concerns from the residents and proposing alternatives to cap demolitions and halt more displacement, “no one listened to us,” she said.
“Today’s decision from the Zoning Committee proved to me that standing up for ourselves and our neighbors against the politics of the city was worth it and that it works,” Meza said.
Meza believes that there are other solutions to preserve the essence of the neighborhood, its culture, and slow down gentrification, “but not at the expense of the homeowners in the area.”
Chicago Tribune’s Blair Kamin contributed.
larodriguez@chicagotribune.com
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jebyrne@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Glimmers of hope: Gold coin, gold bar dropped in Salvation Army kettles in season of rising need and

Glimmers of hope: Gold coin, gold bar dropped in Salvation Army kettles in season of rising need and dwindling donations

“ We ’ re going to need to raise much more than our goal in order to meet the needs @ @ @ @ @ on us this year , ” he said .
“ We ’ re seeing more @ @ @ @ @ we ’ ve seen in the past and the faces are changing .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ never had to ask for help before who are coming through the door .
People @ @ @ @ @ they ’ ve always been the ones who are donating and never receiving help .
@ @ @ @ @ by it , they ’ re definitely not used to being on this end of @ @ @

The Salvation Army got a few glimmers of hope this past weekend as it faces unprecedented need and dwindling donations.
A gold coin and a gold bar were anonymously donated at separate red kettles Saturday, according to Salvation Army spokeswoman Katie Heinz Pfingsten. A $50 American Gold Eagle coin was donated at a Jewel in Bartlett and the gold bar was dropped in a kettle outside a Jewel in Mundelein. Each is valued at $1,800 to $1,900.
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Lt. Scott Smith, with the Salvation Army’s Tri-City Corps, said the gifts offer some reassurance that things may not be as dire this year as first thought.
“It 100% gives me hope. Every year, every Salvation Army corps is going, ‘I hope we can make our goal this year,’ ” he said. “But the reality this year is, I hope we can make our goal and then some, and that God will continue to provide what we need in order to help the people that we’re helping.”
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The Salvation Army said this gold coin — valued at between $1,800 and $1,900 — was anonymously deposited in a Salvation Army Red Kettle outside a Jewel-Osco store on Stearns Road in Bartlett. (Salvation Army/HANDOUT)
His corps will get the proceeds from the coin since donations serve the communities where they’re made. “The gold coin is huge,” he said. “That’s more money than would come in on multiple kettles on a regular day.”
Nearly three-quarters of the Salvation Army’s annual budget typically is made up of donations from the winter Red Kettle drive. So far, the money collected in the kettles is down 50% for the year in the Metropolitan Division, which runs from Rockford to Lake County, Indiana, according to Heinz Pfingsten.
“In the Metropolitan Division, 70% of the Salvation Army’s funds for the entire year are raised during the Christmas season,” she said. “The money donated in the Red Kettles funds food, emergency assistance, shelter and programs year-round at our 28 corps community centers.”
Tri-City, the area Smith has overseen since last summer, includes Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles and has a goal of $195,000 during the Red Kettle drive. Smith worries it’s a goal that won’t be met because the pandemic has decimated so many industries and the Salvation Army is seeing countless families in need for the first time in their lives.
“We’re going to need to raise much more than our goal in order to meet the needs of the extra people counting on us this year,” he said. “We’re seeing more cases, more guests than we’ve seen in the past and the faces are changing. It’s people who’ve never had to ask for help before who are coming through the door. People who’ve told us they’ve always been the ones who are donating and never receiving help. They’re extremely humbled by it, they’re definitely not used to being on this end of things.”
Smith believes the coronavirus has made people less likely to shop in person — and less likely to pass a kettle or want to handle cash or stand near a stranger to make a donation. There also are fewer kettle sites because there have been fewer volunteers this year.
“People are nervous and the numbers of volunteers are much smaller as people are afraid to be in contact with others,” he said. “Generally, volunteers are people who tend to have more time on their hands, such as retirees, and of course, they’re aware that their age puts them at heightened risk.”
Digital donations are helping to make up the gap, Smith said. The ability to pay by scanning a QR code was introduced last year and refined for this season. Visitors who don’t carry cash can point their phone toward the code to pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay or by credit card.
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“It gives me hope for humanity in general that during this time — when so many people are hurting, even those that are giving to our kettles or our organization are hurting in some way — that people are invested in us being able to help people as we have for well over 100 years,” Smith said.
“It’s moving that people have faith that if they take whatever amount that they can afford to give, that the Salvation Army is going to do the most good with it.”
kdouglas@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @312BreakingNews


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Teen recovering from Tinley Park shooting files lawsuit against alleged shooter’s family

Ladle said he does not know what type of gun was used , but as the friends were gathered , @ @ @ @ @ Cannon brought out the firearm , pointed it at Petrulis and the gun “ unexpectedly @ @ @ @ @ striking Petrulis in the head .

An 18-year-old severely wounded in what was described as an accidental shooting by a friend has filed a lawsuit against the alleged shooter’s family.
Jayson Petrulis was recently released from Loyola University Medical Center following the Oct. 24 shooting inside a Tinley Park home, according to his attorney, Gregory Ladle.
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Police said that Petrulis and Robert Cannon, 18, who lives in the home, were hanging out with friends when Cannon pulled the trigger of a gun he believed was unloaded.
Cannon is charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated discharge of a firearm and reckless conduct, according to police. The firearm belonged to Cannon’s parents, according to police.
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The lawsuit, filed Nov. 16 in Will County Circuit Court, alleges that Cannon’s parents, Alvin and LaTonya, were negligent in not securing the firearm and seeks damages in excess of $100,000.
Robert Cannon, 18, has been charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated discharge of a firearm and reckless conduct. (Tinley Park Police)
The family did not respond to a message left seeking comment on the lawsuit.
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Tinley Park police were called to the home in the 8400 block of South Brookpoint Court at 12:06 a.m. Oct. 24 and Petrulis was initially taken to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox then transferred to Loyola in critical condition, police said at the time.
According to the lawsuit, Petrulis suffered “severe and extensive injuries to his face, head and upper body” and required several surgeries.
Petrulis and Cannon had known each other for a couple of years and are friends from high school, Ladle said. He said he did not know what school they attend.
Ladle said he does not know what type of gun was used, but as the friends were gathered, according to the complaint, Cannon brought out the firearm, pointed it at Petrulis and the gun “unexpectedly discharged a round,” striking Petrulis in the head.
The injury was initially believed to have been a graze wound, but Petrulis spent more than three weeks in intensive care at Loyola and there is some long-term damage, potentially neurological, as a result of the shooting, the attorney said.
“It’s a horrible situation,” Ladle said. “He still has future surgeries ahead of him.”
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mnolan@tribpub.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Support for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan further erodes as first member of his leadership

Support for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan further erodes as first member of his leadership team says he’s lost her vote

The tipping point for several House Democrats was a Nov. 18 indictment of longtime Madigan confidant and ComEd lobbyist Michael @ @ @ @ @ .
Also indicted were former ComEd and Exelon CEO Anne Pramaggiore , former ComEd lobbyist @ @ @ @ @ , a former ComEd consultant and the former head of the City Club of Chicago @ @ @ @ @ to be arraigned Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago .

Then-Speaker Michael Madigan works the floor as the Illinois House convenes at the Bank of Springfield Center on Jan. 8, 2021. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
House Speaker Michael Madigan’s chances of remaining in power were dealt another serious blow Tuesday when a member of his Democratic leadership team said she will not support him for another term leading the chamber.
State Rep. Kathleen Willis of Addison, the majority conference chairperson, joins 18 rank-and-file Democrats in publicly opposing another term for the nation’s longest-serving state House speaker. Madigan, who’s been tied to a federal bribery investigation, is now facing opposition from more than one-quarter of his members.
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Rep. Kathleen Willis, shown on the Illinois House floor on May 29, 2019. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Even before Willis’ announcement, Madigan was short of the 60 votes he needs to win another two years as speaker. Despite the opposition, Madigan has showed no sign of giving up his 36-year hold on the speaker’s gavel, vowing last month to remain a candidate and claiming “significant support.”
But Willis said Madigan has become too much of a “distraction” to maintain her support.
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“I feel strongly that our caucus has a lot of hard work to accomplish in the upcoming legislative session and we need to put the distraction that has been created by Representative Madigan behind us and move forward in mending the state of Illinois,” Willis wrote to the other members of the House Democratic caucus.
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Willis was elected to the House in 2012 as part of an early wave of Democrats who made inroads in the longtime Republican stronghold of DuPage County. With significant help from Madigan’s campaign apparatus, she unseated Rep. Angelo “Skip” Saviano, a veteran Republican lawmaker. Willis was elected to a fifth term last month, defeating her Republican opponent, Anthony Airdo, by more than 30 percentage points.
Opposition to Madigan began building publicly after Commonwealth Edison admitted in an agreement with federal prosecutors in July that it had engaged in yearslong bribery scheme aimed at currying favor with the speaker. Madigan has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.
What began with a handful of members over the summer accelerated in recent weeks after a disappointing Nov. 3 election. House Democrats lost one seat, and Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed graduated-rate income tax was resoundingly rejected by voters, who also went against retaining Madigan-backed Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride. Republicans and well-funded opposition groups made Madigan a central issue in all of those campaigns.
The tipping point for several House Democrats was a Nov. 18 indictment of longtime Madigan confidant and ComEd lobbyist Michael McClain on federal bribery charges. Also indicted were former ComEd and Exelon CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and Jay Doherty, a former ComEd consultant and the former head of the City Club of Chicago. All four are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
In the two days after the indictments were issued by a federal grand jury in Chicago, 10 House Democrats joined eight others who had previously publicly stated their opposition to Madigan.
The first order of business when the new House convenes Jan. 13 will be the election of a speaker, which requires 60 votes. Democrats are expected to have 73 seats to the Republicans’ 45 when the Nov. 3 election results are certified Friday.
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Only one other Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Stephanie Kifowit of Oswego, has publicly declared her candidacy for the speakership, but she hasn’t received any significant support from the opposition.
In spite of his weakened position, there remains a group of House Democrats who are committed to Madigan, including some members of the Black Caucus. His traditional allies in organized labor and the trial bar also have been working the phones on the speaker’s behalf.
While Madigan may yet find a way to remain in charge, those who’ve come out against him publicly likely would pay a steep political price if they changed their minds.
Madigan also faces a House committee investigation into whether he committed “conduct unbecoming to a legislator” in connection with the ComEd bribery scandal and could face potential discipline.
The committee is scheduled to meet for the first time since late September on Dec. 14, but it appears unlikely to finish its work before the current term expires. Republicans on the panel have accused Democrats of stalling to protect Madigan.
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--2 kids rescued from Tinley Park apartment after fire breaks out

Other residents of the building had escaped and were outside when firefighters arrived , and a ladder was used to @ @ @ @ @ bedroom window , according to a village news release .

Two children were rescued unharmed during a fire Tuesday morning in a Tinley Park apartment building. (Mike Nolan / Daily Southtown)
Two children were rescued from an apartment fire late Tuesday morning in Tinley Park, according to the village’s fire chief.
The children were unharmed and did not require hospitalization following the fire in a four-unit apartment building in the 6500 block of West 173rd Place.
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Firefighters responded shortly after 11 a.m. to a fire in a two-story, four-unit apartment building, according to fire Chief Forest Reeder.
The fire started in a first-floor unit and the children were rescued from a second-story apartment, Reeder said.
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Other residents of the building had escaped and were outside when firefighters arrived, and a ladder was used to rescue the children from a bedroom window, according to a village news release.
The children were treated by paramedics at the scene.
Reeder said the cause of the fire is under investigation but the building is uninhabitable due to fire and smoke damage.
The fire was brought under control in less than 30 minutes, and Tinley Park crews were assisted by firefighters from Oak Forest and the Orland Fire Protection District.
mnolan@tribpub.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Wisconsin election results: Trump files lawsuit seeking to disqualify hundreds of thousands of ballo

Wisconsin election results: Trump files lawsuit seeking to disqualify hundreds of thousands of ballots

Trump also challenges 28,395 absentee ballots where a voter declared themselves to be “ indefinitely confined ” under the law @ @ @ @ @ voters from having to show photo identification to cast a ballot .
The Wisconsin Supreme @ @ @ @ @ it is up to individual voters to determine whether they are indefinitely confined , a @ @ @ @ @ times as many voters this year than in 2016 due to the coronavirus pandemic .

MADISON, Wis. — President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Wisconsin seeking to disqualify more than 221,000 ballots in the state’s two most Democratic counties, a longshot attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s win in a battleground state he lost by nearly 20,700 votes.
Trump filed the day after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the chairwoman of the Wisconsin Elections Commission certified Biden as the winner of the state’s 10 Electoral College votes. Trump asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take the case directly, rather than have it start in a lower court, and order Evers to withdraw the certification.
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The Wisconsin Supreme Court gave Evers until 8:30 p.m. Tuesday to respond to the lawsuit, an unusually tight deadline that speaks to how quickly the court is likely to decide the case.
The state’s highest court, controlled 4-3 by conservatives, also is considering whether to hear two other lawsuits filed by conservatives seeking to invalidate ballots cast during the presidential election. Separately, two Wisconsin Republicans filed a new federal lawsuit Tuesday that mirrors some of Trump’s claims and asks a judge to declare him the winner in Wisconsin.
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Trump’s lawsuit repeats many claims he made during a recount of votes in Milwaukee and Dane counties that large swaths of absentee votes were illegally cast. Local officials rejected his claims during the recount, and Trump is challenging procedures that have been in place for years and never been found to be illegal.
Trump is not challenging any ballots cast in conservative counties he won.
Biden campaign spokesman Nate Evans called the lawsuit “completely baseless and not rooted in facts on the ground.” Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said it was “without merit.”
An election worker shows ballots to representatives for President Donald Trump, right, during the presidential recount vote for Dane County on Nov. 20, 2020 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Andy Manis/Getty Images)
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, noted that the lawsuit doesn’t allege that anyone was ineligible to vote, but instead seeks to create a two-tiered election system where voters in Dane and Milwaukee counties are disenfranchised “under much stricter rules than citizens in the rest of the state.”
Trump’s Wisconsin attorney, Jim Troupis, said in a statement that voters “deserve election processes with uniform enforcement of the law, plain and simple.”
Similar Trump campaign lawsuits have failed in other battleground states.
In Phoenix, a judge has scheduled a Thursday trial in Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward’s lawsuit that seeks to annul Biden’s victory in the state. A judge is letting Ward’s lawyers and experts compare the signatures on 100 mail-in ballot envelopes with signatures on file to determine whether there were any irregularities. Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ office, which certified Arizona’s election results on Monday, said there was no factual basis for conducting such a review.
Trump is running out of time to have his legal cases heard. The Electoral College is scheduled to meet on Dec. 14 and Congress is to count the votes on Jan. 6.
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Trump’s Wisconsin lawsuit seeks to discard 170,140 absentee ballots where there was not a written application on file and all absentee ballots cast in person during the two weeks before Election Day.
People who vote in person early fill out a certification envelope for their ballot that serves as the written record. But the vast majority of absentee requests these days are made online, with a voter’s name entered into an electronic log with no paper record.
Trump wants to toss 5,517 ballots where election clerks filled in missing address information on the certification envelope where the ballot is inserted. The practice has been in place for at least the past 11 elections, and the state elections commission told clerks it was OK.
Trump also challenges 28,395 absentee ballots where a voter declared themselves to be “indefinitely confined” under the law. Such a declaration exempts voters from having to show photo identification to cast a ballot. The Wisconsin Supreme Court in March ruled that it is up to individual voters to determine whether they are indefinitely confined, a designation used by nearly four times as many voters this year than in 2016 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump also alleges that Madison opened illegal voting sites when the city held events at parks where election workers accepted 17,271 completed absentee ballots from voters looking to avoid crowds and mail delays. City officials said the poll workers at the 220 parks served the same purpose as ballot drop boxes.
The federal lawsuit came from Bill Feehan, the La Crosse County Republican Party chairman, and Derrick Van Orden, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress this year in western Wisconsin. Sidney Powell, a firebrand conservative attorney who was removed from Trump’s legal team, is among the lawyers.
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Van Orden said after the lawsuit was filed that he had spoken with someone in Powell’s office about the case but had not given permission to be named as a litigant. Van Orden said he tried calling Powell to ask that his name be removed but could not get through. Powell did not immediately respond to an Associated Press email seeking comment.
“Why they would want me on there, I’m not quite sure,” Van Orden said.
The same lawsuit asks for 48 hours of security footage from the “TCF Center,” which is in Detroit, not in Wisconsin.
Also Tuesday, Republicans on the Wisconsin Elections Commission asked the Democratic chairwoman to resign after she finalized election results on Monday. They argued the commission should have been involved with that process, while the chair, who refused to resign, said she was following state law and precedent.


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Man charged with striking pedestrian in Franklin Park hit-and-run; report shows that police searched

Man charged with striking pedestrian in Franklin Park hit-and-run; report shows that police searched for a second vehicle

Gutierrez told police he took his eyes off the road when he reached down to pick something up from the @ @ @ @ @ police report .
When he looked up , he saw a man in the roadway @ @ @ @ @ not react in time .

Police have charged a hit-and-run driver who they say hit a pedestrian on Mannheim Road in Franklin Park, fled the scene and initially lied to police about it. Police reports show that a second vehicle may also have struck the man, but that vehicle hasn’t been found.
Brian Gutierrez, 30, of Melrose Park, was charged with failure to reduce speed, a traffic offense, and failure to remain at the scene of an accident, a felony offense, police said.
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A Cook County judge issued a $10,000 personal recognizance bond on Nov. 18, and Gutierrez was released from jail.
On the evening of Nov. 16, Gutierrez was driving on the Mannheim Road bridge over Addison Avenue when he struck a 29-year-old man who was walking across the roadway, according to Franklin Park police.
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Gutierrez fled the scene without stopping to check on the man and drove to his girlfriend’s home in Franklin Park, according to the police report. He told her he’d been in a hit-and-run accident with another vehicle, so his girlfriend convinced him to call police. Gutierrez initially told them he’d been in an accident with another vehicle.
Officers responding to Gutierrez’s call found evidence on the vehicle that he had struck a person, and he admitted that he had in a subsequent interview.
Gutierrez told police he took his eyes off the road when he reached down to pick something up from the console, according to the police report. When he looked up, he saw a man in the roadway, but said he could not react in time.
Franklin Park police said the man who was struck was in “stable” condition as of Friday, but police reports indicated that he suffered bleeding in the brain, fluid around the heart, a fractured leg and arm, fractures in his ribs and face and a dislocated shoulder.
The man was on a ventilator and unresponsive last week, and police could not say Tuesday whether that was still the case.
Witnesses at the scene told police that a second vehicle, possibly white, had also struck the man after the first and had also fled the scene, according to the report.
After reviewing red light camera footage and speaking with several witnesses, detectives searchedfor the second vehicle and driver but did not locate it. An officer wrote that the search had been “exhausted at this time.”
Franklin Park Police Chief Michael Witz said the department’s investigation has completed, except for the final report from the West Suburban Major Crash Unit.
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Gutierrez is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 28.
akim@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--8 states including Ohio added to ‘red’ category in Chicago’s travel quarantine order

“ The risk for COVID here is high , and gathering remains unfortunately a high-risk activity , ” Arwady said @ @ @ @ @ travel for Thanksgiving , if you did gather , if you ’ ve let down @ @ @ @ @ around COVID , now is the time to not be getting together with people in @ @ @ @ @ 80s or with underlying conditions .
Now is the time , especially , to not @ @ @ @ @ having more potential spread of COVID .
”

More of the country will be under Chicago’s most severe category for its travel quarantine order, city officials announced Tuesday while bracing for a post-Thanksgiving surge.
The same 46 states and Puerto Rico remain under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s travel quarantine order for those returning to Chicago, but as of Friday, eight of them will be bumped up to the “red” classification that mandates a two-week quarantine. Only travelers from Maine, Vermont and Hawaii have no additional safety requirements.
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Those added to the red category on Friday will be Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Rhode Island. They will join Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming to make a total of 19 red states.
Twenty-seven states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico are in the next level, orange, while the lowest stage, yellow, has three states.
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Chicagoans should still avoid travel to any of the red or orange states, public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady reiterated in a Tuesday news conference. She had urged residents to avoid Thanksgiving travel and other traditional plans during her last travel order update two weeks ago, around when the city was seeing as many as one in 15 people with active COVID-19 infections.
As of this week, cases have gone down to just more than 1,700, and the test positivity rate has dipped from a peak of 16% last month to 11.6%, Arwady said Tuesday. She wants the first number to be under 400 and the second to be below 5%. As many as 1 in 19 Chicagoans have active COVID-19 right now, she said.
But given that not all residents heeded her Thanksgiving advice, the ramifications on future case numbers remains to be seen because of the wait time in reporting testing numbers, Arwady said.
“The risk for COVID here is high, and gathering remains unfortunately a high-risk activity,” Arwady said. “If you did travel for Thanksgiving, if you did gather, if you’ve let down your guard a little bit around COVID, now is the time to not be getting together with people in their 60s, 70s, 80s or with underlying conditions. Now is the time, especially, to not be gathering to not be having more potential spread of COVID.”
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Last month, the city revamped its travel order introduced during the Fourth of July weekend to instead require people coming from states with higher COVID-19 case rates than Chicago — now 70 cases per 100,000 residents — to quarantine for two weeks after getting to Chicago. The city isn’t enforcing this order, but Arwady has said the order was intended to educate residents about travel risks.
Those coming from orange states, with rates between 15-per-100,000 and 70-per-100,000, should get a negative COVID-19 test result no more than 72 hours before arriving or quarantine for two weeks. Those coming from the three yellow states must only observe regular social distancing and mask rules.
ayin@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Backers withdraw proposal to replace 3 Chicago schools with a new one but say North Lawndale plan is

Backers withdraw proposal to replace 3 Chicago schools with a new one but say North Lawndale plan is not scrapped

“ Earlier this year , the district received a thoughtful and comprehensive proposal from North Lawndale community members to strengthen @ @ @ @ @ community , ” CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in a statement , confirming the proposal @ @ @ @ @ ...
The district is fully committed to supporting school communities who are taking thoughtful approaches @ @ @ @ @ are grateful for the time , planning , participation and consideration from community members who @ @ @ @ @ ahead , the district remains fully committed to continued engagement with the North Lawndale community @ @ @ @ @ opportunities .
”

Opponents are celebrating the withdrawal of a proposal that would close three under-enrolled elementary schools and build a new school for North Lawndale, while its authors say they plan to resubmit the plan after more community input.
The proposal, which detailed a plan to close and consolidate the students from Lawndale Community Academy, Sumner Math and Science Community Academy and Crown Community Academy of Fine Arts, faced opposition from many parents, students and staff members who would be affected.
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Two North Lawndale groups, the Community Coordinating Council and Community Action Council, were behind the plan for a new, “state-of-the-art” elementary school to serve 650 to 700 students, using the STEAM model, which adds arts programs to STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
Shavon Coleman, right, a pre-kindergarten teacher assistant at Lawndale Community Academy, rallies with others who support investment in existing schools, rather than a proposal that would close three schools and replace with one a new one. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
The groups held dozens of community meetings and billed the proposal as the product of a community-led process for the next step of the North Lawndale quality-of-life plan, launched by NLCCC in 2018. But many people who have ties to the three schools involved said they felt left out or didn’t know about the proposal until it had been submitted.
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With Tuesday the deadline to introduce a school action for the academic year, Chicago Public Schools said no such actions are moving forward this time, in North Lawndale or elsewhere. Once a school action is put forth, it’s subject to a series of public meetings and a vote by the Chicago Board of Education.
“Earlier this year, the district received a thoughtful and comprehensive proposal from North Lawndale community members to strengthen high-quality learning options in the community,” CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in a statement, confirming the proposal was withdrawn Monday. “The district is fully committed to supporting school communities who are taking thoughtful approaches to school improvement and we are grateful for the time, planning, participation and consideration from community members who led these efforts. Looking ahead, the district remains fully committed to continued engagement with the North Lawndale community in support of strengthening educational opportunities.”
Those against the proposal want investment in existing schools and question if a new building would really prove less costly, while proponents say students at the three schools, which are each less than a third full, would be best served by combining resources.
The proposal’s authors wrote that closing those schools is “inevitable,” and that their plan presents an opportunity for children on the West Side.
Crown Community Academy of Fine Arts is one of three schools that would close under a consolidation plan now on hold. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
The North Lawndale Parent and Community Coalition, a group of families, educators and community members who petitioned CPS to turn down the proposal, held a news conference Tuesday evening outside Crown “to celebrate the community power that kept three North Lawndale schools open and begin the process for a parent-led proposal that will address the root cause of under-enrollment these schools face.”
Members held familiar signs, including “Fund Our School,” “No Merger” and “Not Again.”
Lawndale teacher assistant Shavon Coleman spoke about the need for parents and teachers to have a say in decisions made about their schools.
“Why are we here in the midst of a fatal pandemic, some of us with our families here in 33-degree weather in the midst of gang territories, why are we here?” Coleman said. “We are here because we care. ... Someone hurt us. We took a stand as a community.”
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Those inside the schools every day know what they need, she said.
“No one should be allowed to come to your home and tell you what your needs are just because they have the money to change your situation,” she said.
Lisa Torres, a special education assistant at Crown, said schools are often lifelines to their communities and provide many services beyond education.
“We are here to speak on behalf of folks who have policies and decisions made for them but not on behalf of them,” Torres said. “Disinvestment of communities and neighborhood schools paves the way for gentrification.”
The group said their plan will “stand in stark contrast” to the consolidation proposal and that in the past month, they’ve knocked on hundreds of doors, held organizing meetings and gathered 1,300 petition signatures.
The group is calling on donors and supporters of the initial proposal to make the same investments in theirs.
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District officials have remained neutral and said they’ll consider a proposal “only if it has significant support from community members and, most importantly, the families that currently attend the schools that may be involved.”
The district will “continue to engage” the three school communities and consider their opinions, working out a solution that meets their needs, according to a statement, which adds that CPS remains open to considering the consolidation proposal in the future.
In a letter to CPS CEO Janice Jackson, members of the consolidation proposal’s leadership team wrote they believe it “makes sense from a fiscal and programmatic perspective” and are gravely disappointed, but are serious about engaging the school communities.
“As we pause this proposal at this juncture in the process, we are filled with mixed emotions but are committed to work in partnership with you, your staff and members of the Chicago Board of Education to bring this proposal to the fruition for the students and families in our community,” they wrote. “We will resubmit our proposal at a later date and will continue to include many voices from North Lawndale to ensure that this school is built for our beloved community.”
The letter also details how the new school would bring in university, business, philanthropic and nonprofit partners who have agreed to help with design, funding or education, such as classroom visits and job shadowing.
“Our students need and deserve a school that is fully resourced and that provides diverse and quality programming,” the letter reads. “It has been almost 60 years since an investment of a new school building in North Lawndale was made for neighborhood students.”
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The resubmission timeline hinges on the pandemic ending and the ability to connect with more people in person, said project director Betty Allen-Green. The groups that created the proposal are open to working with anyone from the community, including members of the parent and community coalition, she said.
“My only desire is to see that the children in North Lawndale receive a high-quality, rigorous and equitable education,” Allen-Green said. “I would be interested in seeing their proposal. We have widespread community support.”
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Watch live: Gov. J.B. Pritzker gives a COVID-19 update

Illinois Gov .
J.B. Pritzker will give an update on the state ’ s response to the coronavirus in a @ @ @ @ @ .

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chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Police: Morton Grove hotel robbed at gunpoint hours before armed carjacking

Later that day , Morton Grove police responded to an armed carjacking outside a gas station at Dempster Street and @ @ @ @ @ Two teenagers were later arrested in connection with the carjacking after they were pursued by @ @ @ @ @ Grove Police said .

A Morton Grove motel was robbed at gunpoint early Sunday morning — just hours before an armed carjacking was reported in the village, police said.
Authorities do not believe the two incidents are connected, said Morton Grove Police Cmdr. Paul Yaras.
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The motel robbery occurred shortly before 1:30 a.m. Nov. 29 at Red Roof Inn, 9424 Waukegan Road, Yaras said.
An employee reported that two men in their early 20s entered the lobby and one pulled out a gun, asking where the money was kept, Yaras said.
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The men checked the lobby desk and then entered an office with the employee where one of the robbers allegedly grabbed an envelope containing cash before they fled the motel.
Approximately $600 was taken, Yaras said. No vehicle description was provided, he added.
Later that day, Morton Grove police responded to an armed carjacking outside a gas station at Dempster Street and Central Avenue around 8:30 p.m. Two teenagers were later arrested in connection with the carjacking after they were pursued by Illinois State Police, Morton Grove Police said.
jjohnson@chicagotribune.com
Twitter: @Jen_Tribune


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Indiana’s COVID-19 deaths nearly double during November; Gov. Holcomb extends public health emergenc

Indiana’s COVID-19 deaths nearly double during November; Gov. Holcomb extends public health emergency 30 days

Gov .
Eric Holcomb on Tuesday also signed an extension of the state ’ s public health emergency through Dec. @ @ @ @ @ that emergency , the governor has issued the statewide mask order and limits on crowd @ @ @ @ @ risk level of coronavirus spread .

The number of COVID-19 deaths in Indiana has nearly doubled for November from a month earlier as health officials continue adding to those reports and the state’s coronavirus-related hospitalizations remain at their highest point during the pandemic.
The Indiana State Department of Health added 142 deaths to the statewide toll with its daily update on Tuesday. Most of those deaths occurred over the past week with a reporting lull from local officials over the Thanksgiving weekend.
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Locally, Lake County has reported 475 fatalities including six new deaths in Tuesday’s reporting. While Porter County showed one new fatality Tuesday, the state dashboard shows a total of 91.
Marion County shows the most deaths with 15 new ones for a total of 885, according to the state.
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Those boost Indiana’s coronavirus deaths during November to at least 1,416 people — surpassing the previous monthly peak during April by nearly 400 and almost double October’s total of 732 deaths.
Gov. Eric Holcomb on Tuesday also signed an extension of the state’s public health emergency through Dec. 31. Under authority from that emergency, the governor has issued the statewide mask order and limits on crowd sizes based on the county risk level of coronavirus spread.
Hospital officials across the state are worried about being overwhelmed by the quickly growing number of severely ill patients.
Indiana hospitals were treating 3,460 COVID-19 patients as of Monday — about a 350% increase since late September when the steep increase in hospitalizations and deaths began.
In reporting Tuesday, Lake County was showing 474 new cases and a total of 29,643. The state dashboard showed Porter County with 9,034 cases with 137 new cases reported Tuesday.


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Illinois coronavirus daily case tally jumps back above 12,000, with 125 more deaths also reported

As of Monday night , 5,835 people were in the hospital with COVID-19 across the state , with 1,195 patients @ @ @ @ @ 721 on ventilators .
While hospitalizations have come down slightly after reaching above 6,000 last @ @ @ @ @ remains higher than the statewide peak during the initial coronavirus surge in the spring .

CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois public health officials on Tuesday announced 12,542 newly confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, a significant jump after several days of lower numbers.
Officials have voiced cautious optimism over the past week about a flattening of statewide coronavirus numbers after weeks of steady growth, and the higher number of cases reported on Tuesday is likely due, at least in part, to a testing lag over the holiday weekend.
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The daily case count was last above 10,000 on Thanksgiving Day and has been below 8,000 since Friday.
Marisa Massey, of Elmwood Park, grimaces as Dr. Kyle Ross gives her a COVID-19 test at the rapid-testing location set up in the parking lot of First Presbyterian Church on Nov. 18, 2020 in River Forest. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
The state also reported 125 deaths of people with COVID-19 on Tuesday, raising the statewide death toll to 12,403. The state has reported 738,846 known and probable cases throughout the course of the pandemic.
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The cases reported Tuesday came out of a batch of 116,081 tests conducted over a 24-hour period. The seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 10.4% for the period ending Monday.
As of Monday night, 5,835 people were in the hospital with COVID-19 across the state, with 1,195 patients in intensive care units and 721 on ventilators. While hospitalizations have come down slightly after reaching above 6,000 last month, the statewide number remains higher than the statewide peak during the initial coronavirus surge in the spring.
jmunks@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital da

COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital data in your area

Among the metrics ( see below ) tracked under guidelines set by Gov .
J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of @ @ @ @ @ , the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses , and the capacity of hospitals @ @ @ @ @ state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics @

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
To assess how different parts of Illinois are handling the COVID-19 pandemic, officials look at the state through the 11 regions of Emergency Medical Services. The city of Chicago is one region, for example, and the rest of Cook County is another.
Among the metrics (see below) tracked under guidelines set by Gov. J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of coronavirus tests that return positive, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses, and the capacity of hospitals to take in new patients.The state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics. (Cases, deaths and tests data is as of Dec. 31).
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus.
• Other Chicago, suburbs and Illinois COVID-19 metrics.
• See how the governor’s plan to manage the regions works.
Source: Illinois Department of Public Health
Created by the Chicago Tribune dataviz team. On Twitter @chitribgraphics


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood

Search below by street address , ZIP code or city , then click on the map to see the number @ @ @ @ @ .
The state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or @ @

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
Illinois releases the number of positive COVID-19 cases by ZIP code daily. The map below shows the cumulative cases for each area as well as other analysis of the data.
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Tracking daily Illinois coronavirus deaths, cases and tests.
Search below by street address, ZIP code or city, then click on the map to see the number of confirmed and probable cases. The state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer.
Data as of June 10.
The map search tool above works best in Chrome or Firefox and may not perform consistently in Internet Explorer.
Note: Because of a coding error this map was displaying the incorrect rates for new cases in the last 7 days per 100,000 people — the issue should now be resolved.. The Tribune adjusted the data shown on the map below to focus on new cases, those the state tracked in the last 7 seven days. The totals for the entire pandemic are still available, but in the pop-up after tapping or clicking on a ZIP.


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 125 new deaths, 12,542 new confirmed and probable cases and 66,98

Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 125 new deaths, 12,542 new confirmed and probable cases and 66,980 new test results

Illinois announced 12,542 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 Tuesday for a total of 738,846 .
The state also @ @ @ @ @ a total of 12,403 and 116,081 new test results for a total of 10.61 million @

Johns Hopkins University & Medicine tracked coronavirus cases, deaths and test totals from Jan. 22, 2020 through March 10, 2023, but is no longer providing this data. These charts will no longer be updated.
Check the Illinois Department of Public Health for the most up-to-date data for Illinois.
[ Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus ]
Can’t see these charts? Go here.


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Woodstock man killed in Antioch Township crash

The driver , whose name was not released , had to be extricated from the cab of the truck .
@ @ @ @ @ Illinois Medical Center in McHenry , where he was later pronounced dead .
An autopsy @ @ @ @

A semi driver died Monday after his truck left the roadway and struck a guardrail in north Lake County, spilling tons of sludge from the trailer.
The driver was a 72-year-old Woodstock resident, according to the Lake County sheriff’s police.
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The single vehicle accident took place around noon Monday, authorities said. The driver was westbound on Illinois Route 173 near Converse Road in Antioch Township when his 1990 Peterbilt semi-truck began to veer left.
The vehicle, police said, crossed the eastbound lanes and struck a guardrail on the south side of the road. The truck continued west before the trailer partially jackknifed, sheriff’s police said, and spilled its load of 25 tons of granular sludge.
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The driver, whose name was not released, had to be extricated from the cab of the truck. He was transported to Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry, where he was later pronounced dead. An autopsy has been scheduled.
The sheriff’s towing agency in Antioch Township oversaw clean-up of the spilled contents. Granular sludge is an end product of water and wastewater treatment often used in fertilizer.


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--State COVID-19 testing sites where anyone can get a test: Search our map for one near you

There are many sites that are not on the state ’ s list .
Some have asked not to be @ @ @ @ @ added at a later date .

Testing for COVID-19 has greatly expanded in Illinois.
The state’s information on testing sites changes frequently. This map will be updated periodically. More from the Illinois Department of Public Health here.
There are many sites that are not on the state’s list. Some have asked not to be named. Others may be added at a later date.
Sites as of Dec. 1


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--At least 232 cars were towed early this morning, when Chicago’s winter overnight parking ban went in

At least 232 cars were towed early this morning, when Chicago’s winter overnight parking ban went into effect. Here’s how to avoid getting ticketed or towed.

Cars left parked on the designated streets hinder snowplowing and salting services .
Snow can build up next to parked @ @ @ @ @ traffic flow — especially for buses and emergency vehicles — according to the city .
@ @ @ @ @ to prevent recurrences of problems that happened in 1967 and 1979 when Chicago came to @ @ @ @ @ major snowstorms .

Chicago's winter overnight parking ban kicked in on Dec. 1, prohibiting parking on 107 miles of main streets from 3 to 7 a.m., regardless of snow, until April 1. (Network Video Productions) (Network Video Productions/Chicago Tribune)
It’s the time of year when you need to think twice about claiming that open spot on the street.
The city’s winter overnight parking ban began at 3 a.m. on Dec. 1. Parking is prohibited on 107 miles of main streets from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. — regardless of snow — until April 1, 2023. Another 500 miles of streets prohibit parking after two inches of snow or more falls, no matter the time of day or the date.
Two hundred forty two cars were towed on the first day of the ban this year — up from 200 towed on the same date in 2021.
Pay attention to street signs
(City of Chicago)
Cars left parked on the designated streets hinder snowplowing and salting services. Snow can build up next to parked cars on these routes impeding traffic flow — especially for buses and emergency vehicles — according to the city. Both parking bans were implemented to prevent recurrences of problems that happened in 1967 and 1979 when Chicago came to a traffic standstill due to major snowstorms.
Twenty-three inches of snow, the largest single snowfall in Chicago history, covered the city and suburbs in the blizzard of 1967. Abandoned vehicles made even major streets and highways impassable. (Tribune archive photo)
Motorists who ignore these seasonal parking bans will be towed and face at least a $150 towing fee, a $60 ticket and storage fees of $25 per day.
How to find out if your vehicle has been towed
Call 3-1-1 to determine your vehicle’s location and the address of the impound lot, if you suspect your vehicle has been towed by the city of Chicago.
Frank Kuhlmann picks up his car at a city auto pound on the west side of Chicago. His car, and those of many others, were towed as the winter overnight parking ban kicked in. (Alex Garcia)
Vehicles in violation of the ban will be towed to Auto Pound #2 (10301 S. Doty Ave.) or Auto Pound #6 (701 N. Sacramento Blvd.). Both locations are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The city’s Streets and Sanitation department has additional tips on what to do to retrieve your vehicle from an impound lot.
Sources: City of Chicago; Chicago Tribune reporting


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Column: The despised Pilsen landmark plan gets a hearing today. Here’s how to save the treasured nei

Column: The despised Pilsen landmark plan gets a hearing today. Here’s how to save the treasured neighborhood.

They reveal the cultural footprint of 19th Century Eastern European immigrants , including the Czechs who gave Pilsen its name @ @ @ @ @ Mexican-Americans who moved there in the 1960s , many of them displaced by the construction @ @ @ @ @ University of Illinois at Chicago .

Artist Pablo Serrano paints a massive mural on the sidewall of Carnitas Don Pedro on 18th Street in Pilsen on Oct. 30, 2020. The mural of residents and essential workers is set to be Pilsen s largest piece of art. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
There’s no doubt Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood has the stuff to become an official city landmark district.
Yet a plan to do just that is widely despised in the community, viewed by the local alderman, activists and many residents as a way to accelerate displacement and gentrification.
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The proposal, which would create one of Chicago’s largest historic districts and the city’s first in a Latino area, comes before the City Council’s Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards on Tuesday.
How should the committee treat the plan, which already has the blessing of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks?
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Compromise.
By cutting the size of the proposed district roughly in half and limiting protected structures to Pilsen’s commercial strips, the committee can safeguard an area of undisputed architectural and cultural distinction without imposing a financial burden on residential property owners. A significant share of those owners, it should be noted, are absentee landlords.
Though it contains significant individual structures, like the shuttered St. Adalbert Catholic Church, Pilsen is primarily distinguished by its urban fabric — continuous rows of “Bohemian Baroque” buildings, impressive Classical Revival structures and colorful murals.
They reveal the cultural footprint of 19th Century Eastern European immigrants, including the Czechs who gave Pilsen its name, and the Mexicans and Mexican-Americans who moved there in the 1960s, many of them displaced by the construction of what is now the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Recognizing this legacy, the federal government listed Pilsen on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The honor makes property owners eligible for historic preservation tax credits, but typically does not prevent demolition. And the demolition threat is real, driven in part by Pilsen’s proximity to downtown and UIC.
Since 2006, city officials say, developers have torn down 90 buildings in Pilsen, often replacing two-, three- and four-flats and their affordable apartments with expensive single-family homes. Without intervention, more ugly modern structures could further rip up Pilsen’s beautiful urban fabric, a fate that already has befallen gentrifying neighborhoods on the North Side.
The risks are cultural as well as aesthetic. Since 2000, Pilsen’s Latino population has dropped by about 14,000, city officials say.
Floated by the administration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel as part of a multi-pronged plan to preserve Pilsen and nearby Little Village, the proposed district would cover roughly 900 buildings along the 18th Street commercial strip and in a mostly residential extension to the south.
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Yet it has gone over like a lead balloon, putting Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s chief planner, Maurice Cox, on the defensive. Among other things, city officials have been forced to counter claims that the district would saddle property owners with exorbitant rehab costs.
But the remedy proposed by the local alderman, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, promises to be a paper tiger.
He’s calling for a “demolition-free district” that would follow the same borders as the proposed landmark district. Under the plan, the city would be prohibited from issuing demolition permits or approvals for major projects until the alderman had a public meeting about each request.
While that would ensure community voices are heard, the final say would rest with the city’s planning department. The hearings could be meaningless.
Given the City Council’s tradition of aldermanic prerogative, which gives aldermen near-total control over development in their wards, Sigcho-Lopez might prevail at Tuesday’s committee meeting.
“We will generally tend to support the alderman (on development issues),” the committee chair, Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, told me, although he declined to predict how a vote will go.
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Here’s a better idea: The committee should reduce the proposed district to about 465 buildings, mostly commercial structures on 18th Street and Blue Island Avenue. This alternative, suggested by planning department officials during three October community meetings, would preserve Pilsen’s architectural heart and would avoid hitting homeowners.
It also would address the fact that a sizable share of property owners on 18th — nearly 45%, according to a 2020 survey by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute — live outside Pilsen. Absentee owners often treat their properties as investments, not cultural resources, opening the way for demolition.
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Unlike the alderman’s proposed “demolition-free district,” a landmark district offers a proven legal tool to prevent both locals and outsiders from selling to developers who would swing the wrecking ball.
The city also is proposing financial incentives like a three-year, $3 million Adopt-a-Landmark pilot program to assist commercial property owners who have been in the Pilsen district for at least 10 years. (The existing Adopt-a-Landmark program uses funds generated by downtown construction projects to help cover rehab costs for work on landmark buildings.)
In addition, the city pledges to start an express permit process for rehab projects affected by landmark designation. That would avoid a repeat of horror stories like one in which a longtime 18th Street restaurantowner hired a permit expediter so he can put up an exterior sign that meets city landmark requirements.
In this debate, the two sides appear so polarized that it’s hard to know if any compromise is possible. Yet without one, a treasured Chicago neighborhood will be vulnerable to a more gentrification and demolition. That would be a tragedy for Pilsen’s people and buildings, and all of Chicago.
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Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
bkamin@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BlairKamin


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--‘Kitchens can be the Wild West, but this was just beyond.’ Former Acadia employees allege chef Ryan

‘Kitchens can be the Wild West, but this was just beyond.’ Former Acadia employees allege chef Ryan McCaskey fostered a sexualized culture and toxic workplace.

• A woman hired at Acadia as an entry-level cook in 2017 said she quit the restaurant after three weeks @ @ @ @ @ to feign interest in McCaskey to keep her job .
She shared screen shots of @ @ @ @ @ from McCaskey that include him saying : “ I really like you outside of work @ @ @ @ @ do everything we talked about.
” Among those things , according to the text messages @ @ @ @ @ Caribbean .

After the last guests had left on a Sunday evening in March 2018, employees at Acadia pushed the tables and chairs aside in the restaurant’s private dining room and began unrolling sheets of plastic across the floor. A going-away party was planned for that Monday.
According to text messages shared with the Tribune, Ryan McCaskey, Acadia’s chef and owner, promised employees that the party would be an “extra naughty” affair. He said he would supply dollar bills to tip the strippers.
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“He pretty much made it mandatory,” said Brendan Smith, a former Acadia cook who said he felt pressured to commute in from the suburbs on his day off to attend the party and a dinner beforehand.
That drizzly Monday night, about 15 people — Acadia staff, their friends and significant others — filed into the private dining room at one of just four Chicago restaurants to have earned at least two Michelin stars. From chairs usually occupied by customers spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars for an evening of food, wine and cocktails, McCaskey’s guests watched a raucous evening unfold.
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Chef Ryan McCaskey, center, at Acadia in the South Loop on Dec. 13, 2012. (Alex Garcia / Chicago Tribune)
The two performers quickly became naked and encouraged onlookers to use sex toys on them, people in attendance said. McCaskey was an eager participant, some in attendance said, licking whipped cream from the genital region of one of the performers. According to attendees, McCaskey encouraged others to become involved and chided those who did not participate, including calling Smith a homophobic term for declining to take a turn.
In an interview in September with the Tribune, McCaskey acknowledged hosting the going-away party in Acadia’s private dining room — he called it “a bad judgment decision” — and hiring the strippers to perform. He also confirmed licking whipped cream from the performer’s body.
“It was my bad for sure that I decided to have it at the restaurant,” McCaskey said. “If I had it at my own house, no one would care.”
But multiple former Acadia employees said the going-away party typified a broader culture at one of Chicago’s most heralded restaurants, which McCaskey has operated as sole owner and executive chef since 2011.
Interviews with more than a dozen former Acadia employees, as well as photos, text messages, emails and a video of preparation for the going away party provided to the Tribune, depict a sexualized culture in which the former employees say McCaskey fostered a toxic workplace.
[ #MeToo: A timeline of events ]
Past Acadia employees both male and female — though especially several women in their 20s, a demographic that can have a hard time breaking into high-end kitchens — described Acadia as a particularly difficult place to work. Even in an industry known to be intense and freewheeling, McCaskey operated Acadia with its own set of rules and beyond restaurant norms, the former employees said.
“There were a lot of things I saw that bothered me and I thought, ‘Well this is how the industry is and I need to get out,’” said Joanna Northage-Orr, who worked as a cook in various capacities at Acadia for nearly two years. “I worked in other kitchens and realized it was not OK.”
Multiple women said they have long feared going public about their experiences at Acadia because of what they said were concerns McCaskey might interfere with their chances of future employment at other restaurants.
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Kristi Isn’t, who is now the chef de cuisine at Michelin-starred Elizabeth Restaurant, said she stopped working at Acadia after about six weeks in 2018 because of the restaurant’s “toxic masculinity” and what she described as McCaskey’s flirtations.
Those flirtations, she said, included handing her a vegetable with a heart shape inside of it during work and asking her on a date in front of other employees during a meeting of kitchen staff ― events that were confirmed by her former co-workers. Isn’t also said she felt McCaskey would stand unusually close to her as she worked.
“A lot of things he did didn’t make any sense because he’s my executive chef and the person I’m supposed to look up to and respect,” Isn’t said.
Instead, she said, she felt like “a toy, a new toy he wanted to play with.”
The dining room and the entrance to the kitchen at Acadia on April 28, 2016. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
In a phone interview in September, McCaskey said the array of complaints of inappropriate behavior are exaggerated or untrue, calling them “cancel culture piling on.”
Among the allegations detailed to the Tribune:
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• Kyleen Atonson, who worked for two years as Acadia’s pastry chef, said McCaskey asked her for a nude photo, repeatedly showed her nude photos of women (both celebrities and women McCaskey said he was dating) and passed her a note during service that said, “I’m horny.”
In an interview, Atonson’s husband said his wife told him at the time about McCaskey sending her nude photos and the note. Atonson said she did not tell her husband about McCaskey’s request for a nude photo of her until she stopped working at Acadia. She said she laughed off much of McCaskey’s behavior as it happened because it seemed necessary to keep her job.
[ A former employee of Michelin-starred Acadia granted no stalking order against chef Ryan McCaskey, alleges online harassment ]
“It was hard to say, ‘Don’t show that to me,’” Atonson said of the nude photos. “I was afraid I was going to lose my job. You want a two-Michelin-star job on your resume.”
• Six women who worked at Acadia, including Isn’t, said they had to stop working at the restaurant because they said McCaskey’s behavior made them uncomfortable. Three of the women said they left after just weeks due to their interactions with McCaskey. Three of them also said McCaskey asked to take them on trips to exotic locations. Several said text messages, which they found flirtatious and sometimes sexually crude, would regularly arrive from the chef.
“The texts just wouldn’t stop at all hours of the day and there was constant pressure to respond,” said a former hostess who worked at Acadia in her early 20s and said she had to quit because she felt uncomfortable due to McCaskey’s interest in her. Several other former Acadia employees confirmed McCaskey’s interest in the woman.
• A woman hired at Acadia as an entry-level cook in 2017 said she quit the restaurant after three weeks because she felt she needed to feign interest in McCaskey to keep her job. She shared screen shots of text messages she said were from McCaskey that include him saying: “I really like you outside of work, and hope we can do everything we talked about.” Among those things, according to the text messages, was vacationing in the Caribbean.
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The woman, who still works as a chef and asked not to be identified to protect her career, said she felt pressured to show interest in McCaskey “because he’s a two-Michelin-star chef and at the time it was a big deal for me to have that job.”
She called her interactions with McCaskey “embarrassing and so humiliating.”
• Taryn Sandoval, who worked at Acadia for about six weeks in 2017, said she quit the restaurant and moved away from Chicago due to her interactions with McCaskey.
Sandoval, who now lives in California, said she had gone out to dinner with McCaskey once while working at Acadia, but thought of the meal as related to her work. However, she said, McCaskey’s interest in her seemed to increase after the dinner, and she believed McCaskey was trying to get her to break up with her boyfriend. She said she quit Acadia as a result.
Sandoval said McCaskey sent her flowers twice in a month, as well as a box of chocolates filled with rocks. (In an interview, McCaskey said the rocks were meant to be an inside joke; Sandoval said she perceived the rocks as hostility after rejecting McCaskey’s advances.)
After receiving the box of rocks, Sandoval sought and was granted a stalking no-contact order in Cook County Circuit Court, which Sandoval said in an interview that she pursued because she was concerned McCaskey would show up at her apartment.
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In an interview, Sandoval said her experience with McCaskey prompted her to move from Chicago “to avoid ever coming into contact with him.”
• Multiple former employees said McCaskey baked desserts with drugs in them — he called them “space cakes” — for at least three staff gatherings. Ronan Morris, who worked as a service captain at Acadia from 2017 until 2019, said he wound up in the emergency room following an Acadia New Year’s Eve party after consuming a blondie containing what he believes were drugs. Morris said he ate the dessert without knowing what was in it.
Morris said he never discussed the ER visit with McCaskey: “I was afraid I’d lose my job for having to go to the hospital.” Another former employee provided a text message in which McCaskey wrote of baking marijuana into fudge.
Asked about Morris’ incident, McCaskey said he did make a “small cake” with “a little THC tincture in it” for one staff party, but “everybody knew what it was.”
[ Chicago restaurant workers take to social media to call out industry racism, sexism — and more ]
Many of the complaints about McCaskey and Acadia were first posted on the Instagram account @the86dlist, which published more than 30 anonymous posts during the summer alleging toxic workplace cultures in various Chicago restaurants. (The account has been dormant since posting about Acadia on July 22.)
McCaskey consented to a phone interview in September that lasted more than one hour. He declined further comment. Presented last week with a description of allegations from former Acadia employees, his lawyer, Roger Malavia, issued a statement to the Tribune: “Mr. McCaskey remains firm in his stance that these allegations are hearsay, taken out of context, lies or misunderstandings. We have no further comment regarding these spurious publications.”
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In the September phone interview, McCaskey said he has told some off-color stories and jokes in Acadia’s kitchen, though he believed they were consistent with broader restaurant industry culture and “never in a sexual nature and never in an inappropriate way.”
He said he has tried to be “a doting and caring person with my staff.”
“In this day and age, that’s not a good thing,” he said.
He also said some employees were inappropriate with him. One former female employee, he said, “kept touching me, maybe trying to get me in trouble. She wasn’t there very long.”
[ Michelin-starred brewpub temporarily closes amid employee complaints and a restaurant industry reckoning ]
Some statements and allegations on the @the86dlist Instagram account are factually incorrect, such as McCaskey being a member of the McCaskey family that owns the Chicago Bears. Others weren’t supported by Tribune reporting. And not all former female employees interviewed said they were subject to unwelcome attention, but several did confirm there were other women who were.
McCaskey, 46, launched Acadia in 2011 and was awarded a Michelin star within a year. In 2015 Acadia was granted a second star, a designation it has maintained every year since. The restaurant has also earned a Jean Banchet Award and multiple James Beard Award nominations as well as consistently top-flight reviews from local restaurant critics, including four stars in the Tribune.
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McCaskey’s personal story also became a popular theme in coverage of the restaurant; according to a 2016 profile on WTTW-TV, McCaskey was born Tam Truong Tran to a teenage mother in Vietnam. In 1975, Raymond and Judy McCaskey, of Palatine, adopted McCaskey as part of Operation Babylift, an initiative to move 3,000 Vietnamese orphans into homes in the United States. (Raymond McCaskey was the longtime president and chief executive officer of Health Care Service, which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in several states that include Illinois.)
A presentation of the lobster pot pie at Acadia on Jan. 25, 2012. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
“McCaskey’s got it all,” said Michael Ellis, international director of the Michelin Guide, when Acadia was awarded two stars in 2015. “He has great technique and produces elegant food that tastes great. For a restaurant to go from one star to two, that’s what we like to see.”
Such accolades may have allowed McCaskey a free hand to craft the restaurant’s culture, multiple former employees said. It also made Acadia a desirable place to work, especially for people new to Chicago or younger workers breaking into the industry.
“I thought, ‘This is a Michelin-starred restaurant; this will be a great experience,’” said Jess Callahan, who worked at Acadia as a pastry cook after moving from Rochester, New York, in 2016.
[ Alpana Singh, ‘Check, Please!’ host, renounces master sommelier title in solidarity with women accusing elite wine organization of sexual harassment ]
Callahan, who later filed a wage complaint against McCaskey, said she wasn’t the subject of unwelcome attention by McCaskey but during her time at Acadia witnessed McCaskey flirting with some employees and verbally abusing others.
“It’s a Michelin-starred restaurant and the pressures are high, but for someone who hadn’t lived or worked in Chicago, you think, ‘Is this a normal experience?’ It wasn’t and I didn’t need to deal with it anymore,” Callahan said.
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She said she quit after nine months. She spent the next three months battling the restaurant over payment for her last day of work. Callahan, who has moved back to New York, presented the Tribune with documents filed with the Illinois Department of Labor in which she petitioned to be paid $119 for a day of work that fell out of her last pay period.
According to a spokesman for the Department of Labor, the claim was finally paid — $108.35 after taxes — in September 2017.
Callahan said she pursued the matter because her time at Acadia was so negative.
“It was the principle of the matter because he thinks he can get away with everything,” Callahan said.
[ How a Black chef from Englewood battled racism in Chicago’s top restaurants: ‘I was never seen as an option to rise’ ]
Former employees said they believed McCaskey was insulated by the fact that he is the restaurant’s sole owner. Many restaurants have multiple owners, which can create checks and balances regarding operations and staff culture.
“At end of the day, there’s one person in charge and it’s Ryan, and he’s in charge of whether or not you have a job,” said Northage-Orr, the former Acadia cook.
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Morris, who visited the emergency room after the Acadia New Year’s Eve party, said McCaskey operated Acadia with “a culture of fear.”
“When you’re a single owner you basically do whatever the hell you want and people were constantly in fear of retaliation,” Morris said.
Multiple former employees said McCaskey would advertise their jobs, which they interpreted as a threat that they could be replaced at any time. In an interview, McCaskey said he advertised jobs even when occupied to maintain a pipeline of talent in case of a sudden opening.
[ The story behind Nini’s Deli, the trendy West Town restaurant shut down amid outcry over owners’ homophobic and anti-Black Lives Matter views ]
McCaskey’s alleged behavior and Acadia’s workplace culture eventually became one of the worst-kept secrets in Chicago fine dining, multiple former employees said. Jessica Dawson, who worked as a pastry sous chef for several months at Acadia in 2015, said women would routinely open up to her about their own negative industry experiences after learning she worked there.
“Women have been talking about this for years and years about Acadia,” Dawson said.
Dawson said McCaskey never showed her unwanted attention, but the restaurant was a difficult place to work.
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“Kitchens can be the Wild West, but this was just beyond,” she said.
Atonson, who was Acadia’s pastry chef from 2017 until 2019, said she went on two work trips with McCaskey. One was to California with other Acadia employees, and nothing unusual happened, she said.
[ How Fat Rice, Honey Butter Fried Chicken and other Chicago restaurants are reckoning with accusations of racism, worker mistreatment on social media ]
The professionalism of that trip led her to take a second work trip with McCaskey, to Vermont, where the chef was cooking for a private function. When they arrived, Atonson said, she discovered that McCaskey had booked a small cottage for the two of them where the only place to sleep was two beds next to each other in a single room.
Atonson said the setup made her uneasy but she said she had nowhere else to go. She sent a photo of the sleeping arrangement to her husband, who confirmed to the Tribune that he received it.
During that trip, Atonson said, they visited a spa with male and female soaking tubs. Neither person had a bathing suit so Atonson went into the women’s pool in her underwear and sports bra, she said. McCaskey called her over to a common area, and to Atonson’s surprise, she said, McCaskey was naked. She asked why; he said he hadn’t worn underwear, Atonson said.
Several former Acadia employees interviewed by the Tribune routinely described McCaskey as a talented chef. They said he could be generous with staff and a helpful mentor. Atonson called him “genuinely a nice person.”
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But Atonson said McCaskey has “expressed to me before he doesn’t have a lot of friends.”
“I felt like if I wasn’t his friend my job would be extremely replaceable,” she said.
Former Acadia pastry chef Kyleen Atonson, left, and chef Ryan McCaskey at the Jean Banchet Awards in Chicago on Jan. 13, 2019. (James C. Svehla / For the Chicago Tribune)
Atonson said she witnessed McCaskey yell at staff and berate them — including, she said, regularly calling them “retarded” — though harsh rhetoric wasn’t unusual for the restaurant industry. However, she said, being shown nude photos and being asked for a nude photo by her boss was unprecedented.
Some men also said they, too, have had negative experiences working at Acadia. Smith, who attended the party in the private dining room during the six months he worked at Acadia in 2018, said McCaskey would show him photos of women McCaskey said he had had sex with.
Another former employee of the restaurant, Cody Nason, who worked as an Acadia service captain for six months in 2019, was granted a stalking no-contact order against McCaskey in September after alleging in a court petition that the chef created a now-defunct website, codynason.com, multiple email addresses and fake online reviews to harass him.
Nason has said in an interview with the Tribune that he contributed to the @the86dlist Instagram posts criticizing McCaskey, and believes the website, emails and reviews were revenge. The no contact order, which forbids McCaskey from contacting Nason, will remain in effect until at least Jan. 15, when the next hearing is scheduled.
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[ Acadia chef Ryan McCaskey sues former employee and lawyer who alleged cyber harassment ]
McCaskey has denied responsibility for the website or online harassment. On Nov. 20, he filed suit against Nason and Nason’s attorney, Daliah Saper, accusing them of attempting to extort McCaskey with the claims of cyberstalking and harassment.
In the suit, McCaskey alleges that Nason was angry that he was fired for “poor performance and abusing alcohol on the job” and claims Nason and Saper made “false allegations” and then sought coverage of those allegations in the Chicago Tribune and Eater Chicago to extract money from McCaskey.
In a statement to the Tribune, Saper said the allegation that she and Nason are attempting to extort McCaskey is untrue. Nason, she said, “filed his petition in good faith and only after sending a cease and desist letter to Ryan McCaskey which went unanswered and was immediately followed by escalated harassment.”
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In the September interview, McCaskey said most of the complaints against him and about how he has operated Acadia are untrue or taken out of context. He said the frustrations of his former employees have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread loss of work in the industry. Acadia has been closed since August because of the pandemic.
“Once you remove a couple of these layers, that’s not really how it happened,” McCaskey said. “It’s people trying to direct a narrative because they have nothing to lose. They’re pissed. They don’t have work right now.”
Outside the front window of Acadia on Sept. 11, 2020. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
McCaskey didn’t say whether he would reopen Acadia, but added that it wouldn’t happen before 2021. The restaurant pivoted to a successful to-go operation early in the pandemic, but sales dropped when patios opened during summer, he said. (Several former employees said Acadia has been selling furniture and equipment. McCaskey confirmed as much, though he said selling the items is unrelated to the restaurant’s future.)
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During the summer, McCaskey moved to Stonington, Maine, where he maintains a residence, and opened a more casual restaurant, Acadia House Provisions, in 2019. That restaurant closed this summer amid the pandemic, but has reopened.
McCaskey said he envisions eventually leaving Chicago to live full time in Maine.
“I’m getting to be old. I want to settle down a little bit. I want to have kids. I want to live a much, much more normal life,” McCaskey said. “I just want to have a house and be a normal adult.”
jbnoel@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Tracking Chicago homicide victims

Tracking Chicago homicide victims

Though there are homicides recorded throughout the city they are most concentrated in the South and West sides .


chicagotribune--2020-12-01--Illinois sees small decline in COVID-19 hospitalization numbers, but too early to tell if infection

Illinois sees small decline in COVID-19 hospitalization numbers, but too early to tell if infection curve is bending down

State officials and public health advocates have noted the improvement in the numbers .
But they also said it would @ @ @ @ @ ’ s tightened restrictions to curb the spread of infection and that it is too @ @ @ @ @ infection curve was actually bending down , particularly when looking at a rolling average based @ @ @ @ @ of numbers .

CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations across Illinois has begun to bend downward after weeks of sharp growth, state data shows, but public health advocates have expressed unease that infections from the Thanksgiving holiday may undo any improvements.
As of Sunday night — the most recent data available — 5,849 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized across the state. That number marked the seventh daily drop in hospitalizations in nine days, collectively amounting to a 5% decrease from a high of 6,175 on Nov. 20.
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The same downward trend is starting to be seen, though not as strongly, for the subset of patients in intensive care units — where there are deeper concerns about hospitals becoming overwhelmed.
State officials and public health advocates have noted the improvement in the numbers. But they also said it would take time for the state’s tightened restrictions to curb the spread of infection and that it is too early to tell if the infection curve was actually bending down, particularly when looking at a rolling average based on seven days’ worth of numbers.
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“Although the last few days have offered a hint of potential progress in some of our statewide metrics, the number of patients fighting COVID-19 in our hospital systems statewide still eclipses our spring peak by 23%,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday at his daily coronavirus news briefing. “We had hoped to see more progress in lowering hospitalizations by now.”
The governor said all 11 regions of the state designated in his reopening plan would remain under the tighter restrictions that took effect Nov. 20 — including lower capacity limits for retail stores — for the next few weeks, even if some regions show enough improvement to qualify for looser rules.
Pritzker said that approach is endorsed by the state Department of Public Health and by experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with whom the governor said he spoke earlier Monday.
“We are still very much in a precarious place,” Pritzker said. “And we have got to take the time to evaluate any Thanksgiving effect before we make any premature adjustments.”
State health officials reported 6,190 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the fewest cases reported in a day since Oct. 28, when there were 6,110. It was the fourth day in a row with fewer than 8,000 new cases, and the seven-day average of new daily cases stood at 8,812, down from a peak of 12,384 two weeks ago.
A COVID-19 testing site opened in an employee parking lot at Midway Airport on Nov. 24, 2020. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
But public health officials caution that case counts can be lower immediately following weekends, particularly long holiday weekends, because the figure is largely a function of how many tests are being reported.
After seeing a seven-day average of more than 100,000 tests per day for more than a week, the average was down to 86,431 for the week ending Monday. The case positivity rate — the number of cases relative to the total number of tests — reached a seven-day average of 10.2% on Monday, on par with where it’s been over the past week.
State officials also reported 85 more fatalities Monday, bringing the statewide death toll to 12,278 since March. While other measures have taken a positive turn in recent days, the state is still averaging more than 100 deaths per day. In all, there have been 726,304 known cases of the coronavirus in Illinois since the pandemic began.
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Public health experts say hospitalization figures offer a more stable metric than total cases, though they are still not a perfect measure. Dr. Vineet Arora, a University of Chicago professor of medicine, said some people may have put off seeking hospital treatment until the Thanksgiving holiday passed, which could affect the state numbers in coming days.
For now, many area hospitals reported that they are seeing COVID-19 numbers declining or stabilizing. At University of Chicago Medical Center, the number of COVID-19 patients increased by fivefold over the last month but is now holding steady. Rush University Medical Center said it has seen the number of COVID-19 patients drop by about 15% in recent days.
Among others:
· Edward Hospital in Naperville and Elmhurst Hospital had a combined 129 COVID-19 patients Monday, down from 175 nearly two weeks earlier.
· Advocate Aurora Health had about 663 COVID-19 patients at its 10 Illinois hospitals Monday, about 30 fewer patients than a week ago.
· NorthShore University HealthSystem had 133 COVID-19 patients across its Evanston, Glenview, Skokie and Highland Park hospitals Monday, down from about 155 in recent weeks.
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They all, however, fear the positive trend will be short-lived.
“Unfortunately, I think that’s probably not going to last,” said Dr. Emily Landon, an infectious disease specialist at University of Chicago Medicine. “I’m hoping I’m wrong, that there is not a surge after Thanksgiving, but I think it’s probably unavoidable.”
Health officials and advocates had pleaded with people to cancel large Thanksgiving gatherings but worry that even more modest get-togethers would be enough to spark a boost in infections.
If so, the ripple effect from that boost wouldn’t be seen in hospitalization data until a week or two later, and perhaps longer, as the virus travels from more healthy people who don’t need hospital treatment to more vulnerable people who are more likely to wind up in intensive care.
“We’ve just come off that peak by a little bit,” Pritzker said. “If we got a surge like we’ve had over the last three to four weeks come on top of where we are now, that would be something that would be extraordinarily worrisome for all of us.”
Hospitals are considering a number of actions should they see a post-Thanksgiving surge, including delaying more elective surgeries and adding yet more beds, though having enough staff for additional beds could be a challenge.
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Hospital leaders are also pleading with Illinois residents to continue to help by wearing masks, washing their hands and maintaining social distance.
“This might be the last time we have to worry about a surge like this, potentially, and if we can just manage to reduce the number of new cases and get through to the vaccine, then we can reopen hopefully,” said Dr. Bala Hota, vice president and chief analytics officer at Rush.
Public health advocates suggest that anyone who attended a holiday gathering get tested later this week and quarantine themselves.
“I think many people in our group are bracing for what this week will show,” said Arora, who helps lead the Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team. “I think the jury is out. We just don’t know.”
jmahr@chicagotribune.com
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
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lschencker@chicagotribune.com