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Mayor Lori Lightfoot has a press conference at 1 p.m. where she'll announce the city's open streets plan.
I'll live tweet. Follow for updates and let me know if you have questions. https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/05/29/open-streets-finally-coming-to-chicago-friday-so-people-can-social-distance-outside/
I'll live tweet. Follow for updates and let me know if you have questions. https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/05/29/open-streets-finally-coming-to-chicago-friday-so-people-can-social-distance-outside/
Lightfoot on George Floyd killing: "Last night I watched with great sadness the events that were unfolding in Minneapolis, a great city." We hear the pain and sadness of people there in Chicago.
Lightfoot: "This is Chicago and we've been through difficult times before. We haven't forgotten the days following the release of the video showing the murder of Laquan McDonald and following the deaths of too many names both before that date and after ... ."
Lightfoot: "Folks, please march, exercise your rights, but wear face coverings. Bring hand sanitizers. Ensure distance between one another even as you're marching. If you feel sick, please, stay home. And remember that you could also be COVID-positive and be asymptomatic."
Lightfoot: She's been the target of racism. Watching the video of Floyd's killing, "I feel angry, I feel sickened and a range of other emotions all at once. Being Black in America should not be a death sentence. We should not fear for the lives of our young ones, and mothers ...
shouldn't fear when their young men and women go out into the world that they're gonna get that fateful call. ... Donald Trump's comment last night was profoundly dangerous, and we must stand in firm solidarity and say this is totally unacceptable no matter who is the speaker....
"And folks, we see the game he's playing because it's so transparent and he's not very good at it. He wants to show failures on the part of Democratic local leaders ... his goal is to polarize, to destabilize local government and to enflame racist urges. And we can absolutely ...
"not let him prevail. And I will code what I want to say [to Trump] and it starts with F and ends with U."
Lightfoot: "We all know how hard it is on busy sidewalks, and it simply makes this effort easier. Greater details about which streets will be used for that purpose will be coming in the next days as Commissioner Biagi and her team continue engaging with key stakeholders, ...
"elected officials and, most importantly, community members throughout Chicago."
They hope open streets will also help small businesses, particularly neighborhood restaurants, so they have extra space to welcome customers.
They hope open streets will also help small businesses, particularly neighborhood restaurants, so they have extra space to welcome customers.
Lightfoot: Six pilot roads will be closed and restaurants will be allowed to move tables and chairs into streets and parking lots. They'll be in "key corridors across our city to provide much-needed relief to businesses of all size, all of which were selected based on ...
"location, proximity to local businesses and residents and evaluation of the impact on traffic."
Lightfoot: 75th Street from Calumet to Indiana in Chatham
Broadway from Belmont to Diversey in Lakeview
26th Street from Central Park to Harding in Little Village
Rush Street from Oak Street to Cedar Street
Taylor Street from Loomis to Ashland in Near West Side
Randolph Street
Broadway from Belmont to Diversey in Lakeview
26th Street from Central Park to Harding in Little Village
Rush Street from Oak Street to Cedar Street
Taylor Street from Loomis to Ashland in Near West Side
Randolph Street
Lightfoot: Businesses that want to participate can visit http://Chicago.gov to submit an application for the 2020 Expanded Outdoor Dining Program.
Lightfoot: "It is important that we show how outdoor dining can be done in a safe, orderly way."
Lightfoot: "We cannot allow these open streets to turn into street festivals, and we will not." It's for seated dining now. "But I feel confident that residents of this city and our great restauranteurs are gonna work hand in glove" to do this safely for customers and staff.
Lightfoot: "The hope we all share is that this program will offer new and lasting insight into how we live and experience our neighborhoods ... ."
CDOT Commissioner Gia Biagi: "With 4,000 miles of streets, that's 4,000 miles of opportunity to help both our residents and our businesses that have faced unprecedented challenges from COVID-19."
Biagi: They'll do expanded outdoor dining and shared streets.
Biagi: On Monday, June 1, the 2020 Expanded Outdoor Dining Permit application will be available online for restaurants in groups of three, SSAs and chambers of commerce to apply for temporary use of streets for outdoor dining.
Biagi: There will be online info sessions and more details coming out over the next few days.
Biagi: Shared streets "will allow residential streets for Chicagoans to be opened ... while allowing vehicle traffic for local access only."
Biagi: Signs and barricades can be put up to turn streets into shared streets.
Biagi: You can fill out a survey at http://Chicago.gov/COVIDmobility to say what you want to see happen in your neighborhood.
Biagi: Their key principles:
• "It must contribute to community health and wellbeing."
• "It also has to be feasible. ... It has to work for transportation."
• "We're looking for ways to make those physical connections to our transportation network."
• "It must contribute to community health and wellbeing."
• "It also has to be feasible. ... It has to work for transportation."
• "We're looking for ways to make those physical connections to our transportation network."
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd): "... Mayor Lightfoot leaned into it [open streets] hard." It's a pilot program and adjustments will be made as they go. "There is no right or wrong solution. We're gonna work with the restauranteurs and see how it works as we evolve."
Reilly: "We've had folks closed for far too long." There are tens of thousands of people in the industry who need to provide for their families.
Sam Toia from the Illinois Restaurant Association: "Closing down streets to allow expanded dining in Chicago neighborhoods is thinking outside the box; this is what the mayor and her team always do. Restaurants are a staple of every neighborhood in Chicago from Lakeview to ...
"Little Village to Chatham to the West Loop." This "isn't a solution for every restaurant in Chicago, but it is another pragmatic and crucial" step to recovery.
Sales are down 80% across the board at restaurants, "and no one is immune to what's going on out here. No one. We ...
Sales are down 80% across the board at restaurants, "and no one is immune to what's going on out here. No one. We ...
"estimate that more than half of the city's 171,000 food service employees are currently laid off."
Toia: "We are not out of the woods yet; every business owner and customer needs to be respectful of each other." That means keeping each other safe through social distancing and smart choices.
Toia: "We gotta do this right so we can move into the next phase and start opening our indoor dining rooms. ... We gotta do it right, so please wear your mask at all times. When you're eating, you can take it off. But when you're not eating, make sure you have your mask on."
Blanca Soto from the Little Village Chamber of Commerce: "The COVID pandemic has impacted our business community just like all the corridors throughout the city. Businesses are closing, people are losing their jobs and the local economy is suffering. But we have hope."
Soto: "26th Street is known for its authentic, regional Mexican cuisine and is home to over 100 Mexican restaurants. For those who have been home for the past two months and you're craving your favorite Mexican dish, I invite you to La Villita and enjoy a taste of Mexico."
Stephanie Hart from Brown Sugar Bakery: "I'd just like to quickly say that one of the bright sides of COVID for me is my employees, while completely shut down, got together and offered me money to open back up. This touched my heart in such a way ... ." People wanted to get ...
back to work. "I am so excited to be part of solutions and I'm so excited that this program is coming to 75th Street. 75th Street on the South Side of Chicago is home to many, many minority businesses that have been in business" for a long time. "This is needed. It is a time ...
"for us to start giving hope to our community. ... There are no perfect solutions, but it is us getting the opportunity to move forward."
Lightfoot on if aldermen could kill streets: "Our hope is that we're gonna be able to work collaboratively. I know there are some aldermen who have a lot of questions about open streets, but from everything we've done we've tried to work very collaboratively with all ...
"stakeholders, of course local aldermen ... ."
Lightfoot on bars reopening: "If bars have food service, then they will be able to open up right away. If the bars are just simply a bar and no food, obviously the new state law, which allows for the sale of cocktails, will be available to them. But bars aren't the same as ...
"restaurants. People, as we all know, lose their inhibitions when they're drinking. And it's more difficult, I think, for them to follow the social distancing guidance. There will be a point where bars that are purely bars and no food service will be able to open up on a ...
"larger scale than currently what the state law allows, but right now, in this very first step into Phase 3, they will remain closed."
Lightfoot: "We are trying to do everything we can to get these permits up and out the door as quickly as possible. ... We're very focused on speed here. We don't want bureaucracy to be an impediment to restaurants being able to take advantage of this opportunity."
Escareno from BACP: "We have seen a lot of interest from aldermen wishing to support their business community." They want to "expedited and streamline as much as we can ... . We have not stopped the issuance of sidewalk cafes." They've issued nearly 400 and there's another ...
400 in process. "Nothing is stopping. I'm encouraging businesses to continue to apply." An application today has to be reviewed by the local alderman and it goes to BACP. They introduce it to committee and it could take as short as two weeks or could take up to a month.
Escareno: "It's about speed, as the mayor said; we want to be as supportive as we can, especially as we're opening. We want to take advantage of the summer."
Lightfoot on churches: "We are maintaining the status quo for this weekend; as I've mentioned on other occasions, we've had a working group of faith leaders from a lot of different faith traditions that have been meeting and are working on guidelines. We expect to have those ...
"guidelines finalized hopefully early next week. ... For this weekend, in Chicago, the status quo remains."
Lightfoot on disparities in social distancing arrests: There have been a few "isolated" incidents where people didn't comply, and, to her knowledge, many of those were on the West Side in open air drug markets.
Lightfoot: "WE've had very few instances where people simply refuse and be belligerent, but typically that's happened in connection with some other kind of criminal activity and the Police Department has appropriately stepped in and used the tools" at its disposal.
Lightfoot: "That's a pretty offensive characterization of people riding public transit. This is the only public transit system in the country that has remained fully operational" during the pandemic because essential workers need it. "I have to say I'm offended and reject the ...
"characterization of the people who have been putting their lives on the line because it's necessary ... . Chicago Transit Authority is not in a death spiral; that's completely wrong. Yes, of course ridership is down; we expect that to slowly tick up" as people return to work ...
Downtown.
She says the question is offensive and racist.
She says the question is offensive and racist.
Lightfoot: "What I'm concerned about is the president of the United States" encouraging violence.
"There's no other way you can read that tweet than" encouraging violence. "Nobody's gonna sit and condone looting, violence. But to blanketly say, as the president of the United ...
"There's no other way you can read that tweet than" encouraging violence. "Nobody's gonna sit and condone looting, violence. But to blanketly say, as the president of the United ...
"States, you're encouraging people to be shot int he streets," she's concerned about that. "That's cowardice. that's playing to a base with the biggest dog whistle possible."
Lightfoot: Fees will be waived as they want to streamline this. Hopefully "very soon" they can announce guidance on indoor dining.
Lightfoot: The 9 p.m. liquor curfew will not apply to restaurants that are opening up but is still in place for stores selling liquor.
Lightfoot: "We think about the Lakefront every day" and are working on a plan to safely reopen it.
Lightfoot: "That's part of the consideration of the open streets initiative. As the commissioner said, we encourage people to contact us with their specific ideas and particularly if there are areas of the city that they're concerned about safety."
Lightfoot: "We want to make sure that all forms of mobility are supported in the city."
Lightfoot: "We've had a lot of conversations about swimming pools and the issue is not so much the water; the issue is the congregations. The people that are flocking to the pools, congregating in restrooms and locker rooms, that's what we're really concerned about. We're ...
"gonna continue to see how we do in ... these initial stages of Phase 3, but we are looking at the possibility of other openings, and swimming pools are something we're considering, but in the short term they will not be open."
Lightfoot: "I'm not Michelle Obama. And when a president is actively fomenting violence, which is what that violence was all about, make not mistake about it, he was channeling, I believe, a former sheriff in Florida at another time when he was literally saying he was gonna ...
"shoot people on site — we have to step up. My obligation as a leader is not to be silent in the face of that. I'm very deliberate in the times that I speak in reaction to what the president says. ... I don't take the bait every time, but this time, when we are suffering pain ...
"and trauma at the killing of a Black man in the street, the fact that he would use this opportunity to try to, for political gain and to blow the dog whistle to his base, I'm a Black woman and I'm a leader. And I feel an obligation to speak out when something as offensive as ...
"that is said by anyone, but particularly the president. And I make no apologies whatsoever for my word choice and the way in which I'm calling him ... . It was wrong. It was offensive. And he should apologize."
