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Good morning, today we bring you the latest on city overtime spending, a major new exhibit at the Field Museum and gentrification concerns in Pilsen.
Let us know what you think about this newsletter by emailing us at DailyChicagoan@wttw.com.
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(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
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By Heather Cherone and Jared Rutecki, WTTW News
The city of Chicago’s financial condition is dire.
But for the sixth consecutive year, the Chicago Police Department has blown its overtime budget. During the first half of 2024, CPD spent $129 million on overtime for officers – nearly 30% more than the Chicago City Council set aside for the entire year.
In the coming weeks, Mayor Brandon Johnson is set to unveil his plan to fill a $222.9 million deficit by the end of the year and bridge a projected shortfall of $982.4 million in 2025. That will kick off weeks of budget hearings, and CPD leaders will no doubt promise members of the City Council they will do more to stay within their overtime budget. But given the city’s track record, that would require substantive changes to the way CPD operates.
The first step toward making those changes would be to launch a study on whether officers are efficiently and effectively deployed across the city to stop crime and respond to calls for help, as required by the consent decree. Even though the Chicago City Council ordered the study to begin more than four months ago, CPD has yet to finalize the contract with the organization set to perform the work.
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The Chicago Archaeopteryx (Nicole Cardos / WTTW News)
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The Chicago Archaeopteryx, unveiled this past May, is one of the most important fossils in the Field Museum's vast collection.
Archaeopertyx, often dubbed the "first bird," has long been held up as proof of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, providing a key link between pre-historic dinosaurs and modern-day birds.
But there's also no getting around the fact the fossil itself is kind of small. This presented the Field's exhibits team with a bit of a conundrum as they designed a permanent home for the Chicago Archaeopteryx.
To put it plainly: How do you give a creature the size of a chicken the same treatment as a towering T.Rex?
Here’s what they did:
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Their solution, months in the making, debuted Friday, as the Chicago Archaeopteryx permanent exhibit opened to the public in the Hall of Dinosaurs.
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Designers created a micro-gallery full of elements that put flesh on the 150 million-year-old Archaeopteryx bones, from a digital mural depicting a day in the creature's Jurassic life to hand-painted models of the first bird perched atop a 15-foot tree.
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Also From WTTW News: |
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A man who was fatally shot following a traffic accident in West Town was one of three people killed by gunfire over the weekend across Chicago.
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The proposed expansion of the Pilsen tax increment financing (TIF) district has been nothing short of divisive. “Chicago Tonight” spoke with residents fearing gentrification.
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Yes, there will be lane closures and traffic disruptions on DuSable Lake Shore Drive this week. Patty Wetli has all the details here.
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Back in the Day: September 30, 2014 - Riot Fest’s Humboldt Park Damages Total $182,000
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Courtesy of Riot Fest
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The annual punk rock music festival Riot Fest happened earlier this month in Douglass Park but 10 years ago, it was held in Humboldt Park. On this date in 2014, the Chicago Parks District announced that damages to Humboldt Park totaled a whopping $182,000. According to the Chicago Tribune, “Rain during the festival turned Humboldt Park into a sloppy mess." Though that number was dwarfed by the $266,000 Lollapalooza paid to restore Grant Park that year, the costly repairs and neighborhood complaints eventually reached a boiling point. In spring 2015, organizers announced that after three years on Chicago’s West Side, it would not return to the neighborhood. Since then, it’s been in Douglass Park but it hasn’t been a seamless journey. This year, they announced they’d move to Bridgeview’s SeatGeek stadium before suddenly reversing course in August.
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How are you feeling about the first four weeks of the Chicago Bears' season? Tell us why you're optimistic or ready to give up
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry |
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