by DAN MIHALOPOULOS | Sep 9, 2010
Everybody who is anybody in Chicago politics has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Mayor Richard M. Daley after his shocking retirement announcement this week. But rather than pondering their chances, potential candidates might take a good look at
by DAN MIHALOPOULOS and MICK DUMKE | Feb 12, 2011
The 600,000 households in Chicago that rely on City Hall to collect and dispose of their trash enjoy first-rate service. Regardless of what residents leave in alleys, the city carts it away to a landfill at no extra charge.
by DAN MIHALOPOULOS and MICK DUMKE | Feb 12, 2011
In the waning days of retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley‘s long tenure, his Streets and Sanitation Department is planning a radical change in its garbage collection system that many critics have long called for as a way to dramatically cut
by DAN MIHALOPOULOS | Feb 19, 2011
When voters go to the polls Tuesday to pick Chicago’s first new mayor since the 1980s, they can reflect on a lively campaign that featured topics ranging from education and crime to whether one of the mayoral hopefuls had smoked
by DAN MIHALOPOULOS and MICHAEL LIPKIN | May 13, 2011
During the year that Robert Hoff became a Chicago firefighter, in 1976, 156 people died in fires in the city. By 2010, when Hoff became the department’s commissioner, that figure had plummeted to 27. The number of fires that the
by DAN MIHALOPOULOS and MICHAEL LIPKIN | May 13, 2011
Chicago is virtually alone among major U.S. cities in avoiding cutbacks in fire protection, with tight budgets forcing cost-saving efforts at the fire departments of New York, Los Angeles and other cities. (Read the accompanying story In Tough Times, Fire
by DAN MIHALOPOULOS | Jul 11, 2011
Over the past five years, the office of City Hall’s inspector general fielded about 200 complaints alleging that city truck drivers were loafing or sleeping at job sites. But the drivers were most likely not shirking any duties, said Inspector
by DAN MIHALOPOULOS | Jul 25, 2011
In City Hall’s Department of Family and Support Services, the relatively small band of employees receive supervision from no less than one commissioner, 14 deputy commissioners, 4 assistant commissioners, 6 assistants to the commissioner and 17 others with the word
by DAN MIHALOPOULOS and HUNTER CLAUSS | Oct 21, 2011
Despite Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s highly promoted efforts at concentrating additional police patrols in the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods, many crime-ridden police districts still have fewer officers patrolling their streets than far safer areas of the city have, according to recent
by DAN MIHALOPOULOS | Dec 19, 2011
On a computer-generated wall map, Thomas H. Powers outlined the first steps in what promises to be the biggest investment in Chicago’s labyrinthine water and sewer system since Mayor Richard J. Daley built the enormous Jardine water treatment plant on
