The Rundown: Five ways Chicago can prevent downtown mayhem

Plus, 100,000 tulips on the South Side. Here’s what you need to know today.

corner of Washington and Michigan
The corner of E. Washington Street and N. Michigan Avenue, where hundreds of teens gathered Saturday night, causing damage to vehicles and violence in the Loop. Anthony Vazquez / Chicago Sun-Times
corner of Washington and Michigan
The corner of E. Washington Street and N. Michigan Avenue, where hundreds of teens gathered Saturday night, causing damage to vehicles and violence in the Loop. Anthony Vazquez / Chicago Sun-Times

The Rundown: Five ways Chicago can prevent downtown mayhem

Plus, 100,000 tulips on the South Side. Here’s what you need to know today.

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Good afternoon! Did anyone else get hit by an avalanche of pollen last week? Our car was covered and had a yellow tint. Anyway, here’s what you need to know today.

1. Five solutions to downtown mayhem in Chicago

At least two teenagers were shot over the weekend as hundreds of young people gathered downtown. Several videos posted on social media showed cars broken into and some lit on fire.

These chaotic scenes in the heart of the city have led to a wave of outrage, with many downtown residents wondering what the summer will hold.

“I know folks are looking at this as a possible preview of what the summer is going to be like. It doesn’t have to be that way,” said Norman Kerr, a local public safety expert. “There’s some things that can be put in place to mitigate it.”

My colleague Patrick Smith looks at five things that can help prevent downtown mayhem. They include investing more in anti-violence workers, providing more opportunities for young people and improving public transportation. [WBEZ]

Meanwhile, the Chicago Police Department’s response to the violent gatherings was partly hampered by a communications breakdown and infighting between city and police officials, according to a member of the City Council. [Chicago Sun-Times]

2. Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson works to tweak the City Council’s reorganization plan

The incoming mayor and his allies are working behind the scenes to install more Johnson loyalists in key committee posts to help advance his agenda, reports my colleague Fran Spielman.

The lame-duck City Council last month moved to assert its independence by reorganizing itself, a power that technically belongs with council members but has long been taken over by the mayor.

Their plan calls for increasing the number of committees from 19 and 28, but this multimillion-dollar expansion has no clear source of funding, Spielman reports.

And the plan has to be ratified by the incoming council, meaning it could still be undone after Johnson weighs in. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Meanwhile, the outgoing Lightfoot administration estimated a budget deficit of just $85 million for the next fiscal year. [WBEZ]

3. Southwest Airlines briefly grounded flights across the nation this morning due to a ‘firewall failure’

More than 1,700 flights were delayed today after Southwest Airlines ran into a technological problem, accounting for well over half of all delays nationwide by late morning, reports the Associated Press.

The Dallas airline blamed the brief interruption on a “firewall failure.”

“Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost,” Southwest said in a statement.

The news comes after the airline suffered a meltdown around Christmas. And while today’s freeze was brief, it raises even more questions about the airline’s technological aptitude. [AP]

4. Why is Chicago’s transit tracker unreliable?

“After about two hours sitting on a train, then a bus, then walking through a parking lot and over a grassy knoll, I’d finally made it to that beacon of Swedish furniture, meatballs and Lingonberry sauce: IKEA,” writes Michael Gerstein for WBEZ.

Gerstein made the 29-mile odyssey to Schaumburg to test how Chicago’s regional transit agencies — the CTA, PACE and Metra — work with each other and how many apps, trackers and planning devices are needed to get there.

Commuters across the city have long complained about inaccurate arrival times for buses and trains. In a recent WBEZ survey of nearly 2,000 CTA riders, about 9 in 10 survey takers said they’d experienced a delay taking a bus or train in the past 30 days.

Gerstein found that Chicago used to be a leader in transit technology. But predictive algorithms have evolved, and the city needs an upgrade that would give it the ability to automatically update the position of a bus that goes off a route or a train that falls behind. [WBEZ]

5. 100,000 tulips are lighting up previously vacant lots on the South Side

The tulips are part of a public art project by Chicago artist Amanda Williams meant to redefine the meaning of redlining on the South Side, when banks refused to lend to Black residents, reports my colleague Michael Loria.

“We’re planting the tulips in the shape of houses that should exist,” Williams told the Sun-Times before planting the bulbs in October.

The $47,000 worth of tulips mainly came from the Netherlands, organizers said. And they were given permission to use the land by its owner, who didn’t want to be named.

“Imagine the block if all this still existed,” said Williams, who was among three Chicagoans named MacArthur fellows last year. “Imagine the families that would have lived here.” [Chicago Sun-Times]

Here’s what else is happening

  • An 84-year-old man surrendered to authorities in the shooting of a Black teenager who went to the wrong house. [AP]
  • A Moscow court denied bail for a Wall Street Journal reporter accused of espionage, a charge the U.S. and his employer fiercely denied. [NPR]
  • Today’s Tax Day, and refunds so far are 10% smaller than last year. [NPR]
  • A pop star from Northbrook gives a 2000 hit a queer update. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Oh, and one more thing …

A T. rex skeleton is expected to fetch millions of dollars at an auction today in Switzerland.

The skeleton, dubbed “Trinity,” is 38 feet long and 12.8 feet high, so I’ll have to get rid of a lot of things to fit it into my apartment and surprise my husband. [AP]

But the joke’s on Switzerland because you don’t need truckloads of money to bring a T. rex to your home.

For $250, you can rent a T. rex skull from Chicago’s Field Museum. WBEZ’s Curious City checked out the museum’s rental program a couple years ago and found a trove of amazing items you can bring home. [WBEZ]

Tell me something good …

What is your favorite game to play? It can be a video game, board game or whatever. And it can either be a game you enjoy now or when you were a kid.

André writes:

“My game of the moment is Villainous, which is structured in such a way that my cousin across the country and I can play over FaceTime.”

And Benjie Weiss writes:

“Two videogames come to mind: the first one being Super Smash Bros. — my brothers, friends and I have been playing the games since the Nintendo 64 days.

“And we all gather online from time to time for online battles. It’s one of the many ways we keep in touch as adults and provides loads of epic nostalgia for the child inside of us.

“The second game is Overwatch — I ended up making a friend over the game (pun intended) and a year or two later we met in real life! He lives in Florida and I, obviously, live in Chicago. Meet your gamer friends in person, it’s worth the trip!”

Feel free to email me, and your response might be shared in the newsletter this week.