Patrick J. O'Connor

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's top City Council ally on Monday predicted approval of the mayor's plan to revise the city's much-reviled, long-term parking meter lease after it easily cleared its initial hurdle. The Finance Committee voted 15-6 to advance Emanuel'...

A group of aldermen today called for hearings on whether Taste of Chicago should be restructured or even eliminated in the face of years of financial losses. Ald. Robert Fioretti, a sponsor of the non-binding resolution, suggested Taste may have run...

Some big new theaters cost tens of millions of dollars — even more than a decade ago, the new Goodman Theatre in the Loop cost $46 million. The new Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis cost in the region of $125 million in 2006. In Washington, D.C., the...

Even before the City Council on Wednesday approved Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan for free Sunday neighborhood parking, more than a dozen aldermen were making plans to quickly restore paid parking throughout the weekend in business districts stretching...

Amid questions concerning her Congressman husband's whereabouts, Alderman Sandi Jackson (7th Ward) says she is dealing with hard times by working for the residents of her ward -- yet she was not in attendance at today's City Council meeting. Jackson...

Absent significant pension system reforms, it would cost the city an extra $1.5 billion a year beginning in 2016 to start the process of restoring financial health to its pension funds, aldermen were warned Monday. If those costs kicked in, services...

Thousands of teachers from Chicago and beyond rallied at a Near West Side park Saturday as lawyers labored into the night at a Loop office to turn a framework for a new contract into finer points that can become a deal. Parents can expect to wait until...

The Chicago City Council today moved a step closer to turning part of historic Rosehill Cemetery into a public nature preserve. The council's Housing Committee approved paying $7.7 million to buy about 21 acres at the northwest corner of the North Side...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today called for raising water fees to repair an aging system, hiring new police and putting in place a congestion tax on downtown parking. The new mayor delivered his first budget address to theChicago City Council and said change...