City Council

The City Council Finance Committee on Monday advanced a $10.7 million-plan for cleaning up a largely-vacant corner in Englewood that is the proposed site for a new Whole Foods.

Aldermen approved an ordinance that will take money from two special property taxing, or tax increment financing, districts and put it toward clearing debris and prepping 63rd Street and Halsted Avenue for the Whole Foods. The money goes directly to Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, a nonprofit developer that partnered with the city on other blockbuster projects like a Wal-Mart in Pullman.

Chicago’s cash-strapped city government is rejecting an easy source of revenue by encouraging insured mental health patients to get care at private facilities instead of city-run clinics, Alderman Robert Fioretti (2nd) charged Thursday. The result, Fioretti claimed, is that the city might soon close its six remaining mental health clinics – it already shuttered six mental health facilities in 2012.

Many questions were raised during a Tuesday City Council committee hearing on the latest proposal to ban plastic shopping bags throughout Chicago – including a possible fee for the use of paper bags, how soon the measure would take effect if it is approved, and whether the ban would apply to the use of compostable plastic bags.