Mayor's Office

Office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday announced the planned installation at Midway Airport of electronic, self-service kiosks that would allow Americans and Canadians to swipe their passports and enter information before receiving a printed receipt that would be presented for review by a customs official; City’s Department of Transportation said the new system could reduce average customs wait times by 27.5 percent; Kiosks first debuted in the United States at O’Hare Airport in June

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday joined U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and other officials to break ground on the $60 million development of a 16-foot-wide flyover at the intersection of the lakefront bike and pedestrian pathway and Navy Pier’s feeder roads; Project is expected for completion in 2018

Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently met with Paul Chavez, son of civil rights leader Cesar Chavez; Chavez was in Chicago for the March 14 pre-screening at AMC River East of “Cesar Chavez,” a documentary from director Diego Luna

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Infrastructure Trust on Monday announced vague details about its second initiative, under which about 100 Chicago Public Schools- and Chicago Park District-operated swimming pools would be upgraded and retrofitted to “reduce carbon emissions”; Trust spokesperson did not specifically say what type of energy-efficiency improvements would yield the carbon-emission reductions, according to Crain’s Chicago Business

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday said that, despite the fact that 92 speed cameras near city schools and parks have only generated $3.7 million in fines – only $1.5 million of which have been collected – since being installed, the cameras have been effective in increasing safety in the areas; Mayor said he’ll find another way to finance $70-million worth of youth programs intended to be funded by speed camera revenue, if the camera revenue doesn’t meet projections

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday said Chicago Department of Transportation crews over the next few weeks will work in a geographical grid to repair potholes on Chicago’s 1,055 miles of “major thoroughfares”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel emphatically declared in an interview with Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun-Times that, “I am not running for president” after completing his mayoral term, or a possible second term as mayor; Emanuel also dismissed the notion that he has endorsed Gov. Pat Quinn for reelection over GOP candidate for Illinois governor Bruce Rauner, to whom the mayor has ties, because the mayor’s endorsement of Quinn actually helps Rauner

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday said a revision of Chicago’s 75-year parking meter privatization contract saved the city roughly $2.1 million in the second half of last year; Contentious contract, which was approved under former Mayor Richard M. Daley, privatized the operation of 36,000 city parking meters for $1.1 billion

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday said Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett “made the right call” in her decision this week to issue guidance to Chicago Public Schools principals that, “If an individual teacher refuses to administer the [ISAT] test, you should direct that teacher to swipe out and leave the work place”; ISATs, which are slated for administration at CPS schools beginning next week, will soon be phased out