News - Sol Plaza

Editorial: Digital Illinois driver’s licenses are here. Except when you are actually driving.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias stood before cameras Tuesday and declared a historic day.

“For anyone who’s ever left the house without their wallet,” he said, “fumbled for their ID at airport security or wished government services were just a little more modern, today changes everything.”

Giannoulias paused for dramatic effect before delivering the news. “For the first time ever, Illinoisans will be able to add their driver’s licenses or state ID to their Apple Wallet,” he said.

“This is government innovation at its best,” he went on, sounding like he was, oh, maybe running for something. He even went so far as to say that this represented “a new way to think about identity.”

That was a bit much. Certainly, Giannoulias deserves credit for pushing on with the technology that now allows Illinoisans to add their IDs to their phones and the levels of encryption are indeed impressive: the door person at the bar now can see you are over 21 years old without ogling the other information on your license. Better yet, the online ID will update in real time, unlike its physical sibling. You also will be able to use your license at TSA checkpoints at the airport, which is probably where you already store your boarding pass. Most convenient.

In many ways this looks like another nail in the coffin for the wallet, or the purse; a thick one is fast becoming a marker of age, or of Luddism. And another reminder that if and when you leave your phone at home — or God forbid, somewhere else — you are likely to be rendered dysfunctional in our brave new world. Better start carrying an extra battery.

But once prompted with a question, Giannoulias had a big caveat: You cannot use your shiny new digital driver’s license for its originally intended purpose.

Namely, driving.

If you are getting behind the wheel, you still need to pull out the physical license. So you’ll either need to keep it in your glove compartment (not ideal) or still carry that purse or wallet after all.

“That’s not gonna happen for the foreseeable future,” Giannoulias said of a scenario where officers pulls you over for speeding and you just show them your phone. “The legislation that was passed does not allow law enforcement to use it as of now.”

“No other state that has Apple Wallet allows law enforcement to use it,” he added.

That’s not entirely true — it appears that, in some cases, other states are already allowing drivers to use digital IDs during traffic stops.

Regardless, the traffic stop issue is a big caveat and one that we suspect will need more reinforcing.

Some people now are likely to think they can just pull out their phones after a traffic stop and they then will find themselves walking away with a ticket or a demand to head to the police station to show their physical licenses. So consider yourself duly warned.

“Consider it complementary for now,” Giannoulias said of the physical and digital twins, albeit nonidentical.

So the true revolution has yet to be televised. We see no reason why police officers can’t deal with digital licenses; it’s not that different from the TSA use thereof, especially since cops can look up driving and criminal records by way of inputting license numbers into their own databases. When that day comes, you really can leave your driving license in a desk drawer.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/editorial-digital-illinois-drivers-licenses-are-here-except-when-you-are-actually-driving/

News

Willie Wilson: Illinois politicians party as Black communities fall further behind

Elected leaders turned out en masse on Nov. 8 for the Chicago Urban League’s annual Golden Fellowship Dinner. The star-studded black-tie event drew Chicago’s elite Black citizens, including Mayor Brandon Johnson, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and a host of Black federal and state legislators. Interestingly, they were comfortable having a great time while seemingly oblivious to the figurative fire raging in the Black community.

How can they party as a 2025 State of Black Chicago report released by the Chicago Urban League paints a grim picture of economic progress for Black Chicagoans? As the report notes, the median net worth for Black households in Chicago in 2024 was zero dollars, whereas the median worth for their white counterparts was $210,000.

Perhaps elected leaders do not understand that Black households may be living paycheck to paycheck with no financial savings or assets to fall back on. Black politicians party while their constituents struggle to make ends meet.

As someone who grew up in the Jim Crow era, I am appalled at seeing Black politicians who are more loyal to a political party than their constituents. Prioritizing migrants over Black citizens is an example. This go-along-to-get-along attitude has produced very little tangible progress for the Black community. Too many Black citizens remain plagued by economic despair, poor education opportunities and crime-ridden communities. Where are the profiles of courage among modern-day Black political leaders?

Black leaders promise to fight for their constituents, but in the end, material conditions remain unchanged.

The school-to-prison pipeline will continue as long as politicians support low education standards and block options for children. The Illinois legislature allowed to sunset in 2023 the Invest in Kids tax credit program, which helped thousands of children, including those in low-income Black communities. The following year, an Illinois Policy Institute analysis found that Welch and Senate President Don Harmon each received $600,000 in political contributions from the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which opposed continuing Invest in Kids.

This year’s Illinois Report Card shows that only 17.4% of Black fourth graders and 36.7% of Black eighth graders scored proficient or better in math, compared with 55.4% and 66.6% of white students.

It is unreasonable to expect children to succeed in life if they are denied the opportunity of a proper education, as one-time Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren observed. It must be made available to all on equal terms.

Elected leaders are quick to applaud high graduation rates. However, if children who receive diplomas cannot read or do basic math, the education system has failed. Even worse, such a reality ensures a perpetuation of the school-to-prison-pipeline.

Willie Wilson: Don’t be fooled by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s irresponsible budget proposal

Willie Wilson: Victims of crime are often forgotten by lawmakers

The Black population in Illinois is about 14%, but Black people represent 54% of the prison population in Illinois. How long will Black leaders fail to address this? How long will Black politicians be beholden to white politicians?

In Cook County, property tax bills began hitting mailboxes after being four months late: Black neighborhoods are being hit the hardest with higher bills. According to a report released by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, tax bills rose the highest in West Garfield Park, North Lawndale and Englewood.

Working-class families who have experienced redlining pay the highest costs for mortgages and car and property insurance. They face rising health insurance premiums, coupled with higher costs for groceries and utilities. How do politicians expect working-class families with no net worth to pay those taxes? This is another example of Black politicians being complicit in the fleecing of the Black community through an unfair property tax system.

Black elected leaders have shown little sense of urgency to deal with high crime in communities they represent. The crime is traumatizing everyday people, including senior citizens and children.

I support reparations for the Black community as a way to repair the harm of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, trauma and disinvestment. My idea for reparations consists of free education, health care and job training, for residents in poor communities.

The following are some suggestions to help Black families:

Gov. JB Pritzker, Johnson, Welch and Harmon must fix the broken education system in Illinois.
Welch and Illinois Black Caucus members must demand equity in contracts for Black business owners through the procurement process.
Pritzker, Welch and Harmon must fix the unfair property system that burdens the working class. Exempt senior citizens from paying property taxes.
Pritzker and the state legislature should pass a reparations bill that includes free education, health care, child care, housing and job training for Black citizens living in poverty.

Black leadership that does not prioritize economic infrastructure, such as schools, banks, construction companies, grocery stores, businesses and skilled trades, will continue to oversee poorer and economically fragile communities.

We celebrate the historic number of Black elected officials, but without any real tangible progress for the Black community, there is no reason to party.

I write this commentary to make those Black leaders comfortable with continuing the status quo uncomfortable.

Willie Wilson is a business owner, philanthropist and former mayoral candidate.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/opinion-black-wealth-chicago-urban-league/

News

Liam Stanton: Chicago government should choose planning over panic

Chicagoans plan their lives with care. Families budget months ahead. Small businesses track payroll and inventory long before bills come due. Neighborhood organizations stretch every dollar and every volunteer hour. People in this city plan early, honestly and without needless drama.

City government should meet that same standard. Instead, this year’s budget process has shown a lack of planning, foresight and coordination. As a result, the City Council is being asked to resolve a $1.19 billion deficit on a compressed timeline. At the same time, residents are receiving delayed and higher-than-expected property tax bills from the county due to issues with a technology upgrade. While the two issues are unrelated, they land together for Chicagoans and create a broader impression that government is not managing the basics.

This is not a story about taxes alone. It is a story about management. Across communities and business corridors, we hear the same thing again and again. Chicagoans can deal with difficult choices when they are laid out clearly. What they cannot deal with is being caught off guard. And lately, that has become routine: late information, shifting proposals and decisions made with little time for public or council review. That is no way to run a major American city.

The administration pushed forward a compressed and constantly changing budget process that left the City Council with little time to evaluate, amend or build consensus around major decisions. That lack of early engagement created avoidable pressure and set the stage for the Finance Committee’s overwhelming rejection of the revenue package. When planning breaks down at the top, everything else becomes reactive. And Chicagoans feel the consequences.

City Hall’s fifth floor also had months of data pointing to a historic shortfall. It had the EY analysis. It had internal projections that made this moment avoidable. The City Council did not receive that information early enough to develop alternatives or weigh tradeoffs before the fall calendar closed in. Aldermen are now doing their jobs under difficult conditions, but they should never have been put in this position. Chicago is strongest when the mayor and the council operate as partners. Partnership is impossible when one side receives critical information only after the runway has nearly disappeared.

Several of the administration’s proposals arrived not only late but also out of step with the day-to-day realities of working people. The head tax is the clearest example. It was rewritten multiple times in the span of a week and introduced without clear detail, and it would have swept in midsize employers, restaurants and neighborhood businesses that are already struggling with higher costs. Other ideas, from higher lease taxes to expanded fees and surcharges, would have landed directly on the backs of residents who are stretched thin.

The City Council’s resistance is not dysfunction. It is a sign that aldermen understood these proposals were rushed, disconnected from economic reality and lacked the trust needed to move forward. When ideas arrive this way, the council has no responsible choice other than to slow them down.

Chicago’s governing structure is built for collaboration. We do not have a mayor who rules by decree. We have 50 wards filled with lived experience and neighborhood expertise. That structure only works when the mayor’s office engages early, works transparently and treats aldermen as partners from the start. When that does not happen, decision-making becomes reactive instead of thoughtful. Urgency replaces strategy.

There is a better model. Cities such as Denver and Boston rely on multiyear budgeting that brings financial realities into public view long before the fall. They publish long-range forecasts, host hearings early, and invite residents and businesses into the process while ideas are still forming. These cities still face hard choices, but they face them with planning rather than improvisation.

Chicago can adopt these same habits. The fifth floor can release projections in the spring. Working groups can be tasked with real authority and real information. Aldermen can be included at the beginning instead of the end. Our work has shown how differently discussions unfold when people feel informed early rather than asked to react to decisions that are already halfway decided.

Longer term, Chicago should consider a formal city charter. Most major cities operate with one. A charter would create clear expectations for transparency, timelines and roles. It would give the public a predictable process and give elected officials a reliable structure. It would reduce the improvisation that has defined recent years.

Editorial: Death of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s head tax should lead to negotiations with unions

Kam Buckner: A city charter is the reform Chicago actually needs, not recall powers

As the budget debate continues, the City Council deserves the space to deliberate carefully. They are doing their jobs under compressed conditions they did not create. Chicagoans deserve a process that treats them as stakeholders in the future of their city, not as spectators waiting for the next surprise. When people feel respected and informed, they respond with the steadiness and seriousness that defines Chicago.

Hard choices were always ahead. Surprise never had to be part of it. Chicago can make difficult decisions. We can also make them the right way, with preparation, honesty and the same level of care that Chicagoans show in their own lives.

That is the standard we should expect. And it is the standard the fifth floor must meet.

Liam Stanton is a lifelong Chicagoan, entrepreneur and founder of The Chicago Style Project, a neighborhood advocacy group focused on bold, practical solutions for Chicago’s biggest challenges.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/opinion-chicago-city-budget-planning-charter/

News

Lakeview 5-bedroom house with 3 terraces and 4 wet bars: $2.6M

Address: 1446 W. Belle Plaine Ave., Chicago

Listed: Oct. 21, 2025

Price: $2,599,000

Listing agent: Tory Rezin and Bari Mill, Coldwell Banker, 847-414-9944

This Lakeview home has five bedrooms, four full bathrooms, two half-baths and a top floor that functions as a second family room, guest suite or home office. The house has three landscaped terraces and four wet bars across multiple floors. Interior features include mahogany millwork, coffered ceilings, full wood-paneled walls and wide-plank, quarter-sawn oak floors. The living room has a 9-foot, tiered Calacatta Borghini marble fireplace. On the main level, the living and dining area flows into a kitchen with French doors leading to a bluestone patio. The kitchen has a 16-foot Tiffany blue quartzite waterfall island, a La Cornue range and a satin brass hood. The second level has three en suite bedrooms with Juliet balconies, including a primary suite with a walk-in closet and double vanities. A paneled office has a wallpapered ceiling and brass built-ins. The top level has pitched ceilings, a powder room and access to two rooftop terraces. The lower level has a theater room, a recreation area and a bedroom. The house includes a two-car garage with a rooftop deck.

Lakeview 5-bedroom house with 3 terraces and 4 wet bars: Exterior