Good morning! Sorry about the weather. Let’s get into what happened in Chicago politics this week:

Chicago Reader: The Reader's Quantum Crossroads series pulls the curtain back on how the South Works quantum campus actually happened: starting in 2018, JB and Penny Pritzker worked with the Commercial Club of Chicago on what they called a "Burnham Plan for Tech." About $1 billion in public funding and tax breaks is now committed to the project, and the campus's property tax rate from 25% to 10%. Rezoning to final Council approval took six months — a speed no affordable housing development in this city has ever seen, with residents finding out about the whole thing only after it was announced.

Buried at the north end of the 440-acre site: a 1+ gigawatt data center — enough power for about 800,000 homes — announced by Related Midwest's subsidiary Related Digital in a press release, listed on national data center maps, permitted in the zoning application, and never once mentioned in a community meeting. When the Reader asked, the spokesperson said a data center is "not part of" phase one and declined to answer whether it's part of any other phase.

The Reader also reports that the political intrigue isn’t over, including a supportive "grassroots" group whose leader is partnering with Related Midwest on a housing deal, and a Republican committeeman who admits he was recruited as a "stand-in objector" to knock Southside Together's referendum off the March ballot.

Why It Matters: In spite of all of this, organizing against data centers is winning, everywhere. Data Center Watch counted at least 75 projects worth ~$130 billion blocked or delayed in the first quarter of 2026 alone. The pressure works, which is exactly why the data center at South Works is being managed as a secret. The people doing that work here, the South Works CBA Coalition, Southside Together, ETHOS, Alliance of the Southeast, can still stop this. To learn more, start with the Respair/AirGo Quantum Entanglements series we covered last week.

Three different budget stories:

Johnson's social media tax — 50 cents per user on Meta, TikTok, YouTube, X and the rest — was projected to raise $31 million this year. According to the Sun Times, it pulled in $16.4 million in the first four months, pacing to $49.2 million — 59% above projections. Even Finance Chair Pat Dowell, not a Johnson superfan, called it "performing well above expectations." Big Tech is suing to kill it, so the money sits in a until the courts have a ruling.

And in terms of overspending, a new report from WTTW showed that CPD blew through its 2025 budget by $162.5 million — the fifth year in a row. Overtime was $285.8 million against a $100 million budget, and misconduct lawsuits were $131 million against the $82.5 million budgeted. This year Chicago has already spent $225 million on misconduct settlements in six months, against the same $82.5 million line item. No other department gets to do this.

Finally, According to City Bureau, the city is selling at least $1 billion of residents' ticket debt — unpaid parking, speeding, red-light tickets — to private collectors for a minimum of $89.6 million. And once your debt is sold, you're no longer eligible for the city's own relief programs. This wasn't Johnson's idea, a Council coalition forced it into the budget over his objection.

Why It Matters: Put the three together and there’s an obvious narrative here that falls apart quickly: Taxing Meta 50 cents a user is reckless, anti-business, even when it generates surplus revenue. But CPD overrunning its budget by $600 million in five years is unremarkable business as usual, and selling someone’s $400 in parking tickets to a collection agency is supposed to be a fiscally responsible option.

The budget is a theory of who government exists to protect: right now, Chicago’s budget story isn’t one that protects many. It doesn’t have to be like this.

We told you last week about how the parking meter deal that most people in Chicago hate is under consideration to be sold to Stonepeak Partners, connected to Omni Air International.

Daley sold 75 years of meter revenue in 2008 for $1.15 billion to fix a budget deficit. The investors made their money back a decade ago and collect until 2083; and now Stonepeak — whose portfolio includes ICE charter flights and Russian LNG — wants to buy the whole thing for $2.5 billion, after the city's own quiet $3.3 billion buyback offer got passed over.

But because of the concession agreement, the Council can reject this sale based on the buyer's background and reputation — which means Omni Air isn't a moral footnote, it's legally disqualifying material. The Finance Committee is expected to vote Monday, July 13. The Council vote is Wednesday, July 15.

Do this now: This Reject Stonepeak toolkit has scripts, the Finance Committee roster, and public comment instructions on what to do next to stop this. Written comments go to [email protected] by 10am Friday, July 10.

I made a couple of videos about what happened with Graham Platner this week, (the progressive candidate in Maine who this week who dropped out of the race due to credible allegations of sexual assault).

I think there’s just as much to be said about all the talking about Platner, beyond what happened with Platner, and his campaign overall. The allegations piled up the way Yasmin Nair wrote about months ago — the left choosing not to look at all the problems that appeared in the midst of his ascendancy (The New Republic's postmortem is titled "Graham Platner Got Way Too Many Passes," which about covers it).

What has stuck with me is how in video after video, people who worked on or believed in that campaign described the same thing: a gulf between the message of the campaign’ and what they felt was actually happening. Nair said it best: never take shit for the movement. Beyond the salient and serious problem of sexual assault and abuse in movement spaces, the thing I'm compelled by right now is more personal: be honest and clear about who you work with and why, and be real with yourself when your gut and the campaign's words don't line up — no matter how small it seems. The odds are already too long for progressives.

Tuesday morning, an ICE officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston's East End during a "targeted enforcement operation." ICE says he weaponized his vehicle; LULAC and Texas civil rights groups are disputing the account and demanding bodycam, dashcam, and dispatch audio be preserved.

In Chicago, Block Club's investigation of who the Midway Blitz agents actually were — 271 agents identified through 100+ hours of bodycam and nearly 100 incident reports pried loose by litigation. The finding that should end the "poorly trained rookies" excuse forever: these were veterans, averaging over a decade on the job, more than 100 of them trained specifically in crowd de-escalation. They tear-gassed neighborhoods anyway, with one agent on camera saying "throw it for fun". In one day, there were 270 assaults by civilians recorded, and four uses of force by agents.

What’s happening in Houston right now, and the rise of ICE arrests in Chicago, shows how all of what happened during Midway Blitz, with significant news coverage, is still happening — but in a way that’s intentionally under the radar. It’s a tactical difference, part of why Bovino was replaced, rather than a substantive change, and it has to be covered.

The New Republic: Ian Head, who files FOIA requests at the Center for Constitutional Rights, describes waiting four years for ICE to respond to a request — and then getting a form email asking if he was still interested.

One more update: Last week we covered the Protecting Renters Ordinance and asked whether Johnson can hold 26 votes — Ugo Okere and the Department of Housing made a great video breaking down what PRO actually does.

~I never know when it’s worth it to follow what the algorithm is making trend — beyond all the ways AI is making everything worse — is that it incentivizes everyone trying to reach more people to weigh in on things outside their purview. I've been thinking about that a lot while building out a video strategy for Chicago 312 and mapping where the progressive narrative gaps actually are, beyond my niche special interest of Chicago municipal politics. At least it's better than being on X!