🌱 City To Speed Up Vacant Lot Sales + New Exhibit Explores Death

Hi! I’m back in your inbox with everything that’s fit to print about what’s happening in Chicago. Including updates on…

• 🚧 Lightfoot’s $1.8 billion capital improvements proposal
• 🪦 New Field Museum exhibit explores death
• 💵 Chicago to speed up vacant lot sales

⛅ The weather:

Chilly with periods of sun. High: 48 Low: 33.

This great local business sponsors the Chicago Daily. We love what they do, and we think you will, too:

Get paid to learn to code. Want to get started in tech but lack a college degree? i.c. stars has been training promising young people and jump-starting tech careers since 1999. Qualified applicants begin with a paid 16-week immersive coding and leadership course that serves as a foundation for a career in tech. With an over 80% job placement rate, i.c. stars can help you achieve your goals. Space is limited. Apply to i.c. stars today.

Click here to get your business featured in this spot.

📰 Top 5 stories in Chicago:

1) Chicago plans to speed up vacant lot sales in bid to curb crime. Chicago seeks to streamline the sale of thousands of vacant lots owned by the city in an effort to revitalize neglected neighborhoods, increase the number of affordable homes and fight crime. Turning lots into housing and community spaces is part of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s strategy to boost investments in Chicago’s south and west sides. The city has been trying to address its empty lot problem for almost ten years. The city owns about 10,000 vacant lots, with 4,000 spaces clean and ready for sale.

Bloomberg

2) Field Museum explores breadth of death in newest exhibit. The Field Museum’s latest exhibit, “Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery,” which opens Friday, ties together how life and death are linked. It explores how different cultures and animals experience the “connective fabric” between all living things. Whether that is a decaying whale feeding bacteria at the bottom of the ocean or Día de Los Muertos celebrations, everything connects to a legacy that takes living beings beyond a final resting place. Members from different departments and experts from outside the museum worked together to create the exhibit. “It’s the rare place where we deal with both the natural world and the cultural world,” said Dr. Gary Feinman, the Field’s curator of anthropology. “The topic demands a broad perspective.”

Chicago Sun-Times

3) Abortion funds see surge in demand as out-of-state patients flood Illinois. In the first three months of 2022, the Chicago Abortion Fund (CAF) said 80% of clients were from out of state. “In 2018, we supported less than 200 people. Now, we hear from that many people in a week,” said Megan Jeyifo, the executive director of CAF. The non-profit organization provides financial and logistical support to people seeking abortion care in Illinois. Before Roe v. Wade was overturned, CAF’s weekly budget was about $16,000. In the second half of the year, it’s jumped to as high as $55,000. The organization has also gone from two full-time staff members to 11 in one year. Most patients seeking abortion care from out of state are from Missouri, followed by Indiana.

NBC Chicago

4) Lightfoot proposes more than $2 billion in capital improvements over next two years. Mayor Lori Lightfoot pitched a new series of capital improvements for Chicago, which would invest more than $2 billion over the next two years. The 2023-24 proposal is an update to her “Chicago Works Infrastructure Plan,” originally announced in April 2021. The updated plan includes investments in public safety and infrastructure, such as $114.2 million for bridges and viaducts; $251.7 million for streets and alleys; and $197.7 million for public facilities. For a comprehensive list of investments, see the press release in the link below.

City of Chicago

5) Get ready for a Manny’s pastrami on rye tavern-style pizza. Two classic Chicago tastes will combine in an unconventional manner. Jewish landmark Manny’s Deli is collaborating with tavern-style pizza makers, Crust Fund Pizza, for two Chicago-style thin-crust pies available one day only. “The Roosevelt” uses Manny’s new smoked pastrami on a rye crust with a Swiss-mozzarella blend and pickled mustard seeds. “Mann in an Alley” uses a rye base with braised oxtail, pickled carrot, sweet and sour cabbage, crispy onion and celery salt. The collaboration is to raise money for the Illinois Restaurant Association Education Foundation, a group that invests in youth interested in working in the restaurant industry.

Eater Chicago

📌 Today in Chicago:

• Pier Pumpkin Lights at Navy Pier (11:00 AM)
• Chicago International Film Festival (1:30 PM)
• Andersonville Farmers Market on Catalpa Avenue (3:00 PM)
• Best of Logan at Park & Field (5:00 PM)
• Skate Skool at House Of Vans Chicago (5:00 PM)
• “The Mummy” at The Emily Hotel (6:00 PM)
• Soft Kill at Thalia Hall (6:30 PM)
• Haunted History Tour at Lincoln Park Zoo (7:00 PM)
• “Coco” & “Beetlejuice” at FitzGerald’s (7:00 PM)
• Horror Movies Trivia at Rock Island Public House (7:00 PM)
• Johanna Warren at Empty Bottle (7:30 PM)
• Allen Moore with Hedra Rowan at Empty Bottle (7:30 PM)
• Animated Forgotten Horror Shorts at Comfort Station (8:00 PM)
• Carbon Leaf at SPACE (8:00 PM)
• Prom with Booman Forever, Teeorange, DJ Process at The Promontory (9:00 PM)
• Britney Spears Blackout Book Release After Party at Cafe Mustache (10:00 PM)

📱 Social chatter:

• Haunted Chicago: “The historic Chicago Water Tower seems like a harmless destination on the surface, but did you know a fireman who perished fighting the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 allegedly still continues to haunt the building to this day? 😱 ” (Enjoy Illinois via Instagram)
• Día de los Muertos display: “Isabel Hernandez has set up her elaborate Día de los Muertos display in Pilsen. The beautifully decorated ofrendas help honor the neighborhood’s lost loved ones. https://buff.ly/3EQrd3p 📸: Colin Boyle” (Block Club Chicago via Facebook)
• Wear purple: “One in 4 women and 1 in 7 men experience severe physical violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime. Nearly half of men and women experience emotional abuse. Wear purple this Thursday, October 20, in honor of the victims and in support of the survivors of domestic violence.” (CDPH via Instagram)
• Accidental shooting: “Southwest Side Ald. Derrick Curtis accidentally shot himself while cleaning a gun.” (Block Club Chicago via Facebook)

More from our sponsors — thanks for supporting local news!

Featured businesses:

Events:

Gigs & services:

You’re all caught up for today. See you all tomorrow morning for another update!

— Nicole Cvetnic

About me: I’m a Midwesterner and very happy to call Chicagoland home. I love the outdoors—especially hiking, performing arts, photography, good food, travel and gardening. You can often find me reading to my two-year-old daughter, watching a tv series with my husband or cuddling with our special needs dog.