What happened to the 50 schools Rahm Emanuel closed, a family’s challenges after immigration and more in your Chicago news roundup

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about an eight-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

— Matt Moore (@MattKenMoore)

Weather ⛅

This afternoon will be mostly cloudy with a high near 73 degrees. Similar weather will continue into tonight with a low near 47. Tomorrow — sunny with a high of 69. And Sunday — also sunny with a high near 77.

Top story

Ten years later, more than half of Chicago’s closed schools remain unused

In the year before Chicago closed what would be an unprecedented 50 public schools in 2013, neighbors of many of the targeted schools offered a warning to then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Once emptied, they said, the buildings would only end up hurting their neighborhoods.

These buildings, almost all on the South Side and the West Side, were mainly in communities already wanting for investment, already drained of residents. They were old and in need of costly repairs. And they were built to be schools. So finding any possible reuses for the buildings, let alone anything like the community anchors they had been, would be a gargantuan and expensive task.

Still, Emanuel plowed ahead, saying that keeping kids in “half-empty schools” wasn’t good for anyone. “The city of Chicago has an opportunity to use these facilities to revitalize our economy in key areas and expand opportunity for Chicagoans in our neighborhoods,” Emanuel said at the time.

Ten years later, that promise rings hollow. More than half of the buildings emptied of children and teachers in 2013 still aren’t back in use.

Over six months, reporters from the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ have visited each of the shuttered buildings. The closings of 50 schools, including four that shared facilities, left 46 buildings empty.

Reporters spoke with dozens of neighbors and reviewed thousands of public documents to learn what has become of the schools spread across 21 wards that were closed by Emanuel’s chosen schools CEO and school board. Read the full investigation from our Nader Issa and Lauren FitzPatrick and WBEZ’s Sarah Karp and Alden Loury.

More news you need

• The Chicago Police Board voted yesterday to suspend an officer for 90 days for his role in an incident in which another officer body slammed a schizophrenic man during an arrest nearly four years ago. Officer Mark Johnson was found guilty on all but one of the administrative charges lodged against him, according to a written ruling by the board.
• City authorities are searching for a hit-and-run driver who struck a bicyclist who initially declined medical attention after a Humboldt Park crash, then died three days later after suffering a brain hemorrhage. Rick Lomas’ death is the first bicycle fatality in Chicago this year, according to a spokesperson for the city.
• Police yesterday announced the arrest of a suspect in a shooting Tuesday outside the Legler Regional Library Branch in West Garfield Park that wounded two boys, ages 12 and 16. Charges are pending on a single count of aggravated battery with a firearm, police said.
• A family who fled Russia over the war in Ukraine is struggling to find legal aid as it searches for stability in the U.S. The Eremenko family journeyed from Russia to the Mexico-U.S. border, where they joined thousands of other immigrants seeking asylum, before eventually reaching Chicago. More on the hurdles the Eremenko family is facing from our Elvia Malagón.
• BP agreed to pay a $40 million penalty and spend almost $200 million on environmental controls to settle government allegations that the company released excessive toxic chemicals at its Whiting, Indiana, oil refinery on Lake Michigan. The installation of new pollution controls will reduce benzene and other harmful air pollutants, according to federal officials.
• Cook County has been giving felony records to people who should not have them. For at least three years, a data error has caused chaos in the lives of people who were promised a clean record if they did probation. More on this alarming error from WBEZ’s Shannon Heffernan.
• Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office is tightening its electronic monitoring rules to clarify that apartment dwellers in the program cannot do things like get mail from their building’s vestibule or use a basement laundry room. The revisions follow an Illinois appellate ruling last month that slammed Dart for “ambiguity” on whether residents of multi-unit buildings can be in common spaces for such “activities of daily living.” More on Dart’s revisions from WBEZ’s Chip Mitchell.
• Tempers flared on the state Senate floor yesterday during debate of Democratic-led measures, including a bill that clears the way for gun manufacturers to be sued and another that would allow businesses to create multi-capacity bathrooms open to all genders. Our Tina Sfondeles details the heated debate.
• Hours after his inauguration, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order creating the position of deputy mayor for community safety. He’s now named Garien Gatewood to fill a job the mayor views as pivotal to delivering on his most important campaign promise.
• Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot was described by one alderperson yesterday as a sore loser whose “wholly inappropriate” decision to sign 10 executive orders on her final workday in office has forced Mayor Johnson to “clean up the mess.” That’s according to Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), Johnson’s City Council floor leader and handpicked Zoning Committee chair.
• Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate tycoon, died yesterday at age 81. The billionaire, known as “the grave dancer” for picking up distressed assets, once owned the Tribune Co., which went into bankruptcy. More on Mr. Zell’s life and legacy from our David Roeder.

A bright one ✨

Ángela Aguilar celebrating her own musical road, with a loving nod to her Mexican traditions

The internet’s princess of regional Mexican music is coming to town.

Ángela Aguilar is kicking off her Piensa En Mi tour on June 2 at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre.

The 19-year-old knows that her last name carries with it a musical legacy. After all, she’s the daughter of legendary singer Pepe Aguilar, born while her mother accompanied him on tour in Mexico in 2003.

Now as the third generation of Mexican mariachi and ranchera singers, Aguilar is a part of one of Mexico’s most famous “royal” families, led by her grandparents Antonio Aguilar and Flor Silvestre. She doesn’t let that go to her head, though — even with a doll created in her likeness.

Getty Images

“I’m just starting out and I have a long way to go,” she said in an interview with the Sun-Times. “Being third generation means that probably everything that you’re going to do, they have already done.”

She’s excited to be kicking off her tour in Chicago, home to a direct Greyhound bus route to the Mexican state of Zacatecas, where her grandfather was born in 1919. It’s a route thousands of proud Zacatecanos have taken over the years to call Chicago home.

“You can imagine how many people from the town are [in Chicago],” she said. “And every time I go, it feels like home.

“... I feel like Chicago is one of those places that really honors Mexican traditions,” she continued. The city is home to hundreds of thousands of people with Mexican heritage, and is a culinary haven when it comes to regional dishes.

Our Ambar Colón has more with Aguilar ahead of her June 2 stint at the Auditorium Theatre.

From the press box 🏀⚾️🥍

• The Sky’s roster was taking shape last night — just hours before the season opener tonight, Annie Costabile reports.
• The new Chuck Swirsky bobblehead doll is here! This is what passes for good Bulls news nowadays, writes Steve Greenberg.
• The Cubs’ lack of a closer is forcing manager David Ross to be creative, Maddie Lee writes.
• Northwestern advanced to the lacrosse Final Four, where the Wildcats will make their fourth consecutive NCAA women’s lacrosse semifinal appearance.

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