Welcome to Newswire — your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what action we can take to make our city great, featuring public meeting coverage by City Bureau’s Documenters.

Quote of the Week

“To be very frank, I don't think a lot of people know what this is. They don't know that we ran for this position. They don't know who we are yet, but we've been meeting monthly for the last two years … At the height of our meetings, we've had about 60 participants. Unfortunately, if something bad happens in the community, that's when people look for a space to gather, and they find our meetings.”

— Elianne Bahena, nominating chair for the 10th Police District Council, speaking about the community’s unfamiliarity with the police district councils.

[10th Police District Council, August 8, 2025]

What’s your job again?

Two and half years after they were elected, 10th Police District Council members are answering some of the same questions: What exactly do they do? Both before and after council members presented their agenda items at a recent meeting, community members asked for more details about what the Police District Councils do, how they’re structured and what their relationship is to the rest of city government. 

Police District Councils are the result of the Empower Communities for Public Safety ordinance, passed by Chicago City Council in July 2021. It created two types of bodies: a citywide Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability and District Councils, which are elected in each of Chicago’s 22 police districts.

While the citywide commission can hire or fire public safety officials and oversees policy issues affecting the entire department — such as recent discussions around CPD’s use of traffic stops — the district councils discuss policing issues specific to their district, inform the community about what the citywide commission does, gather input from neighbors about public safety and develop community policing initiatives. For example, Chicago Documenters have covered District Council meetings that tackled issues of migrants sheltering inside stations, opened discussions about public safety goals and resulted in a no-confidence vote in a high-ranking police official. 

​​The goal of both the CCPSA and the district councils was to give Chicagoans a meaningful new role in police oversight and explore and advance alternative effective approaches to public safety.

There will be three vacancies on the citywide commission in 2026. Two of those three vacancies must be filled by North Side residents, per the municipal code which dictates that two of the commissioners must be residents of the North Side, two of the South Side and two of the West Side.

What you can do:

Catch up on the headlines:

  • Can the neighbors we elect to Police District Councils redefine public safety? | City Bureau

  • What do police district councils do? | Chicago Reader

  • 14th Police District Council Grapples with Fierce Divisions | South Side Weekly

  • Find all past Documenters coverage of Police District Councils here.

Find your Police District Council and attend a meeting:

1. Find your local police district here.

2. Head to chicago.gov and select your district’s specific page.

3. Get acquainted with your district council members. Check out theChicago Reader’s deep dive into each of the police district council candidates.

Attend a CCPSA meeting: Check for upcoming CCPSA meetings here at the City of Chicago website. Anyone may submit a written  public comment by delivering it to the public meeting or by emailing it to CommunityCommissionPublicComment@cityofchicago.org.

Landmarks for the Best Side

The Commission on Chicago Landmarks unanimously voted to approve two West Side landmark designations in Humboldt Park and Austin. 

The Pioneer Arcade building at 1539 N. Pulaski Road is a 1925 Spanish Baroque Revival-style structure once home to a bowling and billiards center. In the proposed plan from the Hispanic Housing Development Corporation, only the front 35 feet of the building is landmarked; the rear portion will be redeveloped into a 6-story affordable senior housing development with  61 units. The $36 million project will be funded in part by a mix of grants as well as $13.2 million in tax increment financing from the city. Crews could break ground in November. 

The Fred C. Beeson House #4 at 5830 W. Midway Park is a 1920 Colonial Revival-style building designed by architect Frederick Schock for Fred Beeson, the president of the Chicago Veneer Company, which still includes the original garage, windows and masonry. Schock designed multiple iconic buildings in the neighborhood, including train stations, schools, homes and public buildings. Commissioners compared Schock's architectural contributions in Austin to that of Frank Lloyd Wright’s early work in the neighboring suburb of Oak Park.

The Pioneer Arcade building was reviewed as part of the city’s Adopt-a-Landmark Fund. The Beeson House now will go to the City Council’s zoning committee and the full City Council for a final vote.

What you can do:

Learn about the landmarks designation process: Click here to read about the steps required to achieve landmark designation.

A version of this story was first published in the August 13, 2025 issue of the Newswire, an email newsletter that is your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what we can do to make our city great. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter here.

Have thoughts on what you'd like to see in this feature? Email Civic Editor Dawn Rhodes at dawn@citybureau.org.