👩🏼‍💻 Take the Milwaukee Avenue personality quiz

No Loan, No Guaranteed Pension Payment in CPS Budget

After nearly a year of conflict between the mayor's office and CPS leadership, the Chicago Board of Education approved a budget Thursday night. It does not include a loan for the debt-plagued district. It also relies on additional funds from the city that may or may not come. [WBEZ]

Why Are Some Students Without Classrooms?

As CPS waits to place about 200 students with disabilities in classrooms, Chalkbeat’s Samantha Smylie shares how families are managing. Also on today’s podcast, Injustice Watch reporter Maya Dukmasova explains how a former UIC crime lab’s questionable forensics science led to multiple cannabis DUI convictions. [City Cast Chicago 🎧]

Beach Drummers Get the Boot in Woodlawn

Drummers and other musicians used to convene every day in a circle at 63rd Street Beach. This tradition, which began in 1970, ended abruptly in July, when the Park District fenced off the circle. The fence is part of a gated parking pilot, but the alderman hopes the drummers can get accommodations. [Block Club]

This Week’s Must-Read

“We were in hell, and now we’re in heaven,” one Dolton bar owner put it. Between the scandals of recent Mayor Tiffany Henyard and the ascension of Robert Prevost to Pope Leo XIV, the struggling village is striving for reinvention. It just acquired the old Prevost house for $375,000 — far less than its owner might have earned at auction. Meanwhile, the village faces a $3.65 million deficit. [Chicago magazine]

Meet Me On Milwaukee! That's the idea of a new pilot program that will turn a stretch of Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park car-free on three separate days: Aug. 31, Sept. 28, and Oct. 26. The pedestrianization will reach from the intersection of North and Damen all the way to Ashland Avenue.

That corner of the city is always changing — so is the diagonal street that cuts through it. Milwaukee Avenue is Chicago's bike highway. It has strong immigrant roots. It's also an artistic street, full of independent businesses stretching far beyond the confines of Wicker Park.

How you spend a day on Milwaukee says a lot about you. Take this quiz to determine your Milwaukee Avenue Personality (and learn which City Cast Chicago team member shares your type)!