Commentary
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Walkable Cities: Ending the Automobile Reign
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In the US, the car is an unkind king to its citizens. Cars mobilize, but also blast out pollutants and promote a sedentary and lonelier lifestyle. Conversely, walkable cities—where reaching local amenities on foot is both feasible and pleasant—bring myriad health and social benefits. Suburban sprawl is not conducive to…
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A Moral Dilemma: The Crises of Regulating Advanced Technology
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution is altering our business practices through advanced technologies. These changes encompass market disruptions caused by artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data, and similar technologies across nearly every sector of the economy. While market disruptions are inevitable with growth in innovation, concerns arise from a regulatory…
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Good Policy is Good Politics
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In the parts of America that will decide the election, the presidency is won or lost with policy and not in courts, brokered conventions, or headlines. With a high-stakes and volatile election, mired in early controversy, the focus on economic policy remains the most constructive path to gain the support…
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The Case for Chicago’s Public Health Vending Machines
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On November 2, 2023, the Chicago Department of Public Health launched its first Public Health Vending Machine at Harold Washington Library as part of a one-year pilot program aimed at providing harm reduction and opioid overdose prevention supplies. This pilot program deploys a total of five Public Health Vending Machines…
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Clean energy tech is struggling. Can catalytic capital save the day?
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As climate change proliferates, companies are looking to decarbonize, fueling investments in clean technologies. Venture capital investors (VCs) poured over $12 billion into clean energy start-ups in 2022, a six-fold growth from 2019 when the broader VC funding fell 53% year-over-year. But VCs focus only on a small subset of…
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Cui Prodest? The Victims’ Justice Ordinance and Chicago’s Future
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With her poll numbers falling in the lead-up to the Chicago Mayoral election in 2021, an embattled Lori Lightfoot sought to appear “tough on crime” by proposing the Victims’ Justice Ordinance, one of the most controversial civil asset forfeiture laws ever put forward in Chicago’s history. Despite the fact that…
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Upholding Democracy: January 6, Colorado, and Trump
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In December 2023, Colorado decided to ban former President Donald Trump from primary election ballots due to his role in the disturbing events that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The decision was later overturned in March 2024, when the Supreme Court unanimously decided to restore Trump…
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Democracy in Peril: Biden and the 2024 Presidential Election
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This article was co-authored by Natalie Reyes. Despite signaling to aides in 2019 that he would almost certainly not seek re-election in 2024, 81-year-old President Joe Biden is doing exactly that. Now that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, Biden has positioned himself as the…
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From Gang Rule to Iron Fist: Questioning Progress in Bukele’s El Salvador
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Significant sums from a secret government fund? CHECK. Calling for occupation of the Legislature by security forces? CHECK. Intimidation of local journalists using death threats and imprisonment? CHECK. Nayib Bukele’s reign as president of El Salvador has exhibited all the fixings of an authoritarian regime. Embracing this image, Bukele openly…
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Two Years after Dobbs: My Body has Always Been Inherently Political
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Isabeau Dasho is the assistant director of the Harris Writing Workshop. I was born and identify as female and as such have had to endure a cascade of experiences that have proven time and time again that this world wasn’t intended for me. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a…
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Teachers Wanted: A Nationwide Staffing Crisis Impacts Illinois
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The teacher shortage is a crisis unfolding at the district, state and federal levels, worsening student learning and threatening the stability of schools– with no end in sight. In Illinois, 5,300 classroom positions went unfilled in 2022, the highest percentage of unfilled positions on record. Reporting midway through the 2023-2024…