Austin Berg

1 week ago | thelastward.org | Austin Berg

Chicago government has a corruption problem. And the Chicago Tribune’s Jake Sheridan asked Mayor Brandon Johnson about it at a press conference this week. The mayor’s response was stunning. Thanks for reading The Last Ward! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. “There’s no doubt that Chicago has long struggled with ethics [in] politics,” Sheridan said. “What do you think your track record in achieving ethics reform is? What are some highlights?

2 weeks ago | thelastward.org | Austin Berg

Chicago is the only big city in America to hold municipal elections in February of odd-years. No other big city discourages voting in this way. Here’s proof. We did a deep dive on this issue over at the Chicago Policy Center and released our research last week in the report, “How Chicago’s election timing suppresses voting.”Here were the four most important findings:Huge drop-off in municipal election turnout: From 2014-2024, Chicago’s average voter turnout for municipal elections was 36%.

3 weeks ago | thelastward.org | Austin Berg

On Monday, March 24, 2025, the Chicago Policy Center hosted the Chicago Charter Symposium at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. It was the first gathering of its kind in more than 50 years. In attendance were five sitting aldermen, one former alderman, several City Council staffers, and one former governor, among other civic leaders and community members.

1 month ago | thelastward.org | Austin Berg

Andrea Kersten’s Feb. 13 resignation as head of the Chicago Office of Police Accountability marked another unfortunate chapter in the ongoing drama that is Chicago policing. As Anthony Driver Jr., president of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability put it bluntly following the news of her departure, “I came into this role, God’s honest truth, expecting to find a dirty police department that needed to be cleaned up.

1 month ago | chicagobusiness.com | Austin Berg

Staring down a budget deficit in the middle of the Great Recession?Sell off the next 75 years of parking meter proceeds and spend all that cash today. We’ll figure out how to replace that revenue later. Want pension sweeteners for elected officials?No problem. That bill won’t come due until we’re all out of office anyway. Find yourself the least popular politician in state history and need to pay for clout? Pass an $830 million bond deal with no payments on the principal for 20 years.