![]() “We’re open to any sort of shelter solution,” she said. Pritzker spokeswoman Abudayyeh said Tuesday it is now incumbent on the city to identify an alternate tent encampment site, which she indicated may not be needed immediately if more bricks-and-mortar shelters can be opened, given the fewer migrants at the police stations and O’Hare International Airport. “And we will work collaboratively to achieve the state’s expressed commitment to fund additional temporary residential shelter for new arrivals as winter and more buses arrive.” “We look forward to partnering with the state on finally standing up the CVS shelter site,” the mayor said. The city and state have aimed to set up a shelter at the CVS site since at least May, and Johnson’s Tuesday statement betrayed frustration over the slow pace despite “clear signals from Texas officials that the number of buses will continue to increase.” Pritzker on Tuesday said a 200-bed housing facility at the former CVS in Little Village will be next instead, along with possible options within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago network. The base camp in question would have held about 2,000 asylum-seekers and was slated to open its doors later this month to become the city’s first government-run camp for new arrivals as they wait for beds inside bricks-and-mortar shelters. The state had reservations, however, and paused construction on the site Sunday after Pritzker’s office expressed frustration at its own wait for the report’s release, even as the state was supposed to cover the cost of setting up and operating the tent encampment. “With the limited soil removal and placement and maintenance of the barrier, the site is safe for temporary residential use,” the mayor’s office said then. ![]() Last Friday, the city released a nearly 800-page report by outside contractor Terracon Consultants that said high levels of mercury and other chemicals were found and being removed from the Brighton Park lot at 3710 S. How Johnson’s team navigates the next weeks will be a pivotal moment for the administration that had vowed to be transparent and champion environmental justice but has drawn sharp ire over its handling of the Brighton Park plan. Now the search for another camp site to house migrants continues amid freezing temperatures at night and no immediate backup plan. Although Johnson and surrogates have for a while critiqued the state for what they said was insufficient aid, the governor has made a point to cast his recent involvement as one of Springfield swooping in because Chicago leaders were failing to get asylum-seekers off of police station floors and sidewalks before cold weather arrived. The mayor’s plan to place asylum-seekers in heated winter tents was one of several flashpoints in his and Pritzker’s differences on migrants. “While the city might be comfortable placing asylum seekers on a site where toxins are present without a full understanding of whether it is safe, the state is not,” Abudayyeh added. “The city did not engage with IEPA or the state before releasing the report and when it did release the report, was unable to explain the lesser standards they did choose to use and how they arrived at those standards.” “Those are not the standards the city chose to use,” Abudayyeh said in a statement. Underscoring the escalating tension between Springfield and City Hall, Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh shot back at Johnson’s statement, saying state environmental standards “are clear and known to the city.” The development also places the Democratic governor, widely rumored to have future presidential ambitions, firmly in charge of a burgeoning situation that has proved Johnson’s most vexing challenge since he took office in May. It will force the mayor to react to the state stepping on his response to a crisis within Chicago’s borders, a reversal of the usual political power dynamic that comes after weeks of brewing disharmony between the two. Despite his public insistence that relations with the city remain cordial, Pritzker’s move was a stunning rejection of Johnson’s plan, which was already proceeding.
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