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the city is buying the greyhound station. a council committee voted wednesday to purchase the bus terminal at 630 w. harrison for about $19 million, which would make it chicago’s first publicly owned intercity bus station. the seller is a real estate arm of alden global capital, the hedge fund that owns the tribune. it wanted to put a high-rise there. nearly 500,000 people used the station last year. four committee members voted no, with ald. marty quinn calling the deal “a colossal risk.” the headline improvement the city is promising: working air conditioning, by the end of 2027. it heads to the full council next →

your weekend train is shorter now, and the CTA would like to explain. orange, brown and purple line trains are running as few as four cars from 3:30 a.m. saturday to 3:30 a.m. monday all summer. the agency says doing this systemwide could save up to $15 million, but it is not doing it systemwide, and didn’t answer how much this version saves. among the stated benefits: deeper cleaning. the blue line was on the list until an updated service alert quietly took it off →

austin is getting $22.1 million in federal money to replace lead water pipes. sens. duckworth and durbin announced the grant wednesday. it covers about 650 service lines, in a neighborhood where more than 3,000 properties have tested above the federal lead limit, in a city with more lead pipes than any other in the country. 650 down →

oswego is paying the federal government $977,448 to count oswego residents. the village board approved a special census it believes will find 5,553 new people since 2020, which would unlock about $1.5 million a year in state funding. the counting can’t start until spring 2027, because the census bureau hasn’t been able to hire people to count people. plainfield just finished the same exercise and found 5,200 →

the obama presidential library spent nine years in a furniture store. the national archives quietly leased the old plunkett furniture building on golf road in hoffman estates from 2016 until last september, and much of the roughly 30 million pages of obama-era paper records got digitized inside. “they did a great job on the inside,” the realtor now listing it said. “they never spent a dime on the facade.” the actual obama presidential center opens in jackson park june 19 →

district 300 in algonquin ran two surveys, four workshops and a branded engagement campaign called “together for tomorrow,” and has arrived at an answer: ask the community again in november. the board decides in august whether to put a referendum on the ballot. options run from $256 million to $539 million, the biggest costing the owner of a $400,000 home about $219 a year. read more →

cook county property tax appeal season is open, and it’s free. lakeview township (including lakeview, uptown, edgewater, and lincoln park north of fullerton) can appeal online until july 13. oak park closes june 18. new trier closes june 22. takes maybe 20 minutes at the assessor’s site, no lawyer required, no extensions granted. check your township →

eat: trino. west loop. time out handed it five stars monday. stephen sandoval of diego and sueños, doing steak and a crab tostada with asian pear. there’s a speakeasy downstairs called laberinto. dinner only, closed mondays, and good luck with the books now that the review is out.

do: midsommarfest. clark street in andersonville, friday through sunday. 60th year, $10 suggested donation, 50+ acts on four stages. ald. andre vasquez is reviving his battle-rap career on the north stage friday at 5 p.m. with his group AV & the Unks, doing tribe and biggie covers with the swear words swapped out as needed.

avoid: driving anywhere near humboldt park through sunday. puerto rican fest no-parking zones kicked in thursday morning: kedzie from division to north, california from division to north, division from homan to western, north ave from kedzie to california. cars in violation get ticketed or towed. saturday adds full closures around the park.

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the scottish festival & highland games hit the dupage county fairgrounds in wheaton friday and saturday. highland cows, kid-sized versions of the heavy athletics, and the “running of the bairns” friday at 4:15. general parking is free this year, which the organizers mention like it’s a headline, because it is →

marge’s still in old town says it dates to 1885, and it’s been widely considered the oldest bar in chicago since schaller’s pump closed in 2017. a bar historian went through the records and found a saloon on that corner in 1872, the year after the fire, when one andreas heim bought the place for $300, alongside 2,334 other saloons in chicago at the time. so the oldest bar in the city is thirteen years older than it brags →

why it’s worth your time: brian stack grew up in palatine, came up through second city and iO, spent 18 years writing for conan and the last 11 writing for colbert. the late show ended may 21 and chicago magazine got the exit interview. it’s warm, it’s funny, and it’s quietly an obituary for network late night, told by a guy whose first improv group included chris farley. read it with your coffee →

the city bought a bus station.
oswego bought a headcount.
the obama library was in a furniture store the whole time.

tips, corrections, your best 1872 saloon fact? reply and let us know.

reply with your neighborhood and one thing that made you pause, squint, or text someone “???”

talk tuesday.

-sam