By Sidney Madden | @sidney_madden_

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⬛ HELPING HOMELESS POPULATIONS

Activists and community members have been bringing attention to an effort to raise taxes on the more-expensive property sales in the city to help people experiencing homelessness.

What’s the campaign? Bring Chicago Home proposes the city raise the one-time real estate transfer tax from 0.75% to 2.65% on home sales worth more than $1 million, Block Club Chicago reported. 

In terms of impact, activists say: 

• Less than 5.2% of annual home sales would be affected.
• More than 12,000 people could be housed in a decade. 
• Revenue would also go to mental health and job training services. 

What’s the current state of homelessness in Chicago? The community-led town halls come as the pandemic has reduced capacity at shelters due to social distancing. Unhoused people have taken shelter on the CTA and in encampments. 

Data tracking people experiencing homelessness could be skewed because of COVID-19: Unhoused Illinoisans were down 15% and unhoused Chicagoans were down 16% last year, according to the Chicago Tribune. Usually collected on one night, the count affects federal funding. 

How can you help? A lot of ways. 

💡 Learn more about the proposal at the Church of West Ridge from 5:30–7 p.m. (You can Zoom, too.)
📖 Check out the Night Ministry’s good neighbor guide.
💵 Donate to the Chicago Union of the Homeless.

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❌ SCAMMED BY THE SPINE COLLECTOR

Evanston writer Peter Baker had been working on his first novel for a decade and was eager to sell it. When his agent requested a PDF of his manuscript, he sent it. Later, Baker’s agent called to ask why his client emailed the manuscript.

Baker had been scammed by “The Spine Collector,” as the FBI has called him, a 29-year-old in London who allegedly tried to con writers, including well-known ones like Margaret Atwood, to send unpublished manuscripts.

🎧 Baker tells us what happened and how he’s been affected as a writer.

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📰 NEWSFEED

▪️ Ald. Ray Lopez of the 15th Ward announced his mayoral bid for the 2023 election. The two-term alder has been a critic of the current administration, and is a pro-police voice in City Council. [WBEZ]

▪️ Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined other state attorneys general in writing a letter to the NFL about gender discrimination and violence against women employees. [Chicago Sun-Times]

▪️ Kenwood Academy’s enrollment boundaries could change under a bill by state Rep. Curtis J. Tarver II. [Hyde Park Herald]

▪️ Learn about ownership changes at Weiss Hospital at a community forum at 7:30 p.m. New owners emerged for the Uptown hospital last month. [Block Club Chicago]

▪️ Post Malone, Playboy Carti, and Young Thug are the headliners at Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash fest in Douglas Park!

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❓ GUESS THIS CHICAGOAN

In honor of baseball’s opening day, we’re playing our own game here where you all guess a famous Chicagoan, and winners get shoutouts.

Email chicago@citycast.fm with the correct answer!

▪️ Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 
▪️ Became the first woman broadcaster in the MLB for the White Sox in 1977. 
▪️ Announcer Harry Caray recommended her for the job. 
▪️ Died from a heart attack at 42.

Opening day games

TODAY: See the Cubs play the Milwaukee Brewers at home at 1:20 p.m.

FRIDAY: Watch the Sox play the Detroit Tigers away at 12:10 p.m. 

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🎶 CITY CAST WRAPPED

ICYMI: Spotify gave us the rundown of the top musicians City Cast listeners were plugged into, and we asked you all to tell us if these artists were on your playlists. 

Here are the results! (Sorry to all the Doja Cat fans out there: We heard she was quitting music. Maybe her new Grammy will change her mind?)

Thanks to all of you for sharing who else they regularly listen to! Special shoutout to one reader who said, “I’m at the age where I only listen to the soundtrack of my youth; I don’t play anything after 2002 🙄😳”

Here’s a taste of who else City Casters are listening to: