The Latest Breaking News from LaSalle Street

Alderpersons Bill Conway (34th) and Brendan Reilly (42nd) sounded the alarm about the future of “LaSalle Street Reimagined” during Wednesday’s budget hearing, seeking assurances from city planning officials that developers now fronting huge costs can count on the city to be their partner.

The train was carrying about 600 passengers but no injuries were reported.

The lessons learned there — both good and bad — can be applied to other efforts to remake downtown business strips.

Today’s update is a 5-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveiled a plan Monday to revive the LaSalle Street corridor, a key downtown office district that suffered the double whammy of COVID-19 and the loss of several large firms to new towers rising farther west along Wacker Drive and in Fulton Market.

Google is reportedly negotiating to purchase the state-owned James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago. If true, such a deal could spark a turnaround for the struggling LaSalle Street corridor, where many longtime businesses have recently departed, leaving behind huge vacancies.

CHICAGO — Two artists, Tony Fitzpatrick and Danny Torres, were standing in the lobby of a new building on LaSalle Street, across from a building that was once Gino’s East, now shuttered, and before that was Michael Jordan’s restaurant and long before that was a place named Ireland’s.