Thread by @BauerJournalism

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other city leaders will have a press conference at 9 a.m. to share resources for keeping residents safe during the winter.

Follow for updates.

Yesterday's COVID numbers: blockclubchicago.org/2020/12/02/cor…

Rich Guidice of Emergency Management and Communications: It's been a year of extremes. Warmest summer since 1871. Wettest May ever. etc.

Guidice: "This week alone, we experienced some snow and a lake flood advisory due to high wind and waves."

Guidice: Residents can sign up at Chicago.gov/OEMC for alerts about weather, traffic, etc.

Lightfoot: "As Chicagoans, we obviously know a thing or two about getting ready for and dealing with winter weather."

Lightfoot: CTA was the only major transit authority in the country that ran with full services during the pandemic, and it will continue to do so.

Lightfoot: There will be no shutoffs of electricity or gas "during this time period."

Lightfoot: Call 866-556-6002 or call 311 if you have questions/concerns about paying utility bills or if you're already shut off and need to be reconnected.

Lightfoot: Our stay at home advisory remains in place. This includes staying home unless you absolutely must go out for essential reasons like work, school, food. "Otherwise, please do stay at home. And don't allow visitors in your home unless they're" providing essential ...

services, like health care. Wear your mask.

Lightfoot: Let's make sure to continue being neighbors to each other. Check on your neighbors. Share contact information. "We have to make sure that we take care of each other."

Lightfoot: "We are still seeing a high number of [COVID] deaths in our city; an unconscionable number of deaths. And that number will continue to rise if all of us don't take seriously the fact we are in this pandemic ... ."

Mark Sanders from Family & Support Services: There are warming centers. They'll be open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, with extended hours as needed. They'll be "activated when the temperatures are 32 degrees or below."

Sanders: Info on warming centers is available at 311 and chicago.gov/ffs.

John Tully from Streets and Sanitation: They have 400,000 tons of salt at various locations throughout the city. They work with OEMC to monitor and coordinate how the city will respond to weather.

Tully: The overnight parking ban took effect Tuesday. Restrictions are in place regardless of snow.

blockclubchicago.org/2020/11/30/chi…

Lightfoot: Don't resort to heating your home with a stove. It's risky. Make sure you have operating smoke detectors in your home.

Lightfoot: If you don't have a working smoke detector, the city can get you one. Check the batteries.

Lightfoot: "As someone who has spent time digging out my car before I had access to a garage, I absolutely understand it. But the problem with dibs is ... when there's a new snowfall and we need to clear the street, the dibs get in the way. ... I don't encourage dibs. I ...

"understand it is a long-standing Chicago tradition. Again, having beene out there, shoveled the snow, dug my car out, got it running, I understand why people do it, but we don't encourage it."

Lightfoot: Part of the challenge for recycling is the market for recycled products has disappeared. "We're int he process of reevaluating everything about our recycling program. ... Unfortunately, we've never really gotten it right. ... It's time for us to get it right."

Tully: "... Obviously, we're not happy with the situation, as well. We're approaching this in a two-fold right now. As of Friday, the new contracts for recycling vendors will be due to be submitted, so that's part of the process. And part of that ask is to have more reports so...

"we can monitor this stuff. The other part of this, we've been working with a private vendor, Delta Institute, to take a look at our entire recycling stream, and that includes both food waste and also compost, all that. We're looking at that right now. the most recent story ...

"about high-density apartments, it's really become difficult, but it's something we're looking at as part of this study. We're really not servicing those buildings. We service units up to 4 units. Obviously it's important to us to make sure that happens. But the mayor has a ...

"team in place that has people with experience and part of it had to due with, back a couple years ago, before this administration, the dissolution of the Department of Environment. And Streets and Sanitation absorbed many of those responsibilities." You'll see something from ...

Delta Institute shortly. "We're gonna get better."

blockclubchicago.org/2020/12/02/chi…

Lightfoot: "I think that the most recent thing from the CDC that's changed is the days of quarantining. ... We will follow the CDC guidelines. At the end of the day, what we're trying to do is make sure people ... have access to information, have the tools they need to protect...

"themselves" and actually comply. "We're gonna be following the CDC guidelines."

Lightfoot: "The CDC has set the priorities of who will get the vaccines and in what order. And as part of being able to access those vaccines directly as a city, the CDC mandated that we agree to follow their guidelines." ...

Chicago's vaccines will first go to health care workers, and our first shipment won't even cover all of them.

Lightfoot: She doesn't think she can impact what the priority order will be. "So far what we've seen, it makes sense, it's a logical order."

Lightfoot: We have cold storage ready, infrastructure built out. The biggest challenge will be making sure we get enough vaccine and can educate people into getting vaccinated.

Lightfoot: "Unfortunately, John Catanzara values being in the media, and he'll say anything outrageous, false to get attention. And, unfortunately, Fran has become his major mouthpiece. There's nothing that, that guy says in the media these days that's true."

Lightfoot re Catanzara comments: "To suggest [David Brown] is a figurehead, frankly, is racist and insulting."

Lightfoot: "By the math that's been reported, [Madigan] doesn't have enough" votes to continue being speaker. She's watched those who have been silent. "I think my record on integrity, transparency and government have been very clear about that."

Lightfoot: "Our democracy depends upon the people believing in leadership, the people believing the leaders stand for them, that we are working hard every single day on behalf of the people and not on behalf of ourself."

Lightfoot: "That doesn't happen when there is a cloud that hangs. That doesn't happen when people feel like elected officials have been completely compromised ... . I think that's the wrong direction for any of us. It's hard to be an elected official. It's hard to be a leader ...

"at any time; it's particularly hard at this time ... . But that's what the job demands, is for us to step up and to lead. And you can't do that if you don't have the legitimacy of the people that elected you in the first place. That's not just a statement about Mike Madigan. ...

"That's a statement about all of us. ... We all need to step up and put people first." She'll have more to say about Madigan "later."

Press conference over.