Justin Bull: Good morning! I’m Justin Bull in for Erin Allen and this is the rundown. I’ll start off today by wishing a Happy Valentine’s Day to all those who observe! If you don’t observe and you still want something to do tonight, or if you’re a big fan of Taylor Swift, so much so that you have “Bad Blood” with an ex (I’m really sorry for that pun) well there’s a new pop up bar in Chicago’s West Loop. It’s hosting a Taylor Swift themed “heartbreak bar” tonight and all month long. The bar’s called the Electric Garden. Cardboard cutouts of Swift adorn the room. Everything is cast in a red glow, balloon clusters hang from the ceiling. My colleague Indi Khera checked it out on opening night, and she brought us back this review from the Swifties!

Libby White: Libby White. Huge Taylor Swift fan, have loved Taylor Swift for years.

Danielle Newman: I’m Danielle Newman. I’ve only ever missed one concert, so I am a die hard. And I dragged my husband and two of our friends here to just really immerse in Taylor Swift.

Harrel: I like all the decor, all the Taylor quotes, and then the songs obviously playing, I’m a fan.

Baron: I’m curious if there will be Taylor themed cocktails

Brittany Panza: I hate Valentine’s Day, I just think it’s such an overrated holiday.

Stef Luthen: Usually Valentine’s Day, it’s a bit of a bummer, but I was like this year, little hopeful.

Justin Bull: Those were the voices of several Swift fans taking in the heartbreak bar pop-up at Electric Garden in the West Loop. Indi also reports that yes, there are Swift themed drinks, including one called “Up All Night” and "Anti-Hero" IPAs from Revolution Brewing. If the idea of this bar fulfills all your wildest dreams, do check it out.

Okay back to reality and back to the race to be Chicago’s next mayor. Last night was one of the final candidate forums on the calendar and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot used it to take aim at a leading opponent, Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, over police funding, taxes and more. My colleague Mariah Woelfel watched the debate and has more on that story.

Mariah Woelfel: Many mayoral hopefuls have recently targeted former CPS CEO Paul Vallas, one of the most conservative candidates in the race. But last night, Lightfoot repeatedly criticized Johnson, a challenger to her left.

Lori Lightfoot: Mr. Johnson says safe cities in the U.S. do this, this and this. But what safe cities in the U.S. do is they don’t defund the police. 

Mariah Woelfel: Activist Ja'Mal Green also attacked Johnson, saying he’s trying to capitalize on the fact that he lives in one of the city's most violent neighborhoods.

Ja'Mal Green: Please stop lying about the lived experiences because you don’t have any, and you are a fraud.

Mariah Woelfel: Johnson said it’s clear his campaign is quote, “catching fire” as his support has grown.

Justin Bull: That was Mariah Woelfel reporting there. Mayor Lightfoot also took on Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia at last night’s forum, hosted by NBC5. My colleague Tessa Weinberg has that side of the story.

Tessa Weinberg: The question was about disparities in lending in Black neighborhoods. But it devolved into a back and forth, with Garcia criticizing Lightfoot’s signature Invest South/West program that aims to boost development in disinvested neighborhoods.

Jesus “Chuy” Garcia: A lot of what she talks about is simply, you can’t see it. It’s all hypothetical.

Tessa Weinberg: Lightfoot shot back that Garcia was out of touch with Black communities.

Lori Lightfoot: Congressman, come along with me to the ten communities where we are making a tangible difference in concrete ways. I know you don’t know Black Chicago that well.

Tessa Weinberg: Garcia said he lives on the West side and accused Lightfoot of not coming to his neighborhood from her home in Logan Square.

Justin Bull: That was my colleague Tessa Weinberg. Reminder, Election Day is two weeks from today.

There is a state-sponsored plan to move hundreds of migrants into an old K-Mart on Chicago’s Southwest Side. That plan is now getting pushback from local officials. My colleague Alex Degman reports the Illinois Department of Human Services says the K-Mart at 71st and Pulaski would be large and safe with separate areas for meetings, sleeping and recreation. But State Representative Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar isn’t sure the building is ready to handle 658 people who have been living in suburban hotels.

Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar: We haven’t seen anything yet. I haven’t seen anything yet. I haven’t even been given a construction timeline, which is why I say we’re still in the early conversations, we’re still discussing this.

Justin Bull: She also wants to know how children will be supported. If the shelter opens, CPS is not slated to get more money if the shelter opens.

You may have heard of “redlining” before, that’s a discriminatory housing practice in which loans and other services are withheld from certain customers, often racial and ethnic minorities in areas deemed "hazardous" to investment. A new study finds that a cousin of redlining, a practice known as blockbusting, took place in the 50s and 60s and contributed to segregation and economic inequality in today’s Chicago neighborhoods. My colleague Adora Namigadde reports that “Blockbusters” persuaded white homeowners to sell their properties for lesser value. There’s a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago that says blockbusting occurred in at least 12 of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. The practice became illegal under the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

And now for a few quick hits, Chicago Public Schools is grappling with a spike in after-school killings. Last year, nine children 17 years old or younger were killed on a weekday between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., that’s according to a WBEZ and Sun-Times analysis. That’s also the highest total since 2016. CPS officials said they are working on plans to address the violence.

And the Sun-Times is reporting that early turnout in this year’s municipal elections is already exceeding the last two mayoral races, numbers being led by mail-in voters. A Chicago Board of Elections Spokesperson says that 41 thousand ballots have already been cast in this year’s election. The previous two mayoral races only saw roughly two thousand cast by this point in the election for each. So, yeah, pretty sizable increase there. As a reminder, there’s an early voting location now open near you, one in all 50 wards.

As for the weather, it’s partly cloudy today and still unseasonably warm. This morning the temps are in the high 30s. We’ve got a high of 50 degrees today. But be ready for some rain showers all afternoon and evening.

And that’s it for the Rundown. Go get yourself a heart-shaped pizza today, life is short and you deserve it. And thanks for listening. I’m Justin Bull in for Erin Allen and we will see you tomorrow.

WBEZ transcripts are generated by an automatic speech recognition service. We do our best to edit for misspellings and typos, but mistakes do come through.