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Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday rebuffed a newly introduced plan that would do away with the downtown “exclusion zone” she previously fought for and allow cannabis dispensaries to move into the heart of the Loop.
“We’re not turning Michigan Avenue into pot paradise,” Lightfoot told the Sun-Times. “My concern about the effect on the shopping and tourists jewel of our city really hasn’t changed one wit since the fall of 2019, when we first started wrestling with this issue.”
Ald. Brendan Reilly, whose 42
nd Ward includes large portions of the downtown area, introduced an ordinance earlier in the day that would open the entire downtown area up for legal weed sales. Reilly told the Sun-Times he was merely introducing the new measure based on the mayor’s office’s commitment to “revisit the issue” after a year of recreational cannabis sales.