Marty Quinn, the alderman who decides what gets into the 13th Ward: Midway slot machines, Airbnbs, hemp

Ald. Marty Quinn (13th Ward) waited more than three hours into the Committee on License and Consumer Protection's hearing on Sept. 9 before asking Bally's the question he had come for. The company had slowed construction of its River West casino in August, blaming the City's legalization of video gaming terminals, and cut about 136 construction workers. Quinn asked instead about the slot machines Bally's wants at Midway Airport, in his ward. A Bally's executive said the company's team had already talked with him. "That's not true," Quinn said.

"In fact, I was blindsided by this when I read about it in October of 2025 and asked the commissioner of the CDA, Commissioner McMurray, about that."

He suggested the talks had happened in "one of those secret squirrel meetings with Jason Lee," the Mayor's senior adviser, who was not in the room.

"So if nothing else, take this as an example that there's a real gap here in trust and communication. And I'm someone that supported you. So I would suggest you've got to get your act together because it's pretty embarrassing."

The exchange showed the two rules Quinn has run the 13th Ward by for 15 years: nothing comes in, airport included, without going through him, and the test of good faith is whether he was told first.

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Midway is the ward's economy, and he polices the gate

The Sun-Times reported on Oct. 21, 2025 that the City's chief financial officer told budget hearings the City was pursuing slots at both airports and that Bally's had identified a site at Midway. In June, the Sun-Times reported, Bally's offered one slot lounge in each of O'Hare's four terminals and in Midway's one, about $5 million in taxes apiece, in place of the video gaming terminals. Quinn's complaint was never that he opposed the lounges; it was that no one had asked him.

He treats the airport as a workplace first. At the Committee on Aviation on July 14, our notes show him asking whether Atlantic Aviation's Midway workforce is unionized, saying companies that are part of the City should hire union workers, and backing the Atlantic and Signature lease deal, which passed 49–0 the next day. On Sept. 9 his first question to Bally's was about its layoffs.

"Of the 136 employees, union workers that have been laid off, how many of them are city residents?"

His own gambling votes cut both ways. He voted for the Council majority's 2026 revenue package on Dec. 19, 2025, part of the budget that, the Sun-Times reported, lifted the City's ban on video gambling, the change Bally's blames; in June he voted for Ald. Anthony Beale's ban on sweepstakes machines, which failed 15–33.

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He bans at the precinct line first, then tries the whole city

Quinn's signature tool is the precinct ban. In June 2017 he became the first alderperson to declare part of his ward off-limits to Airbnb, four of its 48 precincts, the Sun-Times reported: residents gather signatures from 25 percent of a precinct's registered voters within 90 days, the alderperson files an ordinance, and the ban lasts four years. He cited a house where every room, including the basement, was rented to a different guest. By October, 27 of 48 were done or in process, per the Sun-Times. After the remap, our notes from the License committee show him renewing the ban in 39 of the ward's 40 precincts in November 2023 and adding the last in January 2024, packaged so they would sunset together. On Oct. 14 he introduced O2026-0029469, a renewal for all 40, now in the License committee.

He used the same ladder on hemp. In January 2025 he and Ald. Silvana Tabares (23rd Ward) won a ban on unregulated hemp products in a "Midway Residential Area" covering both wards, 50–0; the Sun-Times reported his argument: "I fully understand the need for revenue. But we should not be putting kids in harm's way to make a quick buck." Then he went citywide. His hemp ordinance passed 32–16 on Jan. 21, Mayor Brandon Johnson vetoed it, and by the Feb. 18 override Quinn had told the Sun-Times "I don't have the votes," the paper reported; it fell eight short.

Coach houses, too. In September 2024 our notes show him asking colleagues to respect his effort to keep additional dwelling units out of the 13th Ward, and Block Club reported that he worked to water down the citywide ordinance, telling the zoning committee, "So go ahead, ruin the integrity of single-family dwelling blocks." The compromise that passed 49–0 in December 2025 restricted the units in some single-family zones, and he voted yes. In February he told a committee the ward was not interested in bike lanes on Archer Avenue.

Source: City Clerk · as of Oct 21, 2026

Non-routine matters introduced this term, by the Clerk's category. Source: City Clerk.

Notice is his test, and he says yes once he gets it

In committee his objection is to being told late, and it rarely ends in a no. On the parking meter concession's transfer to Stonepeak, our notes from the Committee on Finance on June 25 show him saying the administration had tried to back the Council into a corner with a take-it-or-leave-it deal and asking who told Stonepeak not to meet alderpersons. On Sept. 24 he said the earlier lack of notice and a non-disclosure agreement had hurt trust, then said the $75 million payment should come on top of the 2027 supplemental pension payment and that he would support the deal. SO2026-0025407 passed 46–3 on Sept. 29 with his yea. The same instinct produced his 30-vote rule for City debt, whose override failed by one vote on Oct. 14.

What to watch

The Airbnb renewal, O2026-0029469, is in the Committee on License and Consumer Protection, whose chair, Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th Ward), said on Sept. 9 she would call another Bally's hearing with the Mayor's aides present, the Sun-Times reported. His resolution R2026-0027168, calling on the Mayor and the Illinois International Port District to end its leases with QSL America, has sat in the Committee on Workforce Development since July 15. Quinn leaves in May, Block Club reported, and ABC7 reported he has not endorsed a successor but said his ward superintendent would be a good choice; the election is Feb. 23, 2027, per CBS Chicago. Quinn's page is at /ward/13.