In episode two of CNN’s eight-part docuseries Chicagoland, Fenger High School Principal Elizabeth Dozier hopes to get a peace walk on the calendar. Fights used to break out at her school on a daily basis, and gun violence in the area is an epidemic. The walk’s initial date must be postponed for safety reasons after a top-ranking gang official is slain in front his partner. The school sets a new date, but not long afterward shots are fired three blocks from the building.

Dozier hurries to the scene. The shooting, still unsolved, kills a 20-year-old Fenger alum.

Later, we see Dozier out of Chicago’s South Side for the first time, chatting with restaurateur and local celebrity Billy Dec. The producers then zip between scenes of bar-hopping millennials and stoked Blackhawk fans, sound bites of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s unyielding position on school cutbacks, and interviews with former gang members. It comes off like the Tale of Two Cities motif we have seen so often in local politics.

“I honestly wonder if there’s anyone in [the mayor’s] circle who sends their kids to Chicago public schools,” says an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union. Enter Emanuel showing execs from Google around Chicago’s IBM-funded tech academy. (For a deep dive into New York’s IBM school, check out this August 2013 Forefront story.) In front of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Emanuel is in his element as a fundraiser. “Wait ‘til you see the swimming pool,” he says.

At least two things remain unchanged since the last episode: Emanuel still seems genuinely unruffled from all of the backlash to 50 school closings and massive budget cuts, and viewers still hear tragic, gut-wrenching testimony from mourning Chicagoans. (While we find out that the murder rate has finally begun to dip, city sees 46 homicides in May 2013 alone.)

Only this week lacks some of the background provided in the premiere. There is a great moment where we hear about gang disputes tracing back to the 1990s, but after seeing students cry, I itched for a closer look at police strategies for dealing with gangs.

One new factor the episode does introduce is Chicago sports culture. Emanuel loves the Blackhawks and Chicago sports in general, and he’s pushing a proposal to build a new arena at DePaul University. The project wouldn’t only add to the city’s available venues, Emanuel argues, but it could also help Chicago compete as a premier destination for events and conventions.

Yet as Bill Bradley thoroughly details in his Forefront story on stadium subsidies, the overall profit that cities reap from building taxpayer-backed arenas is questionable. In the wake of school budget cuts, arena development brings tensions with education advocates to a boil.

Dozier does a fair share of hand-wringing between the Stanley Cup finals, peace walk and what the school’s finances will look like come fall. The Blackhawks win and the walk happens safely. When Dozier gets back to the office, Emanuel calls her personally to affirm that he’s “in [her] corner punching.” The chapter ends with the Fender students dancing at their prom. What policy fights will the summer hold now that school is out?

We will recap each episode of Chicagoland over the next six weeks. Find our review of the premiere here. Let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments.

Cassie Owens is a regular contributor to Next City. Her writing has also appeared at CNN.com, Philadelphia City Paper and other publications.

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