-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Playing Santa is a year-round gig for federal lawmakers and so is the regifting by local government. More is on the way.
Evanston officials and residents want Northwestern University to start making payments to be used like property taxes, citing a proposed rebuild and new commercial uses for Ryan Field amid ongoing concerns about affordability of the cost of living in town. Councilwoman Claire Kelly said, “People are moving out. Skokie is filled with former Evanston residents — that’s what happens when roughly a third of our land is tax-exempt. Our Black population has declined as a result of economics and the cost of living here.”
“Not good numbers for the state and continued rejection of the policies that we’ve seen from here and it’s important to note that our neighboring states, with the exception of Michigan, they all grew,” Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said.
Chicago’s tree canopy decreased throughout the 2010s and falls short compared with other major cities. And during that lag, the city planted significantly fewer trees in neighborhoods on the South and West sides.
“It was a shock when the manufacturer, Stellantis, announced this month that the 57-year-old plant would shut down indefinitely at the end of February, putting 1,350 people out of work. And there is fear across the area, an hour’s drive west of Chicago, that “indefinitely” could mean forever.”
This is a first for the state.
Data shows 10.7% more Illinois residents are receiving SNAP benefits than during September 2021. Federal food assistance participation increased just 2% nationwide during that time.
A spokesperson for the Cook County Assessor said the office had previously assessed multi-unit apartment buildings as commercial properties. It now considers them residential properties – and that’s why the taxes on a 10-unit apartment building rose 440 percent.
Just as state government’s longtime Loop headquarters is a relic from another political era, so too is White, who first came to Springfield when Gerald Ford was president and, at 88, looks and acts as hale as he did during his first statewide run in 1998. White’s legacy extends well beyond his government and political exploits. He’s in his 63rd year heading the tumbling team that bears his name, and he came within an eyelash of being a Chicago Cub.
But more than 19,000 Chicagoans applied for a bike during the first year, according to the city. Given the high demand, the city hopes to get more bicyclists rolling and increase biking infrastructure next year.
“In some ways, the state’s relatively new leaders continued to forge a path towards the future and turn the page on troubled times.Yet remnants of the past remained, whether it was former House Speaker Michael Madigan being indicted on federal racketeering and bribery charges or a later-than-usual primary caused by pandemic-induced delays in redistricting. “
This problem was especially salient in Chicago where teachers voted to return to online instruction in January 2022. Even Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the decision “would harm hundreds of thousands of Chicago families that rely on CPS [Chicago Public Schools] for their daily needs.” Unsurprisingly, Chicago’s recent test scores are abysmal.
David Greising: “Equity for the accused is important, and justice for the victims too.”
Bally’s is facing skepticism in Chicago and elsewhere. While it’s grown dramatically through acquisitions recently, the company has never built a project of this scale — a one-million-square-foot casino to be flanked by a hotel, restaurants, entertainment center and exhibit space along the Chicago River. Some aldermen in the third-largest US city have questioned the company’s financial resources and experience to manage such a development.
The designation means “up to $1 million a year over a 10- to 15-year period. Said U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, “This site would help preserve over 200 historical assets in Chicago’s Bronzeville-Black Metropolis neighborhood to bring life to the well-documented influence this Black community had on the City of Chicago and our nation.”
New 2022 population data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows Illinois was once again one of the nation’s biggest losers. Illinois’ population shrank by over 104,000 between 2021 and 2022, the third-worst decline in the nation behind only New York and California.
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