-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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So, there will be a great deal of assessment appeals this year and near future. Attorney firms like Madigan’s find it lucrative to represent blocks of similarly-situated clients (for example, condo owners grouped in a particular geography). It is predictable that large swathes of condo properties will win assessment reductions. Therefore. the property tax RATE will rise in those affected taxing districts.
When the masks come off of everyone, then and only then will things start to go back to normal. Masks scream out to everyone “be afraid, stay home, conform, fetalize, cower”. How can government require masks, while at the same time tell them to get on trains and fill up skyscrapers? People are not stupid, we’ve been told to cower in fear and wear our face diapers, our society and economy deserves to suffer for that and one day the leftists who want that fear to continue forever will pay. They want us in masks, ok, they must not want… Read more »
The Democrats are thrilled with the power they got from politicizing the pandemic – they will not let it go. Just look at Pritzker-still holding onto unwarranted and illegal executive powers. Prepare for more furloughs and layoffs as Biden does a lockdown to prove his worth to the extremists, vaccine or not.
No muzzles are half the problem. The other half is the animals on the streets of Chicago, maiming, looting and murdering!
The only one who MAY be safe in downtown is Snake Plisskin. Maybe!!
“Escape from Chicago”
The pandemic accelerated the downfall of the city. It allowed criminal enterprises to take advantage of the chaos and grow their organization like they never grew before. High schoolers, not going to school, ridiculous percentage of unemployment of young men, the complete and utter failure of IDES when working families needed to collect unemployment like never before in history, police brutality with no leadership to change that, a prosecutor who sides with the street gangs, etc. All these worked to the advantage of criminal enterprises, and once they get a foothold, it will take a decade to reverse that trend.… Read more »
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that things will turn around….but it will take about 2 years, maybe a little less. Once the virus is under control, Chicago will be a fantastic city just like it always has been. Bars, restaurants, theatre and sports events which are second to none. I mean, what is the alternative? Live in the suburbs? Noooo thank you. Lori got the big wake-up call that Michigan Ave needs to be safe and secure. And it is now much better than it was after the big outburst. Lori knows that… Read more »
And when they do it again, what then? It’s not a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’. Like a wild animal, they have gotten a taste. It won’t be like it was – it can’t.
Two years is wishful thinking. The best comparison we have is the bustling State St of the 50’s and 60’s. And then it went to heck with the run down, derelict and decrepit State St. of the 1970’s into the 1980’s. It was all because of the ’68 riots and it took literally a full generation, full of people like me, to move to Chicago in the 90’s and 00’s, to gentrify it. Many of the older generation who remembered the riots never moved back. I remember my elders at the time trying to convince me to stay out of… Read more »
You may be a little overly optimistic. Exactly what has been done to deal with the riots? They can happen tomorrow if someone doesn’t like the headlines. A fair number of those bars won’t be coming back, and the pandemic taught people they can work from anywhere. People and businesses don’t need to pay all the overhead associated with downtown, and Lori has bigtime budget problems that get worse every year. Yeah, I think Chicago is in trouble. Big trouble.
It all started when Lori, Sophia King, and the Grant Park advisory council gave into blm and Antifa and took down the Columbus statues. From that date forward, the feral predator class was given carte Blanche to destroy the Mag Mile, the loop and the south loop. This is what happens when you give into terrorists.
they can’t wait to get out and put a deposit down on a new one at Lincoln Yards.
Wow! Guess those who got out were smart.
Why anyone would even buy a condo, which is essentially an apartment with the same lousy sound proofing, ventilation, etc, is beyond me. I rent one because I can’t justify buying a house even though I absolutely loathe multi-family dwellings…
“Loop condo market worst since mid-2000s crash – Crain’s ***** This is pretty consistent with the anecdotal evidence that downtown and surrounding areas are in a nosedive reminiscent of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. There’s no coming back from this. “Coronavirus has kept office workers staying home to work remotely and has shut down restaurants and cultural events, and the spasms of social unrest in the spring and summer hit the Loop hard. ” ***** So that’s what they’re calling it now? Social unrest? How cute. Apparently everyone else believes it’s a little more than ‘social unrest’. How about rioting, looting,… Read more »
The commercial real estate market will look even worse in coming months/years. I took a walk in Gold Coast near Viagra triangle. Most if not all retail around there is boarded shut and signs gone. They won’t come back absent a change in local government regime. On the office side, companies will be downsizing their office space in the coming years. All of that coupled with future property tax increases.
There’s no coming back from this. Anyone who believes otherwise is delusional. The Red and Blue Lines are wildling and antifa superhighways allowing criminal elements access to prime locations on moment’s notice. That alone is reason enough never to return to those areas again. Upscale is certainly not large crowds of degenerates hanging out on street corners looking to cause trouble, hanging out in front of shrines to George Floyd. When all the restrictions are gone, it will be Oak Brook & Rosemont for the high end luxury. People will chose to travel to smaller, more happening strips of restaurants… Read more »
lol – I used to be a Gold Coast resident and people have been complaining about that McDonalds for 25 years and nothing changes! It should be the symbol of the Chicago flag – the Chicago Ave McDonalds, where everyone knows the problem, complains about the problem, gets called a racist for calling out the problem, and nothing ever changes. Sigh, so well Chicago, it was nice knowing ya.
Sloths making fast food slow.
They are not as politically connected as their friend who works at the local Secretary of State’s office, whose cousin is at the County Clerk, whose sister is at City Hall, whose friend is at McCormick Place, whose dad is at a local Federal government office.
A lot of the western suburbs have a lot of great restaurants in their downtown areas. My wife and I go these areas and walk around til we find a restaurant we can get seated at. We don’t have to constantly look over our shoulder while we’re walking.
I believe the so-called social unrest is indeed a factor in diminishing ownership. My father lives in the Gold Coast, paying outrageous taxes given the value of the property, and will take quite a loss (huge) if compelled to sell. But even without the social unrest, it makes no sense to own property in Illinois. Sure, ever escalating property taxes are built into rents, but tenants can leave on a few months notice, and in fact, that is what they are doing now and will continue to do. I have mentioned many times that I have looked at buying a… Read more »
I keep hearing on the news that this market and the economy in general wont come back until people feel they can go back to normal without fear. And all those analysts point to the vaccine as the holy grail that will eliminate the fear in the workforce going back. I would contend that the fear does not go away until the masks go away, period. The masks are a blatant statement that says very loudly “be afraid, be very afraid” and it says that over and over to people at the store, at the restaurant, commuting on a train,… Read more »
Lori gave into blm and traded the economic base of Chicago retail for south and west side ghetto votes. She was helped by the chair of the progressive caucus, Sophia King.
Lori is a mix of pragmatist and ideologue. The pragmatist was giving the Black caucus the retail/tourist retail strip to the BLM movement to consolidate her power. But the ideologue in her gave away Michigan Ave. because she actually believes it. I was shocked, in her first press conference after the rioting, instead of telling the entire region that she’s ordered the police to “shoot to maim and/or kill”, she instead blamed the 1619 virus for the riots (iirc she actually said “1619 virus”), and slandered my immigrant great-great grandparents as white supremacist racists in the Red Summer of 1919,… Read more »
Well if you don’t get mugged on the CTA or carjacked, and avoid a protest or looting, and manage to avoid the boarded up storefronts, and can find a restaurant to eat in, and don’t get shot, maybe you can have a good time in Chicago.
Wait, the City, County, and State are broke?