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While a spring and summer infusion of tourists has boosted foot traffic in many shopping districts, the Loop is a step behind, and street-level businesses may continue suffering until more companies call people back to the office.
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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An article – written by the gettin’ more “woke” every day Trib – that tries to gin up an all’s-well-n-getting-better version of downtown Chicago by claiming that the streets are now full of “young people wearing kaki pants.”
Doesn’t mention that their slacks are halfway down their butt, with their underwear hanging out and an illegally possessed pistol tucked into their waistband.
I can’t comment about downtown Chicago. I haven’t set foot there for a long time. Why would I go somewhere I despise?
Downtown Chicago is a sh!t show. There is no way it improves until retail businesses see that their investments are at a minimum, safe from the burn, loot, murder crowd. Then they’ll want to see a return of foot traffic, which may never happen. Covid accelerated the work from home/flexible work schedule dynamic that had been underway for awhile. Sorry, but the ship has sailed boys, and it’s not coming back.
This article is another historical first! Clapping Seal Journalism! Awash in tourists? Downtown smells like it’s awash in something more pungent.
They are not missing. Just look for the chalk outlines.
Obviously this is just a puff piece feel good story by the democrap/deep state propaganda machine. The lies and false narratives are plain to see now. The deep state propaganda machine payments has been keeping these legacy media traitors in business. Is western media the false prophet?
When I’m occasionally downtown, I only see pink haired freaks wearing masks, homeless people, and young thugs who look like they are up to no good.
Exactly. New retail stores are not going to entice office workers back downtown. That’s a laughable premise in the article.
Office workers are there to work. When I was downtown leaving the office was only for a coffee or a quick bite to eat. Pre-pandemic if you left the office in the afternoon to grab a late lunch the streets were empty because everyone was in their offices working.
Anyone know what the downtown after work bar scene is like these days?
This is the kind of crummy sideshow stuff that was big in Old Town decades ago, e.g. these are updated versions of Ripley’s ‘Believe It or Not Museum’, lol: “Edwards said there are already new retail concepts dotting downtown. Outlets such as The Color Factory, an interactive art museum in Willis Tower, the Medieval Torture Museum at 177 N. State St. next to the Chicago Theater, and the Museum of Illusions at 25 E. Washington St., offer experiences instead of just selling goods…”
Is this the Wisconsin Dells or Michigan Ave?
Lol… and a “Medieval Torture Museum” and “Museum of Illusions” as “attractions” in downtown Chicago are something so “ripe” that even “The Onion” or “The Babylon Bee” couldn’t have cooked them up. Add a Mrs. Field’s Cookies and some random smelly panhandlers, and your “Chicago Experience” is complete…!!!
Did not work downtown and have not been since the pandemic, but I used to attend plenty of trainings and meetings downtown, often twice per month or more; now all done remotely. These would be followed by bar/resto Happy Hour visits/meals, and sometimes “celebratory” professional work events were held at these places. Nobody I know (I work in the non – profit field) has either held or attended these events for the last 2 1/2 years. Our 2021 work Christmas party was held at Carmine’s on Rush Street. Formerly 45 or so people pre – pandemic would attend, this time… Read more »
The rent downtown on space for bars and restaurants is crazy, so couple that with less patrons, and harder to find employees that have to be paid more, I just don’t know how these establishments can survive long term.