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.
IL has been at or near the top the list when it comes to population loss, what makes these developers think that will turn around anytime soon? Who do they think will be moving to these various developments? And don’t forget Lightfoot’s dream of turning LaSalle St. into residential units. Is there really this great of a demand to live in Chicago?
I lived on the Near North Side. 15-20 years after Cabrini came down and there are still acres of vacant land. I remember many development proposals where the trailer sales sites sat for years and nothing came of them. To me, the old Cabrini corridor is preferable to the Elston corridor, yet here we are. It’s going to take decades to make Elston/Clybourn corridor feel like a neighborhood. You can plop glass towers down all you want, but with light industrial and heavy rail it’s going to be a tough sell. And without easy L/Metra access, it’ll be an even… Read more »
The banks who fund it will end up owning it down the road and lose lots of money. The Chitty of Chicago has crime everywhere growing like a cancer. Why do you think all the cops move to Punta Gorda, Fl. as soon as they retire??? It is easy, they do not feel safe in Chi town, nor should they.
I stopped reading when the article mentioned Trump…..let me count….in the sixth word of the first sentence. Whatever else the article says, I don’t care!