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While office towers sit empty and nearby businesses struggle to pay their bills, residential neighborhoods in America’s biggest cities are bustling again. The pandemic and remote work have done little to dent the overall appeal of cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, foot-traffic and rent data show. But “The increased vibrancy of great urban neighborhoods will never be enough to offset the decline in property-tax revenues caused by remote work and the falling values of commercial office buildings,” one city planner said.
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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I guess the WSJ decided to publish an article that might pull some clicks away from the Atlantic and Mother Jones’ websites.
Some of this article may be true but what will the collapse of downtowns do to the revenue stream? They will raise taxes for everyone else. Here’s a new article/podcast from Natural News saying the opposite. https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-05-30-death-of-the-american-city-nine-trends.html
When the thugs are done with downtown they will move to other ares like locusts. Where is Moses when you need him?