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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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How long until they take down that Ceres statue on top of the Board of Trade and replace it with one of Che Guevara?
I think the lender now owns the CBOT building. You might find this unbelievable, but I knew old CBOT traders who had fireplaces in their offices on the upper floor where the building setbacks were, and had wood delivered so they could grill hot dogs in their fireplace. When I worked there in the 1980’s there was still an original art deco black and white checkerboard tile bathroom on the second floor with a shower. There was also a secret private bathroom behind what looked to be a closet door on a hallway. The floor terrazzo designs on the 2nd… Read more »
I believe it. Stories about traders in the 1980s are endless.
Wonder if this mayor can balance his check book????
Checkbook? What Checkbook?
He’s the Payday Loan mayor.
Watch the movie “ Blade Runner “ if you want to see what Chicago will look like in a few years.
Mark my words: in my lifetime, downtown Chicago and the surrounding areas will be the country’s first truly cyberpunk ghetto, with neon lights everywhere juxtaposing poverty and despair in every building, surrounded and immersed with every vice imaginable: gluttonous food, cannabis and other drugs, mostly decriminalization prostitution, seedy bars and nightlife, gambling on every activity, Venezuelan cartels controlling all of it like something out of Scarface. Every resident will be a virtual indentured servant to Chicago’s and it’s municipal and cartel taxes, but, they can’t give up the hedonism, because it’s too dang profitable. Like Vegas except far more walkable,… Read more »
The local news had a curious use of the word “revitalize” to describe this project. What will be revitalized? It certainly won’t be the downtown Chicago financial district.
Interesting choice of locations. The one at 111 W. Monroe was formerly the HQ of the old Harris Bank, and 208 S. LaSalle housed Bank of America’s main location downtown. The fact that all four locations targeted for affordable housing are in the heart of the city’s financial district seems symbolic. It will likely cause financial firms located in the city or considering the city to reconsider presence here. Further decreases in office occupancy and job stagnation downtown, including for businesses dependent upon the segment may result. You can almost hear real estate values crumbling.
Bank of America was at 135 S. LaSalle. They vacated, the owner couldn’t lease out the space, and the building was given back to its lender.
30% affordable housing means that these buildings will turn into public housing projects. Let the crumbling begin!
Thanks, you’re correct. I should have clarified that in 1994 when BAC took over Continental Bank, BAC staff occupied Continental’s building at 208 S. LaSalle. Similarly, believe the remaining Harris staff have just completed their move from 111 W. Monroe to their location in the West Loop.
Exception to the above point is understand the Harris’ ground floor branch will remain for now.
They’re making future tenement housing with little natural light. Of course the city’s financial district is symbolic. Chicago isn’t your city anymore, deplorable, it’s been conquered by the diaspora, and you’re a refugee now. And when downtown becomes a slum, your leaders will survey the destruction and says “great, look at the good thing we wrecked, what can we destroy next”.
I worked in the 135 S. LaSalle building. The floor I worked on was supposedly remodeled, yet the black and white checkerboard bathrooms were the original ones from the 1930’s. The single men’s and women’s bathrooms were located in the central core of the floor. Providing individual bathrooms to multiple apartments per floor will be a financial and construction nightmare. You are correct that there is little light. My small southeast facing office, which was the size of two future apartments, barely got any natural light most of the year with Chicago’s typical gloomy weather. The LaSalle Street buildings are… Read more »
Some of those buildings didn’t even have women’s bathrooms on every floor, only every other floor, because when they were constructed, female participation in the workforce was so low, although that’s mostly fixed now.
As for LaSalle, the dispersal of the trading firms was certainly the death kneel, but high property taxes and high rents discouraged small to medium sized firms from setting up shop downtown too.
Now that the courts mostly remote too, the lawyers aren’t even going to the Daley Center, and the accountants are mostly working from their basement too.
The whole ecosystem of the trading firm world has blown up. All of the vendors, from accountants to lawyers to tech firms, that used to service the trading firms and lease small offices are gone. All of the buildings on LaSalle Street with small offices and small floors are no longer economically viable. There is no one left to lease these offices. As sad as it is to say it, I think many of these beautiful old buildings will be torn down in the next 20 years. The replacement buildings, if there even are any, will be absolutely horrible. Chicago,… Read more »
The project provides tax subsidies and tax breaks to developers who transform outdated buildings into apartments, as long as at least 30% of the units are affordable.
These buildings will be trashed in 5 years
CTU/Brandon wants to end the TIFs by by borrowing against existing TIF with $1.25 bil bond? but now he wants this $150 M TIF financed deal for downtown prop owners?
Welcome to Chicago the world’s largest section 8 housing city.