The Chicago-area retail vacancy rate dropped to 10.7 percent in fourth-quarter 2019, down from 10.9 percent in the third quarter and 11.1 percent a year earlier, according to the Chicago office of CBRE. The local vacancy rate has fallen for three straight quarters and now stands at its lowest level in two years.
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.