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Amazon wants to build an 825,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Bolingbrook that would employ 1,500 people. “I told them I wouldn’t support it when they met with us,” said Mayor Roger Claar. “Then they closed two weeks later.”
Claar adamantly opposes Amazon’s plans for 119 acres of land it recently acquired in the southwest suburb, saying the 825,000-square-foot fulfillment center the e-commerce giant wants to build there would be too tall and unsightly. He worries that truck traffic from the property would choke a nearby intersection on Interstate 55. And all those jobs? At about $15 per hour, they wouldn’t pay enough.
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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This casual “f- you” attitude towards business is what permeates Illinois. It will only disappear when bond buyers will no longer buy local and state bonds, supporting this debt riddled nonsense. Yes, if the site has aesthetic problems, or there are issues, work them out! Don’t act like a cocky ass and tell everyone in the news what a virtuous corporate slayer you are. And as for the $15 minimum wage, I can tell that this mayor has never owned or run a business. What does he think that EVERYONE will be at $15/hr? Does he not understand that facilities… Read more »
The Old Chicago site has bee a pock mark on Bolingbrook since it closed 4 decades ago. I’m not sure what else would go there other than a distribution center.
The ‘living wage’ angle is the progressive angle for these things days but what he what is really saying is that he doesn’t want 1,500 stoners buying legal weed in Romeoville coming into Bolingbrook for their midnight shift at Amazon, not when he’s got some major manufacturers with high paying jobs in town. As for the 9-10 story building with no windows, yeah, that’s pretty obscene, no town wants that. I’d rather see Amazon hire some local talent to build robots to run the place.
Good for you mayor Claar, stand up for what is right. Wish mayor in romeoville had some you know what. Would you like rib fest because 90% of the people in romeoville don’t want it and never had any input.