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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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Crain’s Chicago Business — Chicago’s Anti-Business Business-Newspaper — Is Doing Damage Control For Pritzker
The authors have to spin the uncomfortable fact that Chicago has become whiter and wealthier at the great expense of its Black population. That’s financially better for Chicago, not so much for its diversity.
Chads and Trixies are profit centers for the city. They consume minimal city resources and shoulder most of the tax burden. Chicago has been recycling them for decades. Their presence is what keeps Chicago from being Memphis.
This is twisting the truth: “More homes were built than at any time since the 1950s.” A “home” in the 1950s was a small single family building. A “home” in 2022 is a condo in a massive high-rise building. Lots of condos also explains “more households” and “declining household size”. The bottom line is: Chicago has become far less family friendly. There is not enough starter family housing. There is far too much scary crime to raise children in Chicago. And the failing schools are too focused on “equity” instead of education. Ethnic communities and neighborhoods are not failing, family… Read more »
The emphasis on college grads, and more households but fewer people, does not strike me as the positive the authors seem to think. It seems more like living in the city has become an extension of the college frat life into young adulthood. If my son and his friends are representative of this group, once they marry and start families, they decamp to the suburbs.
Maybe a city can remain vibrant based on young adults postponing marriage and families. I don’t know the answer, but I wouldn’t bet on it. And it certainly doesn’t bode well for CPS.
I’ve heard from various industry professionals, like realtors, appraisers, mortgage brokers, that many, many parents are giving up on the pipe dream of raising their children and have begun decamping to the suburbs, and some younger couples are moving to the ‘burbs instead of buying a starter condo in the city. My suburban Cook County town is stroller city out here with the schools bursting at the seams and park district programs completely full, which defies and run against the general baby bust and rapidly declining birth rate. It’s all city folk moving out here for the schools, safety and… Read more »