Despite Emanuel’s opposition, local rep Kelly enlists Madigan and other allies in a bid to get Pritzker to approve $150 million for needed roads as part of a new state capital bill.

This city may be good at making real estate out of nothing, but until it finds a way to make money out of nothing, its elected leaders should proceed with caution on an idea to finance part of an audacious South Loop development.

A republication of our Wirepoints story.

“A $3.8 billion transit center?” A dumbfounded bond analyst on Twitter asked that?

The governor’s office says it’s willing to consider a major subsidy for a proposed development near Soldier Field, but the deal is likely to be a hard sell. The statement should be helpful to Dunn’s Landmark Development as it seeks to clear a lengthy series of political, governmental and financial hurdles on the project, which eventually would include more than $20 billion in residential and other high-rises plus a $3.8 billion transit center that would be developed over two decades.

A motion filed by Smollett’s attorney Wednesday seeks to quash a request by former State Appeals Court Judge Sheila O’Brien to have the actor appear at the hearing. He lives in California now.

As Emanuel angles for relevance in his post-political life, he seems to be hoping there’s a demand for one last defender of the neoliberalism that defined his career — a voice to warn his party against the perils of socialism.

In a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg TV Citadel’s Ken Griffin told anchor Erik Schatzker that he would stay in Chicago despite several “incidents of gang battles with guns” near his children’s school on the city’s South Side. When his 8-year-old daughter asked him why they don’t just leave, he said he told her: “Because we’re going to stand and fight. We’re going to fight for the policies and changes that make this state better.” The full Bloomberg interview is linked here.

Fritz Kaegi is pushing to ensure assessments from here on out are based on and backed up by data—rather than gauzy guesses, flawed comparisons and the frequent intervention of appeals lawyers. No wonder he’s got everyone on edge.

Sanchez’ victory makes six aldermen now aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. The others are Daniel La Spata, 1st; Jeanette Taylor, 20th; Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th; Andre Vasquez, 40th.

Prosecutors allege Patel lied under oath when she told a federal grand jury investigating pay-to-play allegations in Brown’s office that she had never sold tickets to Brown’s fundraisers and didn’t know whether a colleague targeted in the investigation had spoken to law enforcement.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has been subpoenaed to appear in court as a lawyer seeks the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case. Retired appellate judge Sheila O’Brien, who earlier this month filed the petition for a special prosecutor, also filed a subpoena for Foxx’s top deputy, Joseph Magats, and another document requesting Jussie Smollett appear at the hearing.

In the letter to FOX citing Smollett’s “commitment to true community service,” the list of deeds claims Smollett taught “songwriting to incarcerated youth at the Cook County Jail.”

“Nope. Not true,” said Cara Smith, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s policy chief.

“Smollett did not visit to teach songwriting,” she said. “He was there in late August 2017 for a tour of the Sheriff’s SAVE program,” an anti-violence program that targets young men — 18-24 from the city’s 15 most violent zip codes.

Facing a May 3 deadline to seek what is generally expected to be a wider indictment from a grand jury against Burke, prosecutors asked a judge Thursday for 35 additional days. If the judge grants their request, their new deadline would be June 7.

Chicago-area apartment landlords are airing their grievances about a new Cook County housing discrimination ordinance they say will cause confusion and ultimately deter new investment in the local multifamily sector.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said it’s “to be determined” whether she will keep some of the $116,000 raised during a political fundraiser at Ald. Edward Burke’s home, contradicting her frequent campaign declaration that she returned all the money.

“I was still giving them my information in the fourth inning, and I told them, ‘I have to go. I might have to pitch,'” Strop said.

That shortfall is expected to come in higher than projected because of higher costs in a council-approved union contract and lower than expected revenues. The general fund is projected to run a $3.5 million deficit due to a flat property tax levy, falling sales and income tax revenue, and climbing expenses driven in large part by contract-mandated raises.

Relations “are frequently strained, often contentious and disappointingly counter-productive. This does not appear to be the case in many other cities, both big and small, where progressive mayors have open and respectful dialogue with their city’s employer base,” Wirtz wrote in an April 15 letter to Lightfoot.

An Ohio affordable-housing nonprofit that bought more than 1,800 apartments in the Chicago area has drawn the ire of its tenants and the city for the poor condition of its buildings. Now it faces a reckoning with investors that hold nearly $85 million in bonds on its properties.

Now, nearly two decades after the city’s public housing high-rises started coming down, one of the three strands in the transformative replacement plan continues to lag far behind the original vision. Sales of market-rate homes fizzled in the housing bust and a dozen years later have yet to catch fire again, other than on the old Cabrini-Green land.

Most people have to wait until they’re out of a job to begin collecting retirement benefits they accrued while working there. That’s not the case for at least 13 part-time suburban county board members who are receiving as much as $82,124 in annual pension payouts from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund for jobs in which they’re still getting salaries of $21,000 to $43,018.

The Chicago Teachers Union and the Service Employees International Union of Illinois lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in their effort to crown Toni Preckwinkle mayor, but both say they’re proud to have successfully supported a left-wing swing in the City Council.

If she keeps talking truth around her fellow Illinois Democrats, Chicago’s next mayor will make them squirm. She must be ignoring the memos instructing her to “Shush up about the ‘Illinois Exodus.’ Bad for our brand.”

Presented without comment.

Chicago ranked among the least popular urban commercial real estate markets in the world in the survey of institutional investors by A Fellowship for International Real Estate, or AFIRE, a Washington-based industry group. The survey confirms a growing belief that investors are growing wary of buying properties here amid expectations that income and property taxes will rise to plug gaping budget holes caused by unfunded public pensions.

Northwestern and U of C are barreling toward the $300,000 barrier for four years of undergraduate study—at their peril.

There were 22,000 fewer residents in the 14-county metro area than in 2017, a drop of 0.2 percent, and the first time since 2010 that the area’s population has slipped below 9.5 million people. Cook County, which accounts for 55 percent of the population in the metro area, lost 24,000 residents. DuPage and Lake counties, the second- and third-largest, respectively, each lost about 2,000 residents. The exurbs of Will, Kane and Kendall counties saw modest growth of fewer than 2,000 residents each.

A Crain’s analysis of first-quarter data shows twice as many towns where three key metrics are down as where they are up.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Chicago-to-Remain-Sanctuary-City-Despite-Trumps-Plan-Officials-Say-508610791.html

Since office buildings typically pass along tax expenses to tenants, new Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s approach threatens one of Chicago’s biggest selling points for companies: Relative to other major markets, it’s a bargain.

Authors Adam Slade and Nick McFadden estimate that Illinois could save $645 million per year, or $318 per student, if it reduced administrative spending to the national average.

“I’m here tonight because my property assessment doubled, which seems a little bit unreasonable,” said an 81-year old homeowner.

At the 5:00 mark: Why are so many Chicago-area homes struggling to reach the prices they sold at five, 10, 15 or even 20 years ago? Crain’s Dennis Rodkin has some ideas.

If the hedge fund manager and his company move to New York, as he’s reportedly considered, Chicago could lose one of its biggest benefactors.

Watch for the mayor to appear in this season’s final episode of “Chicago Fire.” Rahmster will play himself on his last day in office in the May 22 finale of the show’s season 7.

“Let’s simply amend the zoning laws to allow garden level apartments to be added to existing apartment buildings, provided the rents for those apartments are set at affordable housing levels.”

Potential impact on Chicago and other Illinois municipalities.

Aimed at catching shooters who open fire on Chicago area expressways. Feel better now?

A real estate developer has been indicted on federal charges alleging he steered legal work to powerful Ald. Edward Burke in exchange for help at City Hall with a permit and $2 million in tax-increment financing for a Northwest Side development. The charges against Charles Cui, of Lake Forest, were the first to be brought in connection with the ongoing City Hall corruption investigation since Burke himself was accused more than three months ago of attempting to shake down two businessmen seeking to renovate a fast-food restaurant in the 14th Ward.

Comment: if you don’t know what NIMBY means, this is it.

The assessor’s estimated value of some apartment buildings in the northern suburb have doubled or even tripled, fueling fears that a massive property tax increase is coming next year. Some spooked landlords predict they’ll have to hike rents to account for the higher costs. Others foresee a decline in property values and development as investors steer clear of the Chicago market. And don’t rule out a fight. Comment: we are routinely hearing about doubled or tripled residential assessments, too, in northern Cook County.

Comment: Both Illinois’ governor and attorney general still haven’t said a peep about the dismissal of charges against Smollett.

Lightfoot didn’t put a number on it. She simply described it as “dire.”

“Each IG should have the power to investigate all complaints — even anonymous ones. Each should have full subpoena powers. They should also have responsibility to monitor large contracts, do background integrity reviews on senior hires [and] … be provided with a budget and management independence … [so they are] not at risk of political retaliation from officials they’re authorized to investigate,” BPI Executive Director Hoy McConnell told a City Hall news conference.

Comment: A better explanation is leftist teachers, particularly in Chicago, where the CTU teaches hatred for capitalism.

Comment: As with the state’s goal of 100% renewables, there’s no mention of how much it will cost. Actually, it’s impossible to know because nobody knows how cheap fossil alternatives like natural gas might be in the future. Blank checks are fine as long as they are green. The full resolution is linked here. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, eat your heart out. Chicago, just like the State of Illinois, loves your Green New Deal and is going for it, even if the nation and the vast majority of your own party in Congress think it’s insane.