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While the Bears work on their financing -- including an appeal of Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi's reassessment of the 326-acre property -- Village Manager Randy Recklaus said the village and its consultants await further information so they can start their own studies on things like traffic. "We are just not at a point where we can say exactly what the impact on our residents will be."
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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I know some people are naysayers about this but I’m all for it. I’ve seen what other cities do when they create NFL entertainment districts and they are generally successful. The family also needs to load up on debt for estate tax purposes I heard. The Detroit Silverdome was a unique situation, I don’t necessarily believe it would apply here.
As I have said before, it is all a pipe dream. The infrastructure costs are astronomical. Why haven’t the Bears shown any plans yet? Because the ask from public officials for the city of Arlington Heights will be a choker and cause the taxpayers to storm the palace. And with skyrocketing vacancies in office space in downtown Chicago, does anyone really think there is demand for office space in the suburbs in that volume? Of course not.
On the bright side that new Amazon facility they built on the former Silverdome site only took several years. It won’t have the eye appeal of the refurbished Soldier Field though.