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That festivals are temporary can heighten conflict. “Because music festivals aren’t brick-and-mortar establishments, they do have a kind of ephemeral aspect to them,” said sociologist Jonathan R. Wynn. “They fly in, set up shop, bring in tourism dollars, then move on.” Since 2010, Lollapalooza has generated more than $2 billion in revenue for Chicago, including $305 million in 2021.
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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Just hold all music festivals in either the United Center or Guaranteed Rate field parking lots. Nothing to re-sod, no cancelled soccer games. Give Reinsdorf a cut of the gate receipts and he’ll be fine. The West Loop/Fulton Market can absorb after-concert traffic.
The use of Grant Park was meant to showcase the city. But if music is the draw, no one will care that the backdrop is a freight train overpass or endless pavement.
No reason for public parks to be prostituted to producers of music festival — they wreck the parks, create traffic/parking/noise/litter/crime problems, and prevent neighbors from using the parks that were built for them to use