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Robert Baade, a sports economist at Lake Forest College, was “surprised” to see the minimal $500,000 financial commitment by NASCAR to the city. “Five hundred thousand dollars is not nearly enough to make up for what it is that the city will surely incur in costs to host the event,” Baade said, such as police overtime, cleanup and restoration costs to the parks and streets, and lost revenue from tourists expected downtown every Fourth of July weekend.
Summary and audio linked here.
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
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.
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Audio and summary
As a racing fan people need to relax. The city is dead, NASCAR is a sign of life. I don’t like Lightfart, but this fell in her lap and she did the right thing. Now the woke WBEZ is going to get in a huff because NASCAR’s fan base is 99.9% conservatives. Yeah Lightfoot and NASCAR is about the strangest bedfellows you’d ever see, like matter and anti-matter, the most woke place on earth hosting the most right wing sport of them all. It will be fun, relax, who cares about the contracts. Compared to every other crooked contract and… Read more »
A. The contract had to be obtained through a FOIA request? WTF is that about? The ever expanding degree to which average citizens have to jump through hoops just to get basic info about what govt is doing “on their behalf” with their money no less, should be galactically alarming to everyone.
B. Someone should buy Mayor TripleThreat a copy of “The Art of the Deal” for Christmas.
“It’s going to be a huge windfalll for area businesses”.
It’s not going to be a huge windfall for anybody, except possibly the “race rioters”. Only a complete moron goes downtown for anything, except possibly to get robbed, raped, murdered or possibly all three–in which case the States Attorney will say that it was suicide and release the “offenders” without bail.
“Mobs coming downtown for the races…”
The only mobs that will go “downtown for the races” will be the government protected race rioting mobs.
This apocalypticly absurd. It’s going to be a huge windfalll for area businesses. Mobs coming downtown for the races. I’d be surprised if more than forty five people came to the city. Flaming sleds flying around Grant Park. To facilitate foot traffic n ear the race, sewers will be used as pedways.
I say put the NASCAR race track around the Rivian and Lion electric car/truck plants.
Anyone in this business knows that $500k is chump change to an event sponsor like this, and they are laughing at the nitwits in City Hall. The budgets for these events are scores and scores of millions of dollars, so the City– and taxpayers– are getting hosed.
In the near future you’ll see a car race of sorts to see who can drive out of Chicago, Cook County and Illinois the fastest.
Just leave any Democratic Party voting habits behind.