Given where Chicago is right now this new stadium proposal is a bad idea and a bad deal – Wirepoints on The Chicago Way with John Kass
April 25, 2024
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Ted was on The Chicago Way with John Kass and Jeff Carlin to discuss the proposed $5 billion lakefront stadium project proposed by the Chicago Bears & Mayor Brandon Johnson, why Chicago is struggling compared to other metro areas across the country, why the city might or might not go the way of Detroit, and more.
Some Illinois lawmakers continue to deny that covid aid and other federal stimulus bailed the state out of its fiscal mess. But a look at past and projected revenues from COGFA shows just how much the bailouts blew out the state’s revenues. And now that they’re over, how much harder it will be for Illinois revenues to grow.
Election integrity – both real and perceived – is essential to government’s legitimacy and stability. Illinois, like the rest of the nation, better fix its problems now.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Chicago’s latest bond offering, why Chicago’s dismal home value growth is due to poor policies, the next $70 million to be spent on migrants, the 9% salary hikes demanded by the CTU, and why Illinois lawmakers voting to stop Chicago’s selective enrollment schools from being closed is hypocritical.
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 4/21/2024.
Cook County’s consolidated listing-book of tax-sale properties is size of old Sears mail-order catalogues. Truly frightening prospect for Cook County’s taxpayers, only partially-disclosed here in article. Cook County’s politicians and its many government agencies operate as if there’s endless bountiful cashflow for their reckless spending and their guaranteed huge pensions.
Cook county democrats go figure!!
Looks like the Democrats invented another problem but ny guess is they have a plan…namely more taxes.
Who in their right mind would buy one of these decaying properties in a decaying city in a decaying state only to be treated like dirt by the taxing body that courted you a year ago? It’d be like jumping into a wood chipper, or walking into an airplane propeller.
What exactly is the $5B in lost revenue based on? If it is based on the property taxes at it’s highest value when occupied that is not correct now. Most vacant or abandoned/tear down properties values are for land only. The land has a taxable value but nowhere close to $5B. The structures on the land most likely have little to no value and will need extensive rehab or just be torn down. In a high crime area even the land has little value. Do you want to drop off building supplies to an empty lot in a high crime… Read more »
They want you to buy into the delusion there’s a government driven answer to this government created problem.
Hmmm….Need the obvious be stated?
That’s what happens in a crumbling city. People get so fed up they just walk away and drive off to greener pastures. They can see that there is no future in city that is coming apart at the seams. They are ceding the territory to the criminals and running to safety.
That’s the true problem. It would be unexpected, but refreshing, if Maria would have stated that for all to hear.
As Detroiters know, it never stops. Abandoned buildings invite the homeless and the dope dealers; neighbors move leaving more abandoned places; the city tears them down; acres of vacant land with crumbling sidewalks and abandoned cars; mow the weeds monthly; drive by journalists record this on video; people view the video. Places that are viable, like Berlin, get rebuilt in a few years. What makes places viable? The people who lived there and want to live there together again. What makes places non-viable? The people who live there or used to live there (but whom nobody wants to live with).… Read more »
Very good post.
Nail hit on head.
The 2008 foreclosure crisis really exacerbated the tax problems. The community decided, as a whole, to suck every last penny of equity out of the only assets of any value in the neighborhood, through mortgage fraud and home equity scams, and left destruction in its wake. The amount of fraud – straw buyers, forged quitclaim deeds, fake transactions, etc – in the community during those years would blow your mind if you really knew how bad it was. Tens of thousands of properties went into foreclosure or were abandoned before the foreclosure process even started. There was so much mortgage… Read more »