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In all, the proposals for the seven sites called for more than 2,000 housing units. One plan for 105 W. Adams contained the biggest commitment to diversity in housing, specifying that 75% of its 247 units would be affordable.
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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So, parts of downtown Chicago will be made up of affordable housing? Sounds like it’ll be a great place to hang out or work.
I’d really like to see what these apartments will look like – windows, floor plans, elevator access, parking, privacy & noise control, etc. I’d like to know how much they’ll actually rent for, and what portion of the lease will be paid by residents, and how much of it will be paid to developers and landlords by taxpayers.
Frankly, I think that what I’ve read about this so far bespeaks guvmn’t using taxpayer dollars to create a lot of “supply” for which there will be little demand.
And just where will these people find work ?
Ghetto housing in the center of the financial district is just a brilliant idea
They could repurpose nearly vacant schools into housing but they’ve never tried it.
Let’s talk about simple arithmetic– and it doesn’t even rise to the level of calling it “math.” Look at these proposals– $500,000 or so per unit. Only Democrat government could come up with proposals like this. It is just like the scores and scores of HUD/CHA/IHDA deals that have been done all over the West and South sides– cost is twice as much or more than the private sector can build units for. “Obscene waste” of public funds is not an overstatement. Hardworking middle class families can not afford $500k homes, but the City will make such units available to… Read more »
And laborers MUST be paid the prevailing wage! LOL
As I’ve said before, downtown and RN will become a poor, almost futuristic cyber punk ‘sin city’, with the underclasses, living in crowded, cramped quarters, frequenting the cannabis shops, casinos, bars and nightclubs. Gas powered vehicles will be banned and EV’s will be too expensive for the poor, so they’ll be on public transit in a crime ridden city. Tenement housing like this – 297 ‘affordable’ units, in an old building, with little natural light – is a first step towards a modern, cyberpunk version of the old school tenement houses of the early 20th century.
Failed Democrat Cities Like Chicago Have Downtowns That Are Dying — Their Crackpot Plans To Turn Empty Offices Into Housing Are A Non-Starter – New York Times