Other key priorities for the Central Area Plan are to improve economic growth and public safety, protect natural resources and build more green spaces. The area is only 3 percent of Chicago’s geography, but it accounts for 53 percent of the city’s private sector jobs and 45 percent of the tax base, according to the city’s report. Audio: Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon says Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades – Chicago’s Morning Answer
April 3, 2026
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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.
Illinois lost another 54,000 tax filers and dependents, net, according to the IRS. Since 2000, fleeing taxpayers have taken $94 billion of annual adjusted gross income with them.
“City officials reviewed their initial findings to create eight themes of improvement based on responses from more than 6,000 residents. Residents noted which topics were most important to them and provided feedback at this week’s meeting…” LOL… but I don’t see *one* thing in this garbage “Central Area Plan” about making downtown more hospitable for TAX – paying businesses, or resolving the dangerous crime situation. This “wish list” could have been drawn up by toddlers… “violence intervention services… more public restrooms… providing holistic support for people experiencing homelessness… green infrastructure… expanding low-cost programs…” are a *total* waste unless the first… Read more »
Banning sneaker stores on State st would fix 75% of state st’s problems.
Downtown Chicago will look like a Mad Max movie in 20 years. There are already car loads of heavily armed criminals speeding through Chicago streets looking for victims. Currently, it’s just a few cars, but the numbers are clearly increasing. Nothing and nobody is stopping those cars, or preventing this trend from continuing the increase. It won’t be long before we have swarms of Mad Max cars dashing through the streets of downtown.
Not gonna be lots of pedestrians or tourists in downtown in 20 years, but there will be lots of empty and run down buildings.
Yup, those snazzy public toilets will meke perfect abodes for the piss bums and druggies that will be making up the majority of the downtown dwellers, lol…
Schools push out illiterate grads who lack employability. Employers can’t find help and tire of the unemployable crashing cars into their stores at midnight and robbing them blind. By day, visitors are robbed and beaten. The transit system is collapsing because it’s not safe. But, this Block Club organization is planning for Utopia in 20 years with more bathrooms, bike lanes and green spaces. I wish them well, hope springs eternal!
Here’s an inexpensive idea for public bathrooms from Shark Tank. These guys can make some for every utility pole and street light plus a smaller size for kids to use on parking meters. LOL A few of the Sharks bought into it for camping.
https://sharktankrecap.com/airboss-outdoors-krapp-strapp-bathroom-device-shark-tank-season-15/
Either you start putting bad guys behind bars or there won’t be a downtown in 20 years.
Your optimistic, I was thinking more like 5 years.