-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
I could not understand why the company moved to Chicago in the first place unless there were some seriously big incentives handed out.
The corporate groupthink was “we need to be in urban centers to attract young millennial workers who refuse to travel to suburbs”.
That now sounds like ancient history, lol…
https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/millennials-and-the-future-urban-landscape From Harvard in 2018 (proving once again Harvard is a joke of an institution): Millennials and the Future Urban LandscapeThursday, November 1, 2018 As they age, will the young, white, well-educated, upper income adults who have driven much of the population growth and demographic changes in urban areas continue to live in those places? Or are they likely to move to farther flung suburban locations? And how will a gradually changing demographic makeup affect the geographic population distribution? In “Are Millennials Coming to Town? The Determinants of Location Choice of Young Adults,” published earlier this year in Urban Affairs… Read more »
From Harvard in 2018 (proving once again Harvard is a joke of an institution): Millennials and the Future Urban Landscape Thursday, November 1, 2018 https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/millennials-and-the-future-urban-landscape As they age, will the young, white, well-educated, upper income adults who have driven much of the population growth and demographic changes in urban areas continue to live in those places? Or are they likely to move to farther flung suburban locations? And how will a gradually changing demographic makeup affect the geographic population distribution? In “Are Millennials Coming to Town? The Determinants of Location Choice of Young Adults,” published earlier this year in Urban… Read more »
Ironically enough My Mrs. has a good friend whose youngest son took a job with McDonald’s corporate straight out of college a few years ago. He and his wife bought a house in suburban Will County and started their family while he commuted to and from the Oak Brook campus. Then McDonald’s management got the bright idea to move corporate HQ to downtown Chicago. He works in accounting and since during end of year and tax season they work long hours into the night many days a week he realized there was NO WAY he’d voluntarily be in The Loop… Read more »
…and Lori will say, McDonalds was of no importance to Chicago…..just like what she said about Boeing (largest exporter in the world); Citadel and Ken Griffin (about $600MM in cumulative donations to Il/Chicago; and Caterpillar….
…we deserve it, after allowing these inept incompetent politicians to drive IL/Chicago into a brick wall
Just read the article. McDonalds has already made the decision to leave Chicago, he’s just telling us now, so it doesn’t come as a surprise when it actually happens in a couple of years. If you read between the lines, the CEO says the city sucks, crime is too high, leadership doesn’t care, he can’t recruit workers, other cities have been relentlessly poaching, and most importantly, permanence is not a feature of the corporate world. Mark my words, McDonalds will be moving its headquarters out of Chicago during the 20’s promising to keep a workforce here until attrition and recruitment… Read more »
I don’t doubt McDonald’s will leave Chicago sometime soon. It just shows you the shortsightedness of the corporate world that they abandoned a huge corporate campus and put it up for sale to move to the city, only to abandon Chicago a scant few years later.
One supposes they could rent office space in the ‘burbs.
Chicago’s reputation precedes itself. No matter the reality, the perception is Chicago’s downtown is not a safe place to go. Office workers do not want to deal with the even the slimmest chance of dealing with the BS happening downtown. It is not on us to change that perception, it is the responsibility of the city. They ignore it at their own peril.
Did you see the insane videos from downtown last night? The entire loop was packed with illegals celebrating Mexican Independence Day. They shut down entire intersections for hours. They were doing donuts around Buckingham Fountain. Yes, donuts around Buckingham Fountain. They were shooting off fireworks in the loop all night outside of tall residential buildings causing echoes all throughout the city. Two people were shot in the loop last night. Motorcycles gangs drove all over sidewalks. This was completely ignored by the media. https://www.nbcchicago.com/ Not a single story about the downtown turning into chaos all night last night. Not one.… Read more »
And your point is?????
I suppose the point is that the city has placed cultural sensitivity over the public good. As someone from New York (thus allowing me to see a great city collapsing bearing the yoke of unrestrained liberalism) who has been here 21 times since February 2020, I have been appalled to see how a small segment of the city’s population has “taken back the streets” at night.
If you are attempting to make the point that the chaos of Friday Night’s revelries are not symptomatic of a problem McDonald’s no longer wishes to tolerate, you are missing the point.
I’ve come to the sad conclusion that the progressive left wants the big blue cities to devolve into total chaos…
Then they can initiate their power grab for *safety*, to ensure their control into perpetuity…
Looks like an interesting article, but, unfortunately, I cannot read it because of the subscription wall.
If you use Moxilla firefox sometimes you can read the article if you click on the little box (looks like a page with little lines) on top left of the star in the search box. Click on it and wait till it turns blue and you should be able to read the article.
It’s called reader mode.
If your worried why in the hell did you move.