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Some hope Google’s future downtown office will also rejuvenate the Loop, where many older office buildings have high vacancy rates and shaky finances. But it’s uncertain whether Google alone can revive the city’s urban core.
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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I predict that Google will do zero work on that building.
By 2026 the loop will by a ghost town made up of section 8 housing and vacant storefronts.
Google Thinks That Highly In Demand Tech Workers — Who Can Do Their Job From Home — Will Want To Commute To Chicago’s Crime Infested Loop, On The Crime Infested, Drug Infested, Chaos Afflicted, Piss And Shit Splattered F**k-Mare CTA