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Instead of sparking a neighborhood revival, 2800 W. Madison has become an illustration of the complications, frustrations and politics of economic development in an area devastated by generations of disinvestment.
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WIREPOINTS ORIGINAL STORIES
Audio and summary Illinois bill would override local law to allow homeless living in all public parks – Wirepoints
April 14, 2026
27 Comments
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago Fiscal Crisis Worse Than Pre-Bankruptcy Detroit, HIV Surge and Public Health Threat From Open Borders Goes Unreported
April 10, 2026
2 Comments
Summary and audio linked here.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades
April 3, 2026
9 Comments
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.
WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times falsely blame Texas Gov. Abbott for 2020 to 2024 surge in Chicago Latino HIV, AIDS infections – Wirepoints Quickpoint
March 31, 2026
11 Comments
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
If you want to live life on the edge, head to Garfield Park on the west side, north of the Eisenhower, where population is 1/3 of its peak and ranked #1 for crime by HeyJackass, narrowly eclipsing Austin and Englewood.
Garfield Park was also in the epicenter of the riots, arson, and looting that occurred in Chicago after Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, TN.
White flight ensued.
http://graphics.chicagotribune.com/riots-chicago-1968-mlk/index.html
Four months later was a separate incident of civil unrest centered in a different area of Chicago (Grant Park) during the August 23 – 28, 1968 Democratic National Convention which was itself held in Chicago.
The focal point of the DNC unrest was a call to end the Vietnam War.