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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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Fulton Market build-up, much like the West Loop build-up that preceded it by 15-20 years, is mostly poaching office space from the Loop and Mich Ave corridor. There are only so many McDonald’s-type suburban corporate HQ’s Chicago can poach, and post-COVID, I don’t think the demand is going to get to where they need it. The downtown market is overbuilt.
The west loop also seems to be a refuge for recent divorcees who themselves are driving the decision to move their offices closer to their new residences. Just an observation, no data to back it up, but I’ve known quite a few divorcees who live and work in the west loop and only travel to the ‘burbs to drop off the kids at the ex’s.
We were looking for a small office space in 2018 and 19 and prices were ridiculously high we thought for class B or C space. Then covid hit and we were relieved we didn’t pull the trigger. Well today in 2022 I still browse the office space listings and the same spaces we saw 3, 4 years ago are asking the same or MORE yet sit vacant. I thought there was a thing called supply and demand or did we throw that out in the new normal?
The suburban office market, which is unfortunately in worse shape than the city office market, will come back, eventually. My guess is that as the city continues to deteriorate, and suburbanites come to realize the benefits of a shorter suburban commute, offices will eventually start to fill up again. The largest employers may still try to make dowtown work but the mid-sized employers will reluctantly embrace some sort of suburban office for employees as part of the hybrid work schedule. I think it’s pretty clear the trend is negative for downtown overall (other than those who find it necessary) and… Read more »
I agree that managers want to see the workers they control in person, however, dependent on the industry, it’s getting harder for companies to recruit workers for full time office work. This is especially true in the tech or financial industries. How do you tell a tech worker that they need to be in the office if the the same company has a large staff in India? Fulton Market addresses are an attempt to lure workers back to a perceived hip area. The Loop is going to have trouble with its Class B buildings, as they really are dinosaurs at… Read more »
The pandemic forced a huge paradigm shift. People who were meek and compliant for the sake of employment are now openly hating their job, their boss and customers. People don’t like working. It’s not the work they hate, it’s all the peripheral nonsense and brainwashing so the boss can polish their woke image. It’s all an act, nobody actually believes this bullshit! So people don’t want to work, and they don’t want to be murdered going somewhere they don’t want to go! Maybe later we can talk about preferred pronouns!