-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Five years following the stateside onset of COVID-19, and as work-from-home trends continue for many American office employees, New York; Washington, DC; Chicago and plenty of other cities are increasingly becoming home to office-to-residential conversions. The Windy City’s shining star is the 1925 headquarters for the Chicago Tribune on vibrant Michigan Avenue.
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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The State of Illinois building is a work in progress. Google will be here soon to save the day.
Note that these are high end apartments and condominiums. City of Chicago government efforts, however, are directed at affordable housing.
Plus NY is not Chicago. There’s less crime in Manhattan and more desirables jobs. NY also does not empty out at night like Chicago does. LaSalle Street at night, for example, is not a desirable place to be due to the lack of foot traffic.
Also note that one of the luxury buildings mentioned in the article has a Whole Foods in its first floor. No one is putting a Whole Foods in any converted Loop office building.
Or Englewood
Whole Foods would need a separate check-out aisle for the shoplifters who, you know, don’t want to check out.