City approvals for marquee apartment projects have been smaller and less frequent since the City Council passed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2021 revamp of the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance; Some builders point to the trend as vindication for their opposition to the ordinance. But the main architect of Lightfoot’s policy revamp points to other data showing that the Affordable Requirements Ordinance is just starting to produce consistent results after being stuck in neutral for most of its previous life.
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.