-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Larita Clark is CEO of the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority. Emilia DiMenco is CEO of the Women’s Business Development Center. Jaime di Paulo is CEO of the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Michael Fassnacht is CEO of World Business Chicago. Lynn Osmond is CEO of Choose Chicago. Charles Smith is executive chairman of the Business Leadership Council: "We must do our part to communicate what makes Chicago great to our friends, colleagues and family. Rather than allow misperceptions to define us, we need to stand together as a community to change the reality and the narrative and share a new and positive story about Chicago. We need to loudly and proudly share what makes Chicago a great place to live, work and play."
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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What we need are 80% less political appointees and non-profit booster organizations blowing smoke at us about how “great” Chicago supposedly is.
Folks, Chicago is a failing city by nearly every measure of good governance and public services.
Imagine if all that bluster was directed AT “fixing” crime-rates, AT “fixing” bloated government spending.
misperceptions? I guess they didn’t read the article just above this one: “Chicago can’t expect to attract new businesses while imposing oppressively high taxes. Fueled by unchecked local government spending, Chicago’s companies and iconic landmarks face a relentless, uphill financial battle. Business prospects will remain thin until the situation is addressed”
My gosh look at all those names with titles. Interestingly enough I didn’t see any that headed a manufacturing company. Perhaps the problem; too many titled individuals with all of their opinions grifting salaries while not creating gainful employment for the population. No wonder we are in the mess we are in/
Spot on Riverbender!! We’re a welcome city my ass. Only if you’re not a LEO, not a libertarian, not a Republican, not a Christian, not a straight white man, not a parent that is concerned about schools, not a homeless person, not a coal plant, not in financial markets, not in commercial real estate, definitely not if you’re someone for pro life, etc. I spent my own money to mentor kids for free and accelerate a manufacturing business in one of these affiliated organizations. Long story short, they pissed off all the participants and ripped up their own improvident adhesion… Read more »
“we need to stand together as a community to change the reality and the narrative and share a new and positive story about Chicago” in other words we need to do a better job of gaslighting.
Below is a conversation between myself and one of my neighbors. We like to keep up on crime in the neighborhood. I included this text exchange too because it really drives home the gravity of the problem. She thought I was referring to a different, but similar, car that had been pumped full of bullet holes a few days earlier. No neighbor, this is a different vandalized car with a dumbbell stuck in the windshield. There’s so much crime we can’t even keep track! This is my perspective of crime in Chicago over the past two days! If anyone cares… Read more »
You live much to close to the ghettos which are unfortunately a short walk due west. It’s only a matter of time before blight reclaims your neighborhood as it did during our grandparents era. Get out while you can. The robbery crews hitting your neighborhood day and night likely live no more than a five to ten minute drive away. Gentrification in Chicago has come to an end; and blight is like a metastatic cancer that spreads, and like all cancers, it eventually consumes its host. You are sorely mistaken if you believe that things will be different this time.… Read more »
Only “safe” Chicago home environment: condo-apartment building with locked lobby and 24/7 doorman, w/secured private garage, locked service vestibule entries, perimeter cameras, deliveries announced then escorted, and us old folks monitoring for infractions.
OK all you fine folks with all the big fancy titles and the organizations that ought to be doing something. Other than giving a rah rah cheerleading speech, are any of you calling out city government or state government on anything substantive? Nothing . Zero. We all know you get funding from state and local government to help pay your expenses– and your multiple six figure salaries– but you have all been bought off so cheaply that your credibility on any substantive topic is zero. How about issuing a joint statement on the pathetic public school system. How about just… Read more »
Some of them know they’re part of the problem. Some of them are acting subversively on purpose. I’ve worked with some of these people and organizations. I have receipts.
I’m about to post my perspective as soon as I finish dinner.
You’re missing the point. The ‘problem’ isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. The moment after you swallow the blackpill is when you realize that no one wants to ‘solve’ the problem because you’re not seeing it through their eyes. Everyone involved is perfectly OK with the way things are. And that’s the difference between you, a person who wants to live in civilization, and them, who do not.
Don’t they know we saw the movie? “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”.
We know it turns out that the wizard was a con artist.
OK, so they’re all PR people, and they have to say this publicly. I get that’s their job, pretty much. I really don’t expect them to write anything other than this sort of thing in a newspaper. I do wonder, however, what they say when they’re talking to the people who are responsible for the decisions that lead to the consequences that they then have to paper over. Chicago’s failing public schools are so bad that, in spite of all the recent press, they decided not to even try lying about K-12 in their op-ed. I wonder if they say… Read more »
GG, if their kids actually attend CPS they’d have something to write about….
Denial is what got us here.
The usual crowd of corporate apologists/useful idiots for Cook County communism