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The developer was asking for the city to acquire 400 S. La Salle by eminent domain, a risk for the public treasury. The Cook County assessor puts its market value at $58.6 million; insiders believe it will sell for much less, perhaps to somebody who would build a data center in the space. The prospect could disturb anybody who roots for the central Loop’s revival.
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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Wow. They should have just left the old 1903 LaSalle Street Station there. What a waste.
That damn “reality” thing always seems to pop up. What gives?
Esports enthusiasts live in their parents’ basements in the suburbs. They’re not travelling to McCormick Place or the former COBE trading floor to watch or play esports. The developer would have more success converting a empty big box store in the suburbs into an esports event. Heck of a lot cheaper too. In many suburbs, those empty flagships big box stores stay vacant for years. Heck, there’s still some empty Kmarts and Dominicks stores out there too.
CBOE