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"Cities such as San Francisco and Chicago are trying to save their downtown office districtsfrom spiraling into a doom loop.... St. Louis is already trapped in one. This is the future for America’s downtowns if they can’t reinvent themselves and halt the downward spiral."
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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This original article does not show the entire picture, and is very misleading in places. Please take a look at this article:
https://sway.cloud.microsoft/nNbQZedRBHSRlehO?ref=Link
Texas does not have this issue. Florida is doing a booming business.
What are the Democrats doing wrong?
Yes, Texas does have this issue. Actual occupancy of office space in Houston, Dallas and Austin are also abysmal, and only slightly better than Chicago. The urban doom loop problem is national. This is another example of how you blurt out knee-jerk comments, most of which are deleted because they are repetitive.
The communists also believe in censorship.
It is your ball and bat, so you have all say.
The US constitution believes in free speech.
Building of new offices is Miami is booming.
Ex Illinois Ken Griffin is building huge offices and contributing Millions of dollars to the local economy. Illinois chase him away.
You can fit 4 or 5 states the Size of Illinois in Texas.
Censorship is when you try to blanket the site with repetitive comments. We block most of them, leaving up the rest, however mindless.
UN Agenda 2020-30—-planned take down of America if no one stops it.
Converting LaSalle Street corridor into a Section-8 style “affordable housing” development site is a sure way to accelerate “doom loop” for The Loop. This is probably the most shortsighted City Hall decision, with exception of Parking Meter debacle. Clearly demonstrates that there’s been no sensible (or ethical) municipal finance advisors within Mayor’s Office, and City Council members mostly greenlight whatever is proposed no matter how blatantly stupid.
The acceleration of the doom loop is 100% intentional
The article was not accurate – start blaming the Soros backed DA and elected officials – there you will find the root of nearly every problem in the city.
It’s happening all over. The Dept of Health and Human Services told hundreds of employees in San Fran to work from home because the area surrounding the building is home to open air drug markets and runaway crime, brought on by stupid city councils that decided soft on crime is the way forward. Add to that the exodus from the cities and companies shutting down retail operations due to losses, and it’s not a surprise. A family owned hardware store in San Fran lost $700K in a year due to shoplifting. You can bet the family wasn’t pulling in $700K… Read more »
The lesson is that in urban centers, criminality fills the void, and its difficult to undo.
Yup.just look at Baltimore, or Philadelphia, both have regressed to “Third World” status à la Johannesburg… downtown Chicago will surely follow if great change is not initiated soon…
Sad to say it is already to late for downtown Chicago, the scales have tipped.
This past week, I’ve talked to several people who go downtown 3-4 days a week and they say that Tue-Thursday the loop is busy, safe and seemingly back to normal, with many western loops buildings having 75% occupancy rates. But Monday and Fridays are quiet and slow. Lots of vacant store front because, just as a hotel cannot survive financial renting only 60% of its rooms, a store can’t survive with foot traffic only 60% of the workweek. The questions is where does this go long term. Will firms renew their leases downtown or move to the suburbs? Those that… Read more »
No real mention of crime and corruption in the article as well as situations a former ousted caused by a former prosecuting attorney that wouldn’t prosecute. No mention of being another failing Democrat party run city either. The term “reinventing” based upon my experiences means just more government money thrown at the problems that provide a temporary photo op band aid that covers the real problems. Crime, corruption and Democrats…nothing more needs said.
Well said Riverbender.
WSJ article mostly focused on the real estate issues.
STL has been in a doom loop for the past 50 years IMO.
You can add words like “revitalize,” “rejuvenate,” and “reimagine,” too. Those words also make it sound like something better is going to happen; however, many times, it just ends up being large-scale abuse of taxpayer money.
That’s what happens when you have leaders who are unskilled, unknowledgeable, greedy, or corrupt. In the worst case, they have all four attributes. Remember when we had leaders in Chicago and Illinois who were only greedy and corrupt, and we complained? We didn’t know how good we had it! For some of the leaders we have today, you couldn’t put worse people in charge.