Griffen & Citadel are huge taxpayers, and also as you mentioned philanthropists. Their loss will be more than palpable. What's interesting is, Pritzker & Lightfoot are just shrugging it off. They can do so, but others are taking note & planning their exits too. Illinois is an out-migrator for many years to come ... to the benefit of Texas, Florida, Arizona, Tennessee, Nevada & North & South Carolinas. In sum, the Red States will flourish moving ahead whilst the Blues decline; including Illinois.
Jun 23, 2022·edited Jun 23, 2022Liked by Jeffrey Carter
Regarding your history of how trading built Chicago, I didn't even think about the network effects of Citadel leaving. Any hotshot trader/trading team who wants to split from Citadel and start their own firm is likely to start in the same town where they are already working. Now, that'll be Miami, not Chicago. Anyone who has to provide a physical service (fixing LANs, catering, hotels for out-of-town visitors), that business is now going to Miami vendors.
Excellent article Jeff. I especially like the part you included John Kass' column from yesterday. For years, from April to November, I used to take the Saturday 5:55 a.m. train every other Saturday from Waukegan into the city and then make the 3.3 mile walk from the Ogilvie Transportation Center to the museum campus. Then, I walk walk towards the Loop, grab some lunch and take the train home. I stopped doing this in 2015 when hordes of kids were roaming the streets and violence was on the upswing. I don't want to even drive into the city with all the drive-by shootings on the highways. Chicago is dying. Chicago has an incompetent mayor in Lori Lightfoot, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx is incompetent and wants to free every violent criminal with no bail and let them get out of jail free to steal and kill again. Police Superintendent David Brown is in way over his head and with an estimated 2400 police officers less from October 2019, the city is unsafe. And Chief Judge Timothy Evans doesn't care about justice, especially the aggrieved parties when criminals walk free.
Most people in the Chicago area have no idea how much money from the trading firms filters into their communities. It flows into all the suburbs with big houses and good schools, into the high end malls, car dealerships, and restaurants, and into all the professional services that trading firm employees use to run their lives. I used to see the detailed credit reports from the background checks of traders applying to the exchange, and the wives spent like mad when their husbands were in the pits. Let’s just say that while the big money was flowing in, sometimes it was flowing out just as fast.
I lived in a small suburb in DuPage, and on my street that was just one block long, there were three traders. The early morning train into city had many people headed to trading firms. My area was all traders with families, but the young successful traders were the ones living in the city spreading their cash around there.
Citadel was a client, and I know that their employees worked long hours. Who wants to head home after dark from downtown Chicago these days? Many of the office staff I knew used to walk home to River North at night, but you would be a fool to do that now.
Who will be left in 5 years if crime and taxes continue at the present pace?
I have a condo in the heart of downtown, near the lake and the river. 2bd/2ba. I can't sell it. Prices continue to drop, so I've rented it out.
There is definitely a very uneasy feeling among many people here that things are not good at all. I wondered when the big money would start evacuating, and this certainly is big money.
We have lost many very wealthy people to Florida, and it's sad. These are productive people who contribute civically and have the resources to help our region.
The Democrats have chased them away, and their enabling of criminals has hastened the flight of all classes as well. The future does not look good here, but the conservatives who live here have known that for a long time.
This is obviously not a good development. There are certainly headwinds. The crime stuff is real, yet at the same time crime is still lower than the 1980s. Office construction downtown has been strong. And Sterling Bay is investing $6b in Lincoln Park. How does it end up? The number one medium-long term issue for IL & Chicago are unfunded liabilities. There's not enough growth to come close to fixing that issue. Will the banks ever turn off the spigots?
Griffen & Citadel are huge taxpayers, and also as you mentioned philanthropists. Their loss will be more than palpable. What's interesting is, Pritzker & Lightfoot are just shrugging it off. They can do so, but others are taking note & planning their exits too. Illinois is an out-migrator for many years to come ... to the benefit of Texas, Florida, Arizona, Tennessee, Nevada & North & South Carolinas. In sum, the Red States will flourish moving ahead whilst the Blues decline; including Illinois.
Regarding your history of how trading built Chicago, I didn't even think about the network effects of Citadel leaving. Any hotshot trader/trading team who wants to split from Citadel and start their own firm is likely to start in the same town where they are already working. Now, that'll be Miami, not Chicago. Anyone who has to provide a physical service (fixing LANs, catering, hotels for out-of-town visitors), that business is now going to Miami vendors.
Excellent article Jeff. I especially like the part you included John Kass' column from yesterday. For years, from April to November, I used to take the Saturday 5:55 a.m. train every other Saturday from Waukegan into the city and then make the 3.3 mile walk from the Ogilvie Transportation Center to the museum campus. Then, I walk walk towards the Loop, grab some lunch and take the train home. I stopped doing this in 2015 when hordes of kids were roaming the streets and violence was on the upswing. I don't want to even drive into the city with all the drive-by shootings on the highways. Chicago is dying. Chicago has an incompetent mayor in Lori Lightfoot, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx is incompetent and wants to free every violent criminal with no bail and let them get out of jail free to steal and kill again. Police Superintendent David Brown is in way over his head and with an estimated 2400 police officers less from October 2019, the city is unsafe. And Chief Judge Timothy Evans doesn't care about justice, especially the aggrieved parties when criminals walk free.
Most people in the Chicago area have no idea how much money from the trading firms filters into their communities. It flows into all the suburbs with big houses and good schools, into the high end malls, car dealerships, and restaurants, and into all the professional services that trading firm employees use to run their lives. I used to see the detailed credit reports from the background checks of traders applying to the exchange, and the wives spent like mad when their husbands were in the pits. Let’s just say that while the big money was flowing in, sometimes it was flowing out just as fast.
I lived in a small suburb in DuPage, and on my street that was just one block long, there were three traders. The early morning train into city had many people headed to trading firms. My area was all traders with families, but the young successful traders were the ones living in the city spreading their cash around there.
Citadel was a client, and I know that their employees worked long hours. Who wants to head home after dark from downtown Chicago these days? Many of the office staff I knew used to walk home to River North at night, but you would be a fool to do that now.
Who will be left in 5 years if crime and taxes continue at the present pace?
I have a condo in the heart of downtown, near the lake and the river. 2bd/2ba. I can't sell it. Prices continue to drop, so I've rented it out.
There is definitely a very uneasy feeling among many people here that things are not good at all. I wondered when the big money would start evacuating, and this certainly is big money.
We have lost many very wealthy people to Florida, and it's sad. These are productive people who contribute civically and have the resources to help our region.
The Democrats have chased them away, and their enabling of criminals has hastened the flight of all classes as well. The future does not look good here, but the conservatives who live here have known that for a long time.
This is obviously not a good development. There are certainly headwinds. The crime stuff is real, yet at the same time crime is still lower than the 1980s. Office construction downtown has been strong. And Sterling Bay is investing $6b in Lincoln Park. How does it end up? The number one medium-long term issue for IL & Chicago are unfunded liabilities. There's not enough growth to come close to fixing that issue. Will the banks ever turn off the spigots?
https://www.lakemchenryscanner.com/2022/06/23/illinois-state-police-warn-motorists-of-increase-in-expressway-shootings-due-to-road-rage-incidents/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=todays_top_news_stories&utm_term=2022-06-23