I am amazed at the Forrest Gump-like career of Brandon Johnson.
He started as a teacher of social studies, and then decided to be a CTU "organizer." From there he got elected as a Cook County commissioner (once) and then in a couple years was elected Mayor of Chicago.
He was born in Elgin, Illinois, and seemingly has no other roots in Chicago, other than that CPS gave him a job out of college.
And the people of Chicago voted him into office in one of the city's most troubled times in its history.
I don't like to stereotype whole groups of people, but the voters in Chicago are maddeningly stupid. I can only half-blame them, though, because the turnout was so low that the CTU army was able to get him through over Vallas.
I am trying desperately to get out, and have been for a couple years. I am selling assets. I have a condo up for sale, and I can't even get any interest. Everything sells below what you paid for it, even from the early 2000's! Sometimes things sell for less than they did in the 90's!
This city is irredeemable, simply because the people have no clue what they are voting for and what they are doing. They don't even understand basic economics.
'Pritzker will get on board. He can bail out his real estate flunkies who are underwater on their loans and the value of their buildings'
This is 100% on. A few fellow Illini and myself looked at buying a Loop building on Wabash 15 years ago or so now. Was around $7 Million upfront and probably $25 Million in deffered maintenance. We didn't buy it.
Many of those buildings have negative values. Add all the rents up and you don't come anywhere close to paying for the building, if you include maintenance. People paid way more than what we were thinking for the building we were looking at. It traded 2 or 3 times in the 10's of millions. It also went bankrupted multiple times.
The underlying price of those ancient skyscrapers should reflect the value of the property. No way that the City and the Governor would ever let it be known that many of those buildings are actually worth zero dollars and zero cents.
In the late 90's, a neighborhood friend of mine bought the old Motor Club building on Water street for a song. (I think $3 or $4mil) He spent a million or so upgrading the infrastructure and another million or so building a sweet penthouse that he used as a model unit for his planned condo conversion. Despite a cost basis of under $6mil, he got totally clocked. I think he finally lost it during the 2001 recession and it sold again for only a couple of mil.
I’m not convinced it is mechanically possible to convert a class B office space into housing. How can you rig the plumbing into it? You would have to add hundreds of showers, toliets etc into already dense floor plates. It’s a pipe dream and that mayor needs to put down the pipe.
One of the guys who helped us rehab our house said we could do almost anything we wanted to our house - if we poured enough money into it.
So I wonder, who would get the contracts for this? It would be a multi-million (billion?), multi-year endeavor, likely taking longer than it did for the Jane Byrne interchange to be completed. This is great way for the CTU and SEIU (who run the city) to get access to that sweet, sweet developers' cash.
This is spot on. Not every office building can be converted, especially to affordable housing. Maybe 5 percent of the country's office stock could be remade to apartments. You have to get the cost basis down to a workable and reasonable level. Office design often doesn't translate well into apartment design. I would think buildings in Chicago, whose floorplates generally are large, couldn't be converted easily.
Such a sad thing to see. Being the dumbest in the history of Chicago's mayoral line is quite the accomplishment. I have mentioned this before but I witnessed first hand living in NYC for 13 years what that place is like when it is lawless and when it enforces the law, all of them. I got there at the end of Dinkin's and it was a mad house. Times Square was full of junkies passed out on the streets, garbage everywhere and strip clubs and porn movie houses everywhere. The moment Rudy was elected things literally changed overnight. Even where I lived in going to school up in the Bronx became hospitable. You used to not be able to go to bars above 71st street on either the East or West side, and within two years it was all good up into the mid 90's. A lot of what lead to the economic booms nationally/internationally is the fact that this epicenter of global finance suddenly became a safe and wonderful place to live once again. This is what Chicago could and should be.
When it comes time to bail out Chicago/Cook County/Illinois — and that time will eventually come — the bailout deal should include the condition of revocation of statehood to whatever extent necessary (all or parts of the state most responsible for the malfeasance) until such time as they get their books in order.
Is there any mechanism where the federal government can assume control of a failed city government? (Federal, not state, because having Illinois take over would be swapping Dumb for Dumber).
Or, can a city's bond holders take control? Would that even be covered in a bond issue's official statement?
(Tho I bet that Nuveen is one of the largest holders of Chicago debt, and they are likely joined at the hip with the Chicago/Illinois Combine.)
What’s funny is that, true as your opinion is, there’s a parade of his critics that are praising this. Realistically, so many businesses have relocated along the river and away from LaSalle Street that many of us would never know how bad things are getting there. I walk one block after departing the train each morning and can’t tell you the last time I went as far as Wells (which is the whole reason this corridor is dying-I’m not unique in this pattern). Generally, Franklin is it for me most months.
As you well know, the city’s problems encompass so much more than the handful of almost vacant properties along LaSalle. They are a symptom of much bigger issues and Brandon will do nothing but make those issues much much worse.
I had a friend who lived in Chicago but was from England. He was Jewish, and had fought in the 1967 Israel/Egypt war. He was a real estate developer, hotelier. He said, in European cities, the rivers are beautiful. In many American cities, industry went along the river and they look like crap. Chicago could have amazing development along the river because of the curve of the river, and the lakefront. It could be world class. He was right of course and now it has happened. I hope it continues south to Chinatown.
I think LaSalle Street and other parts of the Loop are amazing too. The architecture is world class. The problem of course is City Hall and Springfield. Taxes are super high on businesses. Why locate there? The city bureaucracy pesters businesses. Why locate there? Now, courtesty of Kim Foxx, the judges, and Toni, crime is so rampant no one wants to go there.
My 89 year old father was a basketball coach. His former players wanted to meet him when my daughter had her wedding downtown. I was going to set up a lunch, but it was impossible because I didn't have the time to take him to the suburbs---and none of the now mid 70 yr old players would come downtown due to safety concerns.
A few more words: I marveled daily at the Loop, the lakefront, the river and Michigan Avenue, as someone who worked there every day for 19 years. When the weather was nice, there was no better place to be -- the architecture, the restaurants and bars, museums, parks and culture -- it was a world-class city. I haven't been back to visit in a while but I'm saddened to think of what I may find.
Dumb ideas never go away. The people who propose them think they are brilliant and hence their ideas are brilliant. You are the dumb one for not seeing their brilliance and the brilliance of their ideas. And if it doesn't work and\or makes things worse? Well not their fault (they are brilliant after all) nor that the idea wasn't brilliant. It was thought up by a brilliant person. Must be the dump people couldn't make the brilliant idea work.
When I saw your headline I was prepared to respond that there have been so many dumb ideas in the history of the city that it could not possibly be that and then when I read what you wrote, I thought to myself: "No, Mitch, you're wrong - that is undoubtedly the dumbest idea in the history of the city of Chicago." 😄
You nailed it when you wrote what you did about both Mayor Daleys, JB Toilets and this incompetent buffoonish nerd in City Hall now.
Tragic. The historic, beautiful Canyon will be overtaken and sent into ruin. What next, the Lyric Opera House?
I am amazed at the Forrest Gump-like career of Brandon Johnson.
He started as a teacher of social studies, and then decided to be a CTU "organizer." From there he got elected as a Cook County commissioner (once) and then in a couple years was elected Mayor of Chicago.
He was born in Elgin, Illinois, and seemingly has no other roots in Chicago, other than that CPS gave him a job out of college.
And the people of Chicago voted him into office in one of the city's most troubled times in its history.
I don't like to stereotype whole groups of people, but the voters in Chicago are maddeningly stupid. I can only half-blame them, though, because the turnout was so low that the CTU army was able to get him through over Vallas.
I am trying desperately to get out, and have been for a couple years. I am selling assets. I have a condo up for sale, and I can't even get any interest. Everything sells below what you paid for it, even from the early 2000's! Sometimes things sell for less than they did in the 90's!
This city is irredeemable, simply because the people have no clue what they are voting for and what they are doing. They don't even understand basic economics.
I can't get out fast enough.
'Pritzker will get on board. He can bail out his real estate flunkies who are underwater on their loans and the value of their buildings'
This is 100% on. A few fellow Illini and myself looked at buying a Loop building on Wabash 15 years ago or so now. Was around $7 Million upfront and probably $25 Million in deffered maintenance. We didn't buy it.
Many of those buildings have negative values. Add all the rents up and you don't come anywhere close to paying for the building, if you include maintenance. People paid way more than what we were thinking for the building we were looking at. It traded 2 or 3 times in the 10's of millions. It also went bankrupted multiple times.
The underlying price of those ancient skyscrapers should reflect the value of the property. No way that the City and the Governor would ever let it be known that many of those buildings are actually worth zero dollars and zero cents.
In the late 90's, a neighborhood friend of mine bought the old Motor Club building on Water street for a song. (I think $3 or $4mil) He spent a million or so upgrading the infrastructure and another million or so building a sweet penthouse that he used as a model unit for his planned condo conversion. Despite a cost basis of under $6mil, he got totally clocked. I think he finally lost it during the 2001 recession and it sold again for only a couple of mil.
I know those guys that owned it back in the 1980's. They were...hmm... how to say this... nice enough guys but hard to work with.
They’re committed to turning Chicago into Detroit. They just don’t care what they destroy. It means nothing to them.
I’m not convinced it is mechanically possible to convert a class B office space into housing. How can you rig the plumbing into it? You would have to add hundreds of showers, toliets etc into already dense floor plates. It’s a pipe dream and that mayor needs to put down the pipe.
Every Democrat in Cook County needs to put down the pipe.
Many people talk about that. it's expensive.
One of the guys who helped us rehab our house said we could do almost anything we wanted to our house - if we poured enough money into it.
So I wonder, who would get the contracts for this? It would be a multi-million (billion?), multi-year endeavor, likely taking longer than it did for the Jane Byrne interchange to be completed. This is great way for the CTU and SEIU (who run the city) to get access to that sweet, sweet developers' cash.
This is spot on. Not every office building can be converted, especially to affordable housing. Maybe 5 percent of the country's office stock could be remade to apartments. You have to get the cost basis down to a workable and reasonable level. Office design often doesn't translate well into apartment design. I would think buildings in Chicago, whose floorplates generally are large, couldn't be converted easily.
Always appreciate your native take on Chicago. It seems that they want to step it up to out do San Francisco, and Oakland in city destruction!
My new No Chumbolone hat is in the mail!
It's the next steps of the complete and total capitulation.
Such a sad thing to see. Being the dumbest in the history of Chicago's mayoral line is quite the accomplishment. I have mentioned this before but I witnessed first hand living in NYC for 13 years what that place is like when it is lawless and when it enforces the law, all of them. I got there at the end of Dinkin's and it was a mad house. Times Square was full of junkies passed out on the streets, garbage everywhere and strip clubs and porn movie houses everywhere. The moment Rudy was elected things literally changed overnight. Even where I lived in going to school up in the Bronx became hospitable. You used to not be able to go to bars above 71st street on either the East or West side, and within two years it was all good up into the mid 90's. A lot of what lead to the economic booms nationally/internationally is the fact that this epicenter of global finance suddenly became a safe and wonderful place to live once again. This is what Chicago could and should be.
If you’re a communist, it’s a great idea. Purges work great. Ask a Californian.
When it comes time to bail out Chicago/Cook County/Illinois — and that time will eventually come — the bailout deal should include the condition of revocation of statehood to whatever extent necessary (all or parts of the state most responsible for the malfeasance) until such time as they get their books in order.
This should be a minimum condition.
Is there any mechanism where the federal government can assume control of a failed city government? (Federal, not state, because having Illinois take over would be swapping Dumb for Dumber).
Or, can a city's bond holders take control? Would that even be covered in a bond issue's official statement?
(Tho I bet that Nuveen is one of the largest holders of Chicago debt, and they are likely joined at the hip with the Chicago/Illinois Combine.)
What’s funny is that, true as your opinion is, there’s a parade of his critics that are praising this. Realistically, so many businesses have relocated along the river and away from LaSalle Street that many of us would never know how bad things are getting there. I walk one block after departing the train each morning and can’t tell you the last time I went as far as Wells (which is the whole reason this corridor is dying-I’m not unique in this pattern). Generally, Franklin is it for me most months.
As you well know, the city’s problems encompass so much more than the handful of almost vacant properties along LaSalle. They are a symptom of much bigger issues and Brandon will do nothing but make those issues much much worse.
I had a friend who lived in Chicago but was from England. He was Jewish, and had fought in the 1967 Israel/Egypt war. He was a real estate developer, hotelier. He said, in European cities, the rivers are beautiful. In many American cities, industry went along the river and they look like crap. Chicago could have amazing development along the river because of the curve of the river, and the lakefront. It could be world class. He was right of course and now it has happened. I hope it continues south to Chinatown.
I think LaSalle Street and other parts of the Loop are amazing too. The architecture is world class. The problem of course is City Hall and Springfield. Taxes are super high on businesses. Why locate there? The city bureaucracy pesters businesses. Why locate there? Now, courtesty of Kim Foxx, the judges, and Toni, crime is so rampant no one wants to go there.
My 89 year old father was a basketball coach. His former players wanted to meet him when my daughter had her wedding downtown. I was going to set up a lunch, but it was impossible because I didn't have the time to take him to the suburbs---and none of the now mid 70 yr old players would come downtown due to safety concerns.
Chicago is a shithole now
REALESTATE in the city has one way to go down
One word: Citadel
A few more words: I marveled daily at the Loop, the lakefront, the river and Michigan Avenue, as someone who worked there every day for 19 years. When the weather was nice, there was no better place to be -- the architecture, the restaurants and bars, museums, parks and culture -- it was a world-class city. I haven't been back to visit in a while but I'm saddened to think of what I may find.
Dumb ideas never go away. The people who propose them think they are brilliant and hence their ideas are brilliant. You are the dumb one for not seeing their brilliance and the brilliance of their ideas. And if it doesn't work and\or makes things worse? Well not their fault (they are brilliant after all) nor that the idea wasn't brilliant. It was thought up by a brilliant person. Must be the dump people couldn't make the brilliant idea work.
On to the next brilliant idea.
When I saw your headline I was prepared to respond that there have been so many dumb ideas in the history of the city that it could not possibly be that and then when I read what you wrote, I thought to myself: "No, Mitch, you're wrong - that is undoubtedly the dumbest idea in the history of the city of Chicago." 😄
You nailed it when you wrote what you did about both Mayor Daleys, JB Toilets and this incompetent buffoonish nerd in City Hall now.