CHICAGO | Politics and Current Events

[amfleisch]

Chicago Police Department Sworn Members

Jan 2019: 13,353
Jan 2020: 13,156
Jan 2021: 12,679
Jan 2022: 11,900
Feb 2022: 11,805

https://informationportal.igchicago....icer-overview/

[moorhosj1]

Not hearing much from the "fiscal conservatives" on the budget/pension front. Credit rating agency's have plenty of positive things to say.:

The governor’s proposals are likely to meet with approval by credit rating agencies leaving Illinois poised for positive rating news this calendar year as its credit slowly normalizes.

To the state’s credit, they’ve unwound many of the one-time budget maneuvers implemented before and during the early months of the pandemic, and have also continued progress in paying down the bills backlog to much more sustainable levels,” said Eric Kim, Fitch’s lead analyst on Illinois. “There are some proposals in the executive budget that clearly target the state’s biggest credit challenges.

In general, any additional money that goes to reserves or pays down long-term liabilities that are coming from excess revenues we view positively,” said Moody’s lead Illinois analyst Matthew Butler. “We are not losing sight that Illinois still faces more long-term liabilities and cost pressures than other states but given current revenue performance the state is able to take additional positive steps forward.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by k1052

Even when the same party controls both the executive and the legislature there is negotiation involved. East coast Republican governors, who are popular mind you, do so extensively with their quite powerful Dem legislatures. To pretend there is no model for this just because Rauner was an incompetent a-hole doesn't match reality. Illinois is not Indiana and you can't govern like it is if you happen to win the governorship.

Illinois isn't New Hampshire or Massachusetts.


I'll be honest, I've never encountered such a leftist environment in my life. And with the Democrats gerrymandering in full force, this state will be left with almost zero Republican representation in Springfield, so the issues will only get worse.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by OrdoSeclorum

Interesting you should bring this up. This data from the Hamilton Project shows that Florida cities--a couple are highlighted in this chart--have the worst cost-of-living/income ratios in the country. Boston, D.C., San Francisco and MSP stand out as being the good, even though they are all very expensive. Not all of Illinois' tax dollars are spent well. But in the long run, taxes pay for the long-term investments that result in quality of life and prosperity. Kansas and Indiana have both done natural experiments in the last 16 years about cutting investments and taxes to a bare minimum and both of those states have lagged their neighbor's economic performance. You can't compete with Iowa and Ohio if your economic plan is just to put everyone to work in privatized prisons and crooked retirement homes.

Wait, is those income numbers pre or post tax?

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by amfleisch

Chicago Police Department Sworn Members

Jan 2019: 13,353
Jan 2020: 13,156
Jan 2021: 12,679
Jan 2022: 11,900
Feb 2022: 11,805

https://informationportal.igchicago....icer-overview/

And little activist in this city still wants us to spend less on policing. UC students want their police department disbanded!

I'll never forget almost getting jumped in 2020 and then as I wait for the police to show up, I saw an idiot with an "ABOLISH POLICE" sign in their window. I am looking up at the sign as I couldn't wait any longer for the police to show, the utter disconnect between reality and political purity was on display.

So by 2023, we will have around 10k officers and bail will be all but banned. How on Earth are people bullish on this situation? It's gonna obviously be horrible.


If 3% of released folks go on to commit more crime while on bond and that 3% doesn't change AT ALL (as Foxx and Evers claim), it will still increase crime by a large amount. Why? If you previously released 1,000 people and 30 of them committed a crime while on bail, well when you release 10,000 people you will have 300 of them (based on previous numbers Foxx claims as accurate) committing crimes while out on bond.

[SIGSEGV]

I wonder if police departments are having retention problems all over the place, similar to many industries (many CPD officers are apparently being hired away by other precincts, who presumably are replacing their own retiring officers).

[Klippenstein]

The reality is that we are losing police officers and it’s not going to change by throwing more money at the problem. We need to recognize the reality and address the poverty and change the culture that encourages so many young men to engage in violent behavior.

Violence is untenable in any amount, but the police have never addressed the root of the issue. They are simply a reactive force. I don’t believe the police will ever be completely abolished, but we need a much more diverse stratagem to change the zeitgeist. I am encouraged that the plan for mixed income housing throughout Chicago is finally being implemented in a significant amount and it needs to continue at this rate to have a lasting effect.

[Kenmore]

we need like 4 cops in this city, they don't do anything anyways

[Randomguy34]

Ald. Daley Thompson has been found guilt of tax fraud and lying to the feds. His seat is being vacated. If anyone has any zoning apps in the 11th ward, this is your best chance to submit them for approval

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

Ald. Daley Thompson has been found guilt of tax fraud and lying to the feds. His seat is being vacated. If anyone has any zoning apps in the 11th ward, this is your best chance to submit them for approval

This is huge for several reasons.

1 - symbolic victory of convicting a Daley, synonymous with the machine

2 - good news for Bridgeport, where gerrymandering has deliberately disenfranchised the huge and growing Asian population as well as smaller Hispanic and progressive groups

3 - with the ward remap pending, this allows Lightfoot to put her thumb on the scales in favor of either the Black Caucus or Latino Caucus maps. Both maps leave white wards largely unchallenged because both caucuses want White support, with the Black Caucus map seemingly in the lead even though it doesn't reflect Black pop losses and Latino/White gains. A new Lightfoot appointee on Council could break the current stalemate.


Personally I think PDT and his Machine predecessors have held Bridgeport back for far too long. Conservative, racist white viewpoints are prioritized over the opinions of everyone else. The neighborhood has so much potential to be a diverse, thriving, urban community, and some people like Ed Marszewski are working hard to make it happen, but it will never happen without a good alderman. Gotta be someone with balls, too, to stand up to the Mob elements still present in the neighborhood.

[OrdoSeclorum]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Personally I think PDT and his Machine predecessors have held Bridgeport back for far too long. Conservative, racist white viewpoints are prioritized over the opinions of everyone else. The neighborhood has so much potential to be a diverse, thriving, urban community, and some people like Ed Marszewski are working hard to make it happen, but it will never happen without a good alderman. Gotta be someone with balls, too, to stand up to the Mob elements still present in the neighborhood.

I've been pretty curious about this for a while. Do we have any good idea about what sort of specific things would be different if, say, a pro-development Chinese-American alderman had represented Bridgeport for the last 10 or 15 years?

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by OrdoSeclorum

I've been pretty curious about this for a while. Do we have any good idea about what sort of specific things would be different if, say, a pro-development Chinese-American alderman had represented Bridgeport for the last 10 or 15 years?

Well, we might not see a prime piece of riverfront land going for another Amazon warehouse. Or at least a different alderman would not have allowed them to remove the bike lane on Halsted to make more room for Amazon's vans. Further south on Ashland, PDT allowed the lovely old Wrigley factory buildings to be torn down for yet another Amazon warehouse.

PDT also blocked sound walls along the Eisenhower, so everyone along Archer and a few blocks into the neighborhood has to deal with increased noise and pollution (IDOT was willing to pay for this!). Archer itself is a dangerous, crumbling auto sewer, and I would hope a conscientious alderman would see the potential for it to be more than just a drag strip. I dream of doing a road diet like the city did along Lawrence, with one lane each direction and a center landscaped median.

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by sentinel

Does anyonemarothisu () know of any sort of chart that shows historic performance of private pensions vs public pensions, even as an aggregate/average? I may be wrong, but I would assume that private pension performance over a 20-30 year period is much higher than public pensions, but I honestly don't know.

Edit: I think I answered my own question..?



https://www.icapitalnetwork.com/insi...in-a-downturn/

Thanks, interwebs!

This isn't depicting what you think. These are all state (public) pension funds. To massively simplify, it's intended to be a comparison of their investments in publicly traded stocks vs private equity - making private 'off a public exchange' placements in investment firms - investments. To make things more complicated, larger private equity firms are increasingly publicly traded themselves, as an aside. Whether this is a remotely fair comparison, and the gobs of added contextual detail needed to make that assessment is not for here of course. But the point being, I'm afraid you saw "public" and "private" and thought you found something you didn't.

[urbanpln]

Originally Posted by ardecila

This is huge for several reasons.


Personally I think PDT and his Machine predecessors have held Bridgeport back for far too long. Conservative, racist white viewpoints are prioritized over the opinions of everyone else. The neighborhood has so much potential to be a diverse, thriving, urban community, and some people like Ed Marszewski are working hard to make it happen, but it will never happen without a good alderman. Gotta be someone with balls, too, to stand up to the Mob elements still present in the neighborhood.

This statement is spot on. I live in the Near South-South community and have worked in planning for a while now. It is so obvious that Bridgeport, like many other neighborhoods near the core, is being held back by racial politics. It has been evolving for the better for years but should be must further along in its transformation.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by urbanpln

This statement is spot on. I live in the Near South-South community and have worked in planning for a while now. It is so obvious that Bridgeport, like many other neighborhoods near the core, is being held back by racial politics. It has been evolving for the better for years but should be must further along in its transformation.

It really is shocking it hasn't seen an explosion in popularity considering it's safe, has lots of historic Chicago homes, is relatively inexpensive and is closer to the Loop than Lincoln Park. In a vacuum it would have become the next Avondale 25 years ago.

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Personally I think PDT and his Machine predecessors have held Bridgeport back for far too long. Conservative, racist white viewpoints are prioritized over the opinions of everyone else. The neighborhood has so much potential to be a diverse, thriving, urban community, and some people like Ed Marszewski are working hard to make it happen, but it will never happen without a good alderman. Gotta be someone with balls, too, to stand up to the Mob elements still present in the neighborhood.

Yes to all of this!

In related news, the People's Coalition map received backing from the Latino Caucus, with of course some concessions. The ward map on surface may not look too different from the current one, but upon closer inspection a lot of the racist & NIMBY enclaves lose a lot of their political power. Dearborn Park is now a part of the 11th ward, where Chinatown & Bridgeport are unified in the same ward. Canaryville is with West Englewood and Back of the Yards. The 42 ward doesn't cross into West Loop, and is overall much smaller! West Loop below Madison St is a part of the 24th ward with North Lawndale and the IMD. Ukranian Village is in the same ward as East/West Garfield Park and Humboldt Park.

Several Black neighborhoods on the South Side are also less divided up, such as Englewood, Washington Park, Auburn Gresham, and Roseland. At the same time, there are still some oddities such as the 2nd ward, 27th ward, and 14th ward. This map seems like an improvement over the current one, but I am a bit worried seeing West Side wards in such a weird amalgamation and what that might mean for services in Black neighborhoods.

map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/vi...2JXIIaATrI-Euw

[SIGSEGV]

lol @ 2nd ward in that map

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

lol @ 2nd ward in that map

ward boundaries that asinine should simply be straight-up illegal.

i'm not a math person, but in a city as rigidly gridded as ours, there's got to be a way to legally say say that wards have to be defined by a shape as close to a square as possible.



in a better world, i suppose..........

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

ward boundaries that asinine should simply be straight-up illegal.

i'm not a math person, but in a city as rigidly gridded as ours, there's got to be a way to legally say say that wards have to be defined by a shape as close to a square as possible.



in a better world, i suppose..........

Yeah, we could require convex wards (analytically extended past city boundaries).

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Yeah, we could require convex wards (analytically extended past city boundaries).

Is that something you know how to do?

It would be interesting to get a ward map drawn of 50 roughly equal population rectangles, and then get it out on social media under the banner "chicago's new ward map, if the city wasn't governed by abject morons".