CHICAGO | Politics and Current Events

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Time will tell, but indications are that he'll possibly be pretty YIMBY.

You might be onto something. Other real estate industry members, not just Sterling Bay, seem to be warming up to Johnson.

While Johnson so far hasn’t backed away from proposals that are downright frightening for the industry — namely more than tripling the city’s transfer tax on property sales of $1 million or more — insiders are confident they can meet somewhere in the middle of the road on big issues.
....
But housing policy discussions won’t be totally one-sided, as Johnson also put on his team Chicagoland Apartment Associaton’s Michael Mini and David Reifman, the city’s former Planning and Development commissioner and now Chicago region president for locally headquartered development and construction giant Clayco.

“It will take the mayor-elect some time to build out his team, and my impressions are that he’s very smart and capable of articulating multiple complicated themes,” Clayco founder Bob Clark, who has already had multiple meetings with Johnson, told The Real Deal in an email.
....
Developer Sterling Bay, whose executives donated thousands to Vallas before the runoff, also scored a spot on Johnson’s transition team, with the firm’s director of diversity and strategic development Keiana Barrett named to the subcommittee on economic vitality and equity.
....
Like Clark, Illinois Realtors leaders have also had early meetings with Johnson. The organization developed a relationship with him during his time on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. The trade group, which stayed neutral in the race, has observed that “he’s very open about where he stands on certain topics,” Blustein said.
....
“We might differ in how to get there, but we want to start from that place where we agree,” Blustein said.

https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2023/05/...eal-estate-prepares-for-brandon-johnson/

[pip]

Trip report haha.

Been away from Chicago for ten months. Last time I went into work in the Loop was April of last year, 2022. Today I went into the office in the Loop. What a difference. Last April 2022 I seriously wondered about the vitality of Chicago.

I took the Redline from Belmont after rush hour to the Loop. The train arrived quickly and was clean, no crappy stuff with behavior or anything negative, full of people and was fast. Got off at Jackson and walked the rest of the way.

Downtown has certainly improved from last year. That's very clear and obvious. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary from pre Covid. I thought about what if I slept through Covid and went back into downtown after without realizing what happened. There was nothing that different from my perspective.

Our old office pre Covid used to be in the Sullivan Center on State Street before we moved and I would board the Redline at Monroe after work to go home. So I decided to replicate that today. Walked over to State Street after work. State Street had plenty of people walking but the amount of retail vacancies on State Street was surprising. Got on the Red Line at Monroe to head back to Belmont. The train arrived quickly and was clean, fast, very crowded and again no — on board.

Not bad at all Chicago! Maybe sometimes you need to get away to appreciate what you have.

[left of center]

^ Glad to hear you had a pleasant trip back, Pip!

I've been to the Loop a few times in the past few weeks with my girlfriend as the weather has warmed up. The amount of people in the city, even on weekday evenings, is very impressive, especially when compared to the years after the start of the pandemic. Entirely from my anecdotal experience, it feels like 2019 or even maybe slightly busier than that. The riverwalk was very crowded, as was Michigan Ave and State between Madison and Wacker. The number of retail vacancies is definitely jarring. I walked through Block 37 and it was a ghost town in there. This is nothing unique to the city of course, as online shopping has affected retail in all major cities.

The one con of my experiences downtown as of late are the crowd control fences and metal detectors surrounding Millennium Park. I understand the need for those right at the moment, but man is it a bad look to tourists and out-of-towners.

[twister244]

What I find even more encouraging is the amount of people we are seeing, albeit anecdotally, seems to be at pre-Covid levels, while we are dealing with record office vacancy.

So - This means people want to be downtown, which is the real health of a downtown IMO.

[Chisouthside]

the riverwalk stays packed as well. making the decision to reactivate it many years ago was a genius move.

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by left of center

The one con of my experiences downtown as of late are the crowd control fences and metal detectors surrounding Millennium Park. I understand the need for those right at the moment, but man is it a bad look to tourists and out-of-towners.

I'm not a fan of this and I hope Johnson gets rid of the security checks to get into Millennium Park and all the fencing. It doesn't solve the problem... it just moves it from the park to the downtown streets, which I'd argue is a worse location than the park.

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by left of center

^ Glad to hear you had a pleasant trip back, Pip!

I've been to the Loop a few times in the past few weeks with my girlfriend as the weather has warmed up. The amount of people in the city, even on weekday evenings, is very impressive, especially when compared to the years after the start of the pandemic. Entirely from my anecdotal experience, it feels like 2019 or even maybe slightly busier than that. The riverwalk was very crowded, as was Michigan Ave and State between Madison and Wacker. The number of retail vacancies is definitely jarring. I walked through Block 37 and it was a ghost town in there. This is nothing unique to the city of course, as online shopping has affected retail in all major cities.

The one con of my experiences downtown as of late are the crowd control fences and metal detectors surrounding Millennium Park. I understand the need for those right at the moment, but man is it a bad look to tourists and out-of-towners.

The significant retail and service business vacancy issue that downtowns across the country are having right now (but more so focused on the largest, more northern, coastal and expensive downtowns) is not really about the internet - that is a long term secular shift that affects most retail, including suburban shopping centers (which are doing reasonably well now on the whole)

It is about:

1) Much reduced daytime office population

2) To a lesser extent than 1, but a factor: a host of in my view mostly perception issues that downtowns are facing, related to increased visibility of socioeconomic problems....homelessness, crime, etc. What happens of course is it's a vicious cycle....less people on the streets in office-focused areas leads to reduced business hours and shops/restaurants/services closing altogether, leading to vacant storefronts, leading to even less people on the streets, and then all of the many sicknesses of American society loom even larger, and lead to yet more people avoiding these areas, etc etc doom loop

[BrinChi]

Yes the struggle of downtown retail is a bit perplexing to me given the number of people who are always around, even with a lower 9-5 employee population.

Interestingly, I had to go out to Oakbrook mall (the outdoor part) last weekend, mind you it was a Saturday, and I was surprised by how vibrant, busy, and diverse it was. I even went into Nordstrom's, and it seemed like Department stores were still in their golden age.

I'm assuming this is not representative of the general U.S. store retail struggles, as Oakbrook is probably the go-to shopping district for Chicagoland (along with Schaumburg), but thought I'd share the experience here.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Bonsai Tree

Question: When are you going to get over your doom and gloom phase? I didn't vote for Johnson, but let's be honest, he literally just became mayor. It'll be a while before we can hold him directly accountable if he makes serious errors. Why not wait and see? I'm genuinely curious.

I have zero hope that BJ will succeed in anything but further bankrupting Chicago. The man was bought and paid for by CTU, which has done more damage to public education in Chicago than anything else. Do you have kids in CPS?

Anyway, we will be moving in a few years. I will get over the doom then.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

I have zero hope that BJ will succeed in anything but further bankrupting Chicago. The man was bought and paid for by CTU, which has done more damage to public education in Chicago than anything else. Do you have kids in CPS?

Anyway, we will be moving in a few years. I will get over the doom then.

Why would you actively root for the demise of a city? That's insane.

[marothisu]

There's quite a lot of people in The Loop today and even if it's 50% of what it was pre-pandemic, that's still 300,000+ people downtown on multiple days. My office building has thousands - absolutely teeming with people. It has its own cafeteria area and it's always very busy. Yet there's 2 or 3 vacant storefronts across the street (not all are but some). it actually doesn't make much sense right now. Even from a food business perspective, there's probably a viable space there for at least 1 business.

I took a little walk around today at lunch and it was really pretty busy in the central Loop area. Back in the day, I stopped working daily in The Loop in 2014 before working elsewhere/being in NYC for awhile. So I don't have daily 2019 to compare to, but from what I remember today seemed noticeably busier than even a decade ago in the general area. But maybe my memory is failing me. Who knows but there's always a huge difference from a year ago. And a year ago was a huge difference from even 6 months prior.

[urbanpln]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Why would you actively root for the demise of a city? That's insane.

There are a lot of people like him in this city.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Why would you actively root for the demise of a city? That's insane.

He's clearly not "actively rooting for the demise of the city", he's lamenting the economic ruin of the city that he fears will come under the BJ administration.

Though perhaps a tad less hyperbolic, I share all of vlajos' same fears about Brandon Johnson, and all of the other whack-job extremist clowns of CTU leadership.



Unlike vlajos, I will NEVER quit on Chicago.

Ever.

This city is like my — religion.

It would take a whole hell of a lot more than one misguided CTU fool like BJ to chase me away.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by BrinChi

Yes the struggle of downtown retail is a bit perplexing to me given the number of people who are always around, even with a lower 9-5 employee population.

Interestingly, I had to go out to Oakbrook mall (the outdoor part) last weekend, mind you it was a Saturday, and I was surprised by how vibrant, busy, and diverse it was. I even went into Nordstrom's, and it seemed like Department stores were still in their golden age.

I'm assuming this is not representative of the general U.S. store retail struggles, as Oakbrook is probably the go-to shopping district for Chicagoland (along with Schaumburg), but thought I'd share the experience here.

The super regional malls are doing remarkably well. To the point of being overwhelmed at times.

My best guess is the rents are still too high in the loop.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by Rizzo

The super regional malls are doing remarkably well. To the point of being overwhelmed at times.

My best guess is the rents are still too high in the loop.

That and probably insurance.

[Halsted & Villagio]

The man is still moving his furnishings into the Mayor's Office and one would think he has already bankrupted the city. All of this pearl clutching and the man has barely had a cup of coffee in the office. For some posters here not named Steely, the irrational (almost unhinged) dislike of Johnson has got to be driven by more than just his ties to the CTU. No mayor anywhere ever, has come into office without ties, and yet, we have never seen this level of hue and cry/vitriol/sky is falling/wishing bad/failure on a Mayor and city they supposedly love.

This is being driven by something.... something more


.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Halsted & Villagio

This is being driven by something.... something more

Completely unrelated, I have heard lots comments on how our new mayor is "well-spoken."

[SIGSEGV]

It's also funny, because nobody seems to have the same level of vitriol to mayors who actually have bankrupted the city...

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

Completely unrelated, I have heard lots comments on how our new mayor is "well-spoken."

Lol dog-whistles like that is why I typically avoid this thread

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Halsted & Villagio

, the irrational (almost unhinged) dislike of Johnson has got to be driven by more than just his ties to the CTU. No mayor anywhere ever, has come into office without ties and yet, we have never seen this level of hue and cry/vitriol/sky is falling/wishing bad/failure on a Mayor and city they supposedly love.

This is being driven by something.... something more

There are no doubt racist pieces of — in Chicago who'd hate BJ, or any other black/brown person in the mayor's office, simply for having the audacity of being born with a different complexion.

But vlajos' referencing of his kids in CPS leads me to believe that's not behind his fear and ire. As a fellow CPS parent, I can completely relate to his outright hatred and complete distrust of the CTU. The pandemic was the last straw for me. CTU leadership certainly didn't cause covid, but their utterly absurd overreaction to it proved once and for all in my mind that they do not give one single flying — — about chicago's school children.

And while everyone has ties, BJ's ties to the CTU are more than just "ties". He is 100% of, by, and for the CTU. And his stances on things like defunding the police or the head tax prove that he's not just "tied" to the CTU, but a true-blue koolaid-drinking believer of that organization's universe of leftist lunacy.

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

It's also funny, because nobody seems to have the same level of vitriol to mayors who actually have bankrupted the city...

Gross mismanagement of city finances is as old as the city itself. That's obviously nothing new.

But I don't think we've ever had a mayor so naively and misguidedly anti-business, posing an existential threat to things like chicago's trading industry, one of the foundational underpinnings of the city's very existence, remaining in the city.

The retort from some is, "well, he won't actually be able to do much of the truly batshit crazy stuff because JB."

Let's all hope that's the case, but I for one would rather have a non-—-for-brains mayor of the city in the first place, as opposed to one who needs to be babysat by the governor to prevent the entire — economy of Chicago from moving down to Texas and the rest of the sunbelt.

We're in an economic war with those other cities who roll out the red carpet for business development and economic growth, and now Chicago has a mayor who's too clouded by his own counterproductive and extremist ideology to understand that fact, and the ramifications of what will happen if we lose.

—.

The same could not be said for Lori, Rahm, or Richard II.