CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[Emprise du Lion]

Cook County to cut 1,100 jobs due to soda tax delay

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The court battle delaying the Cook County sugary drink tax is about to start hitting home.

A hearing on the tax has been pushed back until next week, but Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said Tuesday that layoff notices will be going out soon.

Preckwinkle was counting on that tax revenue to generate tens of millions of dollars this year alone, and without it she said she has no option but to take drastic measures. So, starting later this week, more than 1,100 layoff notices will start going out.

"So let me be clear, the crisis is real, so the cuts must be real," Preckwinkle said.

With the court challenge to the county's sweetened beverage tax expected to drag on for weeks or months, the layoffs could not be delayed. And with 87 percent of the county budget going to public health and public safety, the impact will be felt most significantly at county hospitals and the sheriff's department and the courts.

"So if we don't have revenue, we end up laying off doctors, nurse, prosecutors and public defenders and jail guards," Preckwinkle said.

The sheriff's department was told to make drastic cuts.

"We need you to cut 1,000, basically 1,000 positions from your office of 6,000. And so I don't know any sane person who would suggest you can really function real well when you lose that many people from your office," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said.

That means courthouses will likely close earlier, and policing efforts to help Chicago and suburban communities combat violence will have to be curbed at a time when they need it the most.

More here:
http://abc7chicago.com/2206657/

[the urban politician]

^ Sounds scary, but the reality is that it won't be doctors, nurses, and cops who get fired.

It's probably going to mostly be the administrators and paper pushers. Lack of resources is painful, but it forces systems to be more efficient.

[Emprise du Lion]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Sounds scary, but the reality is that it won't be doctors, nurses, and cops who get fired.

It's probably going to mostly be the administrators and paper pushers. Lack of resources is painful, but it forces systems to be more efficient.

It'll depend. The Sun Times had been reporting that nearly 400 of them are going to be correctional officers who are apart of a union that opposed the tax and got on Preckwinkle's bad side. Kim Foxx also announced that the State's Attorney's Office could be laying off up to 100 Assistant State's Attorneys. This comes only a month or so after she had previously stated that her office didn't have the manpower to prosecute various crimes in Cook County. The Public Defender's Office is also facing cuts.

Preckwinkle could be broadcasting doom and gloom in the hope of the public siding with the tax, but she and the rest of the board are playing a dangerous game at the moment.

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ It's almost as if we shouldn't have a government that requires the passage of a soda tax to stay solvent. Hmm, if only there were another way to achieve fiscally functional government, like, I dunno, laying off government employees?

[harryc]

It would seem that in this new era of the interweb to maintain a vibrant downtown in a place like Oak park (or Evanston) an increase in population density is needed. The demand for storefronts per capita is just less than it was a few decades ago.

Does anyone have any studies, statistics, or references to back up this theory ?

[aaron38]

Other states legalize (and tax) marijuana, cut spending drastically and have all the revenue they need. Illinois continues the wasteful war on drugs and then cries "we don't have enough money to pay for all the police, prosecutors, courts, and jail guards we need".

Illinois isn't nearly broke enough yet. Sadly we're nowhere close to hitting rock bottom, which is what it will take for this state to break its addiction to spending.

[F1 Tommy]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

^^^ It's almost as if we shouldn't have a government that requires the passage of a soda tax to stay solvent. Hmm, if only there were another way to achieve fiscally functional government, like, I dunno, laying off government employees?

How dare you suggest such a thing in Illinois

[Justin_Chicago]

Shure to open downtown office

Shure, the Niles-based maker of microphones and other high-end audio equipment, is opening a downtown office.

The company leased 35,000 square feet—a full floor—of the National, as the renovated 20-story former headquarters of Chicago Public Schools is now known.

Shure plans to outfit the space at 125 S. Clark St. with a demonstration center for its corporate business, which is growing fast, thanks to a new line of audio-conferencing equipment. The company also is outgrowing its seven-story Helmut Jahn-designed headquarters in Niles, so it needs more office space.

"We're rapidly expanding our product-development and engineering groups," said Mark Brunner, Shure's vice president of corporate and government relations. "The Niles facility is reaching capacity."

Shure will shift 85 workers downtown. But unlike other companies that have moved downtown to be closer to young tech workers, Shure is also moving sales, marketing, customer service and market development workers into the Loop.

"The downtown location could help us be closer to clients across a variety of customer groups, such as corporate customers as well as clients in town for concert events," Brunner said.

The company could have 130 to 150 workers downtown within two to three years, said Pat Knoll, Shure's senior director of global facilities.

Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...ning-for-shure

[harryc]

[the urban politician]

That Shure is good news!

Hyuk hyuk hyuk

[Randomguy34]

I'm surprised this story wasn't picked up by local news outlets

Mayor Emanuel and World Business Chicago Announce Local Tech Companies Adding More Than 1,000 New Jobs in 2017

Mayor Emanuel to Travel to Berlin, London and Milan to Promote Chicago as a Global Tech Hub

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced that 14 tech companies will add more than 1,000 jobs in Chicago during 2017. Following the milestone announcement Mayor Emanuel will travel to Europe to promote Chicago as a leading global city and generate more economic progress. He will visit to London as part of the tech and innovation compact signed between Chicago and London by Mayor Emanuel and Mayor Khan in September 2016.

“Chicago’s growing tech economy is among the strongest in the world because it leverages the strength of our diverse economy,” Mayor Emanuel said. “The companies here today, which will create more than 1,000 jobs this year alone, represent some of the most innovative businesses in Chicago’s emerging tech community. To continue to build on the strength of Chicago’s global leadership in technology and innovation, next week we will sign new agreements to expand cooperation and collaboration with partners in Berlin, London and Milan.”
...
Tomorrow Mayor Emanuel will travel to Berlin, then London and Milan. He will announce new agreements to strengthen Chicago’s international bonds, and promote Chicago’s companies on a global stage. He will also work to increase innovation collaboration between the cities, and establish new higher education partnerships. Mayor Emanuel will also meet with the mayor of each city and discuss ways to strengthen our partnerships. While in London, Mayor Emanuel will be joined by a delegation of Chicago companies and will continue to implement the Chicago-London Data Alliance that he and Mayor Khan signed in Chicago in September 2016.

https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/e...oTechJobs.html

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by Emprise du Lion

Cook County to cut 1,100 jobs due to soda tax delay

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The court battle delaying the Cook County sugary drink tax is about to start hitting home.

A hearing on the tax has been pushed back until next week, but Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said Tuesday that layoff notices will be going out soon.

Preckwinkle was counting on that tax revenue to generate tens of millions of dollars this year alone, and without it she said she has no option but to take drastic measures. So, starting later this week, more than 1,100 layoff notices will start going out.

"So let me be clear, the crisis is real, so the cuts must be real," Preckwinkle said.

With the court challenge to the county's sweetened beverage tax expected to drag on for weeks or months, the layoffs could not be delayed. And with 87 percent of the county budget going to public health and public safety, the impact will be felt most significantly at county hospitals and the sheriff's department and the courts.

"So if we don't have revenue, we end up laying off doctors, nurse, prosecutors and public defenders and jail guards," Preckwinkle said.

The sheriff's department was told to make drastic cuts.

"We need you to cut 1,000, basically 1,000 positions from your office of 6,000. And so I don't know any sane person who would suggest you can really function real well when you lose that many people from your office," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said.

That means courthouses will likely close earlier, and policing efforts to help Chicago and suburban communities combat violence will have to be curbed at a time when they need it the most.

More here:
http://abc7chicago.com/2206657/

Cook County, and even the entire state need to shed thousands more jobs, in order to become remotely solvent again. Illinois has a disease called over-beaurocratitis.

[the urban politician]

^ Yup

[bnk]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...714-story.html

If Foxconn brings 10,000 jobs to southeastern Wisconsin, Illinois stands to benefit


Alexia Elejalde-RuizContact Reporter
Chicago Tribune

7/15/17 5:20 pm


Southeastern Wisconsin is in the running to land a behemoth electronics manufacturing facility that could bring 10,000 jobs, a potential game-changer for the region if the deal goes through.
Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group, a major electronics manufacturer well known for making Apple's iPhones, has announced plans to invest $10 billion to expand U.S. operations, and although it has not announced where or how that money will be spent, Wisconsin officials have let slip that their state is a top contender.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner reached out to Foxconn earlier this year to make his own pitch for the project and the state "will continue to stay in contact as Foxconn works to consider locations and opportunities in the Midwest," according to an emailed statement Friday from governor's spokeswoman Eleni Demertzis.
But Foxconn appears to be zeroing in on a swath of Wisconsin just north of the border, which would still likely benefit Illinois as the company builds its workforce and supply chain.

"This would be not just a win for the state of Wisconsin, it would send a strong signal to the world that the Midwest as a region is a force to be reckoned with," said Ron Starner, executive vice president at Atlanta-based Conway, a corporate expansion and relocation consultancy that publishes Site Selection Magazine.

...

Illinois stands to benefit if the plant is just across the Wisconsin border, as O'Hare Airport could get more traffic, workers living in Lake County could make the hourlong commute and small businesses could step up to cater to workers' needs, Migdal said. Most important, he said, is the potential for Foxcomm's suppliers to set up shop in the vicinity.
"The biggest question more than anything is, if they come, who comes with them?" Migdal said.
Mark Denzler, chief operating officer at the Illinois Manufacturers' Association, said while the hope would be for such a plant to land in Illinois, having it nearby also is beneficial.
"You would hope that you would have a number of suppliers that would locate around that facility," he said.



...

Wisconsin has several advantages that could have drawn Foxconn's attention, Starner said, including abundant and inexpensive water and electricity and a well-educated, hardworking population. The state's community college and state university systems rank among the best in the country in the minds of corporate business leaders, he said.
What the state doesn't have is a lot of people, so to fill 10,000 jobs it would have to recruit from a wide swath, which could easily include Illinois, Starner said. More than 5,100 people living in Illinois, most in Lake County, commuted to work in Kenosha County in the southeastern corner of Wisconsin, according to a 2013 report from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. Nearly 22,000 people living in Kenosha County worked in Illinois.

...

[the urban politician]

^ It could especially help hard hit towns like Waukegan, Zion, and North Chicago

[Emprise du Lion]

Originally Posted by sentinel

Cook County, and even the entire state need to shed thousands more jobs, in order to become remotely solvent again. Illinois has a disease called over-beaurocratitis.

Illinois has many redundant levels of government in comparison to other states (so many townships, so many...), but those weren't the jobs on the chopping block with the cuts. It only ended up being 300 jobs, at least for now, but nearly 1/3 of the people cut were attorneys from the state's attorney's office and the public defender's office. Those are people you need. Many of the others were supposed to be from the Sheriff's Department.

[the urban politician]

^ Less lawyers is fine by me.

But we do need Sheriffs

[Justin_Chicago]

Travel giant builds hotel unit in Chicago

Corporate travel agency giant Carlson Wagonlit is using Chicago as the launching pad for a major push into the hotel-booking business.

Carlson Wagonlit, which predominantly arranges air travel for corporations, carved out a separate hotel-distribution business last year. Hotels are a more lucrative piece of the travel business than air.

The new CWT unit will compile rooms from hotel chains, aggregators such as Booking.com and Expedia, and directly from individual properties. It will provide customers those hotel options, along with air travel.


The Minneapolis-based company leased 8,000 square feet for the unit at 1 S. Wacker Drive. The team has about 30 employees in Chicago, largely in sales and technology, and it plans to have 65 here by year-end, says Scott Brennan, president of the hotels unit.

Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...nit-in-chicago

[bnk]

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...up-to-500-jobs


July 17, 2017

Amazon plans sort center with up to 500 jobs



Amazon is opening a Chicago-area sort center, its first Illinois hub for smaller packages, where it plans to employ 250 to 500 workers.

The newest facility, to handle parcels smaller than many it moves through distribution centers in Joliet and several other local sites, has a launch scheduled for October in southwest suburban Crest Hill. It's the latest flag planted here since 2015 by the e-commerce monolith, whose projected local employment is heading toward around 8,000.



The 438,150-square-foot building in a Crest Hill industrial park has been under development since late 2015 for a previously undisclosed tenant. Amazon's identity was confirmed by Scott McMaster, the suburb's econ
economic development and zoning manager. He said the city offered no economic incentives.

The 29-acre site is north of Joliet, less than 2 miles from an Interstate 55 interchange and less than 10 miles from Interstate 80, according to Atlanta-based developer Ridgeline Property Group. The property is also near Amazon fulfillment centers in Joliet and Romeoville, and others opening this year in Aurora and Monee.

...




Not all roses, those jobs below were high paying, Amazon not so much.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...adds-in-boston

Takeda shrinks its Deerfield workforce, as it adds in Boston
Crain's Chicago Business· 3h ago

...

[the urban politician]

^ Far from it.

While every other region is building "clusters", we're here doubling down on mindless labor that will surely be supplanted by automation within a decade.