CHICAGO | Politics and Current Events

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Things are constantly improving for bikers but all I hear is hysterical rhetoric. People don't even wait for a project to be finished before they start complaining.

The other problem is that people are expecting paint and concrete to do the job of cops. Safe streets require *enforcement* either from live cops/traffic aides or from cameras, but the uber-progressive cycle community is uncomfortable with policing so they're never gonna get the results they want. (Of course the cops don't really want to enforce traffic laws, which is the real failure of leadership here. They need to do their jobs.)

The concrete curbs rolling out right now are awesome and much-needed. I hope Brandon's next CDOT chief continues the good work.

This. Much of the bike community is pretty insufferable honestly, and almost nothing will ever be truly good enough. The precast concrete installations are fine and it’s effective in getting protected bike established quickly. We can always upgrade later when the street needs reconstruction, otherwise it is a major endeavor to tear up the street to installed poured-in-place curbs, like what’s happening to Polk Street through IMD presently. I will always choose establishment of more protected bike lane miles implemented expediently over the perfect application copied from The Netherlands, or wherever. And yes, part of this equation for safer streets requires enforcement from CPD and cameras.

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

No mention of the utterly absurd transfer tax proposal? Johnson is going to absolutely destroy the commercial real estate market in this city. Not that I'm complaining since it's will probably mean a lot of current landlords become desperate to sell.

I’ve been waiting to see the “final” proposal, the details of this have been in flux. Is this now out and introduced to city council?

[Klippenstein]

I don’t have a subscription, but this quote is circulating that Dorval Carter is going to be replaced.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...best-greg-hinz

“Dorval Carter is expected to leave soon as head of the Chicago Transit Authority.”

Regarding bike lanes, hopefully the temporary curbs lasts long enough until the roads are rebuilt like mentioned. Sorry that the bike community annoys you. When we have safer biking infrastructure and safer streets there won’t really be need for a bike community.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Not sure why this would tank invest southwest. From what I understand Johnson is very enthusiastic about diverting development to these areas.

than why would he essentially push out the main architect/lead of that plan who's been immersed in its development over the past 4 years?

also you dont have to wonder, hes stated he dosent intend to continue it himself:

Johnson told the Sun-Times and WBEZ he would not keep the current Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s INVEST South/West program in place as mayor. He said the program has proved ineffective and has subsidized a few corporate developments, instead of listening to community interests.

“I’ll take those dollars and invest directly in South and West side people and communities via better and higher paying jobs, public amenities and fully resourced schools,” Johnson told the Sun-Times and WBEZ.

of course his entire campaign has been taking a stance and then being opaque when pressed for details, but i dont see him favoring handouts to developers to build shiny mixed use buildings as a cornerstone policy. already theres enormous economic pressure on even the viability of the stuff that was already in LL's pipeline - as we've seen with the lack of shovels in the ground. and basically no fanfare from his administration in pushing them forward.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Things are constantly improving for bikers but all I hear is hysterical rhetoric. People don't even wait for a project to be finished before they start complaining.

The other problem is that people are expecting paint and concrete to do the job of cops. Safe streets require *enforcement* either from live cops/traffic aides or from cameras, but the uber-progressive cycle community is uncomfortable with policing so they're never gonna get the results they want. (Of course the cops don't really want to enforce traffic laws, which is the real failure of leadership here. They need to do their jobs.)

The concrete curbs rolling out right now are awesome and much-needed. I hope Brandon's next CDOT chief continues the good work.

I bike about 100 miles a week. Whether that’s commuting downtown or long rides out to the suburbs. So I guess I have some experience for an opinion

I like the concrete curbs. CDOT is doing a good job. Nothing is perfect but better than a lot of cities.

You can’t expect the police to be everywhere to enforce. Of all the close calls there’s probably like 0.00001% chance they will be anywhere nearby to see or receive a report of a reckless driver. Chicago must develop a redundant grid of physically separated bike lanes every mile square on minor arterials and I feel like that will actually happen in the next decade. It’s sort of becoming that on streets like Roscoe and Berteau. Just shift the parking and move the bike lane to the curb in the future. Major streets like Elston are reduced risk with curbs and it’s my go-to heading north.

A few hours ago a friend and I passed a scene on the Skokie valley trail where an accident happened. Road was shut down. The crossing is high alert with flashing lights. Article suggest the cyclist was riding on Kostner. They weren’t. Damaged bike was by the trail crossing.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/chicago/...devon-kostner/

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by Klippenstein

I don’t have a subscription, but this quote is circulating that Dorval Carter is going to be replaced.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...best-greg-hinz

“Dorval Carter is expected to leave soon as head of the Chicago Transit Authority.”

Regarding bike lanes, hopefully the temporary curbs lasts long enough until the roads are rebuilt like mentioned. Sorry that the bike community annoys you. When we have safer biking infrastructure and safer streets there won’t really be need for a bike community.

As a member of the esteemed bike community, can you please push your fellow community members to stay the hell off the sidewalk when riding on corridors that already have bike lanes present? As a pedestrian I'm becoming quite perturbed at the number of grown adults riding both quickly and erratically down the sidewalk, requiring me to literally jump out of the way to avoid being hit. Same goes for those insipid scooters.

Cars aren't on sidewalks, pedestrians don't walk in the street, why should bicycles and scooters have absolutely free reign without repercussion? What are pedestrians supposed to do?

[Klippenstein]

Another example of how expanding the safe and separated bike infrastructure will make everybody happy.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by glowrock

As a member of the esteemed bike community, can you please push your fellow community members to stay the hell off the sidewalk when riding on corridors that already have bike lanes present? As a pedestrian I'm becoming quite perturbed at the number of grown adults riding both quickly and erratically down the sidewalk, requiring me to literally jump out of the way to avoid being hit. Same goes for those insipid scooters.

Cars aren't on sidewalks, pedestrians don't walk in the street, why should bicycles and scooters have absolutely free reign without repercussion? What are pedestrians supposed to do?

I agree..... It's people who aren't experienced riders, etc. If they were, they would actually prefer the street. If it were me on the sidewalk, I would make an effort to get in their way just to force them onto the street where they belong. Or just yell at them..... I do that too.

[Via Chicago]

bike infrastructure, hell even pedestrian infrastructure, is still woefully inadequate in many parts of the city. heres a simple exercise you can try: i would encourage anyone to try to go from a neighborhood on the north side of the stevenson expressway to the south side and let me know what the experience is like in any mode of transit other than a car. if you are on the SW side your options are either California, Western, Kedzie, or Pulaski. hope you have good medical insurance and/or life insurance policies. assuming you make it to the other side in one piece, let me know how easy it is to find consistent low stress routes that arent interrupted by distribution warehouses, freight yards, etc

i would love to bike from my home in Little Village to go swim at McKinley Park. i physically cannot do this simple 2.5 mile trip due to the atrocious state of south side infrastructure. trust me, i have tried. instead i need to have a car to achieve the simple act of crossing the expressway. bickering about cyclists on sidewalks and concrete curbs is a north side luxury.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by glowrock

As a member of the esteemed bike community, can you please push your fellow community members to stay the hell off the sidewalk when riding on corridors that already have bike lanes present? As a pedestrian I'm becoming quite perturbed at the number of grown adults riding both quickly and erratically down the sidewalk, requiring me to literally jump out of the way to avoid being hit. Same goes for those insipid scooters.

Cars aren't on sidewalks, pedestrians don't walk in the street, why should bicycles and scooters have absolutely free reign without repercussion? What are pedestrians supposed to do?

The people who bike on sidewalks are the same people who crash into other bicyclists, ride on the wrong side of the bike trails, blow through stop signs and crosswalks. Not someone I’d consider part of the biking community. Just jerks who don’t know how to respect anyone.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Rizzo

The people who bike on sidewalks are the same people who crash into other bicyclists, ride on the wrong side of the bike trails, blow through stop signs and crosswalks. Not someone I’d consider part of the biking community. Just jerks who don’t know how to respect anyone.

It is the biking version of the drivers who pull into the right hand turning lane at a stoplight, then speeding past everyone when it turns green. They think they have figured out a loophole that everyone else is too stupid to discover, truly the dregs of civilized society.

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by Rizzo

The people who bike on sidewalks are the same people who crash into other bicyclists, ride on the wrong side of the bike trails, blow through stop signs and crosswalks. Not someone I’d consider part of the biking community. Just jerks who don’t know how to respect anyone.

I agree, and it's why my first comment should have been taken as a bit of snark. . That being said, I've damn well had enough issues as a pedestrian, and lately it's only gotten far worse. People in general are arrogant, self serving assholes who don't give a damn about anyone but themselves. As people have gotten more brazen in their asshole behaviors along goes the increase in crime as well. The pandemic brought out the absolute fucking worst in people, and I'm afraid that's not going to change.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Kenmore

not too surprised that all the right wing chicago posters are anti bike

Not too surprised that you still lack basic reading compression skills.

Being anti-bikes-on-sidewalks is not anti-bike.

SideWALKS are for pedestrians, not vehicles likes bikes or scooters.

Signed,
A bike commuter





Anyway, details of new transfer tax are coming out.

Lower rate for under $1M, higher rates for over $1M and again over $1.5M

I can live with that.

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Anyway, details of new transfer tax are coming out.

Lower rate for under $1M, higher rates for over $1M and again over $1.5M

I can live with that.

Looks like:

<$1M: 0.60% (down 0.15%, 20% decrease over current rates)
$1M-$1.5M: 2% (up 1.25%, 167% increase over current rates)
>$1.5M: 3% (up 2.25%, 300% increase over current rates)

And whether this goes into effect or not will be up to voters in 2024.

It's definitely an improvement over the original proposal and I'd be more tempted to vote for it if the money were going to something I felt had a half-decent ROI for taxpayers. The current plan is pretty devoid of details on how the money would be spent beyond "house the poor and homeless" which as we've seen in California can become a blackhole of government waste. Going to need more details around how the money will be spent before I can vote for that. The increase is also pretty significant... tripling the tax for basically all commercial real estate transactions... when the sector is already struggling...

[marothisu]

It's progressive tax right, so if a sale price is $1.25M for example then it would be:

($1M * 0.6%) + ($250K * 2% ) =$11,000

I think the original proposal would have been 2.65% on the entire price i.e. $33,125 in this case. is that right? The current tax would be $9375, so an increase of $1625 (+17.33%) with the latest proposal. This is certainly better than what was being proposed originally (very stupid proposal) if I got that right. Not going to say it's perfect by any means but the original proposal was horrible.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by marothisu

It's progressive tax right, so if a sale price is $1.25M for example then it would be:

($1M * 0.6%) + ($250K * 2% ) =$11,000

I think the original proposal would have been 2.65% on the entire price i.e. $33,125 in this case. is that right? The current tax would be $9375, so an increase of $1625 (+17.33%) with the latest proposal. This is certainly better than what was being proposed originally (very stupid proposal) if I got that right. Not going to say it's perfect by any means but the original proposal was horrible.

yeah, but that's not as scary as a 167% increase over current rates!

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

yeah, but that's not as scary as a 167% increase over current rates!

I mean it obviously gets worse the higher the price. I'm not as worried about home sales as I am about commercial real estate. A $50M sale of an office building from what I understand would be $1,471,000 in transfer taxes vs. the current $375,000 for the buyer. It is an increase of nearly $1.1M, or about 2.2% of the total sale price ontop of it, extra. That may not be an issue for buildings that have great occupancy percentages (yes, they do exist especially apartment buildings), but orgs/companies trying to offload some more troubled properties (i.e. office buildings with too high of vacancy rate with no good progress since the pandemic) may have more trouble finding buyers now. Which could put their property in even more trouble. Even the ones that will overcome this and sell will probably see lease/rent rates go up to make up for it.

That's really what concerns me, not a buyer paying an extra $100K and change for a $5M home (may still dissuade some buyers for sure but the impact on CRE I think is a bit worse).

[west-town-brad]

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/poli...ed-mansion-tax

https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-ha...n-homelessness

this administration predicts "overwhelming voter approval"

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by west-town-brad

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/poli...ed-mansion-tax

https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-ha...n-homelessness

this administration predicts "overwhelming voter approval"

At this point, I don't trust any predictions coming from the current Johnson administration. He's the opposite end of the political gaslighting spectrum.

[Steely Dan]

I don't know what "overwhelming" means in BJ's eyes, but considering that this plan will be sold as a tax break to the 90% of city residents who will never come close to sniffing a 7-figure real estate transaction, I can see it passing a simple majority referendum pretty easily.