CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by aaron38

My wife just informed me that we have to move out of this state because we're stuck in a small house with high property taxes, that I can't afford as is. Everything she wants to buy has double taxes, or I have to spend 2 hours more a day in the car.
So I guess we're moving, and this state's corrupt politicians will have driven away another productive high earner, in favor of those who don't work, and never will.

I love this state, my home for 37 years. But it's ridiculous that my salary doesn't cover the cost of living here.

Meanwhile, here I am in New York dreaming of Chicago's relatively low taxes.

[the urban politician]

The solution is simple:

Move across the border to Wisconsin or Indiana

[chiphile]

Originally Posted by aaron38

My wife just informed me that we have to move out of this state...

Uh, handle your business bro.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

Meanwhile, here I am in New York dreaming of Chicago's relatively low taxes.

LOL same. My overall non federal income tax rate nearly triple after moving to NYC from Chicago. I'll take Chicago's taxes any day compared to here.

[OrdoSeclorum]

Originally Posted by aaron38

Everything she wants to buy has double taxes, or I have to spend 2 hours more a day in the car.
So I guess we're moving, and this state's corrupt politicians will have driven away another productive high earner, in favor of those who don't work, and never will.

Taxes pay for the investments that create economic growth. It's not a coincidence that prosperous states have relatively high tax rates.

Regardless, I'm not sure if your wife's economic calculation is accurate. If you move from a place where you pay 1.08X the sticker price on an item to a place where a lower sales tax means you pay 1.02X, it will be a long time until that 75% decrease in taxes puts you back in the black after accounting for the tens of thousands of dollars in transaction costs related to moving.

[bnk]

Originally Posted by aaron38

My wife just informed me that we have to move out of this state because we're stuck in a small house with high property taxes, that I can't afford as is. Everything she wants to buy has double taxes, or I have to spend 2 hours more a day in the car.
So I guess we're moving, and this state's corrupt politicians will have driven away another productive high earner, in favor of those who don't work, and never will.

I love this state, my home for 37 years. But it's ridiculous that my salary doesn't cover the cost of living here.

The solution is either to man up and say we are staying, the state you love for 37 years, or to get a divorce and trade her in for a new younger one. If you really are the high wage earner that shouldn't be a problem.

Problem solved.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by marothisu

LOL same. My overall non federal income tax rate nearly triple after moving to NYC from Chicago. I'll take Chicago's taxes any day compared to here.

The problem for me is the only places I would consider moving to in the US would likely cost double what it costs here to live. And our household income would not be doubled in such a move. Probably would not get more than 25% more.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

The problem for me is the only places I would consider moving to in the US would likely cost double what it costs here to live. And our household income would not be doubled in such a move. Probably would not get more than 25% more.

I was talking to a recruiter from Google last night and she asked if I'd be open to moving to Mountain View.

No, absolutely not, I said. And that wasn't even about the taxes. I told her I live downtown in one of the most popular neighborhoods in Chicago and walk to work and Google headquarters simply can't compete with that lifestyle. It sounded like she'd been hearing that sort of answer a lot lately. I did tell her I might be open to their Seattle office since I have family there, but even then, their offices in Seattle are nowhere near as urban as Amazon's. I know Google has some urban office space in San Francisco, and in New York and obviously Chicago, but overall they really don't seem to buy into the idea that a lot of people like to work in city centers. Even their Chicago and Manhattan offices are more on the edge of the business areas than really in the center.

But that's why I like living in Chicago, taxes or no taxes. It would take a huge jump in income for me to afford the lifestyle I have here in many other cities.

[rgolch]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

The solution is simple:

Move across the border to Wisconsin or Indiana

Milwaukee county property taxes are higher than Cook county.

[bnk]

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...19945/aOctober 12, 2017

A $700 million investment in Aurora




Data center operator CyrusOne and real estate broker CBRE got the green light this week for a significant expansion of an Aurora data center that may ultimately amount to a total $700 million investment.

That campus, sold by futures exchange operator CME Group to CyrusOne last year for $130 million, already has two 400,000 square-foot-plus data centers and now can pursue construction of a third building of similar size on the same Diehl Road parcel of land.

The Aurora City Council this week approved annexation, zoning and variance resolutions smoothing the way for the expansion. In advance of their votes on Oct. 10, CyrusOne Senior Data Center Construction Manager Juan Vasquez told the council the third center would advance the company's "grand vision" for the Aurora campus, with the next phase "the equivalent of Amazon coming with south of 2,000 jobs."

CyrusOne's purchase of the site in March 2016 included a 428,000-square-foot building and a series of transformers constructed previously by CME, and in the past 18 months CyrusOne quickly put up another 440,000-square-foot building on which it has just begun an interior buildout.

....

[OrdoSeclorum]

I saw this data on Twitter today, which seems germane to the discussion of which states are succeeding relative to Illinois.

Increase in the number of businesses created in Illinois and neighboring states since 2001

[bnk]

BTW I always stated water was a major player in the Foxconn move, site in south Racine is in the Great lake watershed. This is so close to Kenosha county Racine may well fall in Chicago's CSA at some point.


http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...mount-pleasant

The real reason Foxconn picked Wisconsin




By: SCOTT GORDON

As Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Foxconn scouted out potential locations for a LCD manufacturing complex in southeastern Wisconsin — eventually selecting a site in Mount Pleasant that's 20 million square feet in size — the company was also thinking about water. Manufacturing electronics on a large scale requires copious amounts of water, and the factory would likely use millions of gallons of it per day if it gets built as planned. That water will almost certainly come from Lake Michigan, and the location of the facility will govern how Foxconn goes about acquiring this resource.
The Great Lakes Compact — an agreement among the eight U.S. states that border lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario — allows public water utilities to use water from these lakes if their municipalities fall completely or partially within the Great Lakes Basin, the drainage area in which surface waters flow into the lakes. Municipalities that are located within counties that straddle the basin's line, but are themselves wholly outside the basin itself, may apply for what's called a diversion. In 2016, the city of Waukesha became the first community to secure a diversion, which required the approval of the governors of all eight Great Lakes Compact states.

...

The Mount Pleasant location announced for a Foxconn manufacturing facility is located on the southern edge of Racine County, bounded by I-94 on the west, Wisconsin Hwy. 11 on the north, and County Trunk Hwy. KR to the south, which runs along the northern border of Kenosha County


...



Most of eastern Racine County is located within the Great Lakes Basin.

...

[bnk]

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...-safest-cities

October 12, 2017

Chicago ranked one of world's safest cities




Despite a tarnished reputation for gun violence, Chicago was ranked today as one of the safest cities in the world.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, a London-based research firm that provides business analysis and forecasting, named Chicago on its 2017 Safe Cities Index, citing its advances in digital security. The annual ranking assesses 60 cities from around the world by four factors: personal safety, health security, digital security and the safety of infrastructure.



Chicago, ranked as the 19th-safest in the world, was one of only three cities representing the U.S. in the top 20. It includes San Francisco (15th) and Los Angles (18th). Tokyo, Singapore and Osaka topped the list, an order that has remained unchanged since 2015. The complete list is below.

...

[MayorOfChicago]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

The solution is simple:

Move across the border to Wisconsin or Indiana

I've noticed that none of the counties bordering Illinois are seeing any sort of big population growth the past 5-6 years when the Chicago area really started going crazy on taxes. Kenosha and Lake/Porter especially which would be obvious choices if you wanted to escape taxes but stay close to your hub of Chicago.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by MayorOfChicago

I've noticed that none of the counties bordering Illinois are seeing any sort of big population growth the past 5-6 years when the Chicago area really started going crazy on taxes. Kenosha and Lake/Porter especially which would be obvious choices if you wanted to escape taxes but stay close to your hub of Chicago.

That's probably because the cost of living isn't actually any lower in Wisconsin. Neither Illinois nor Wisconsin are more expensive than the national average, though.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by OrdoSeclorum

Taxes pay for the investments that create economic growth. It's not a coincidence that prosperous states have relatively high tax rates

That was good.

I love all the "economic growth" Mike Madigan is bringing me with all my taxes. I love watching useless fucktwats lazily sit at desks doing nothing useful, and I especially love paying for their new house, new deck, new car, and new 55 inch LED screen that they'll buy in Arizona or Texas when they turned 55.

Hey Arizona! You're welcome for all the "new investments that create economic growth"

[ChickeNES]

Originally Posted by OrdoSeclorum

I saw this data on Twitter today, which seems germane to the discussion of which states are succeeding relative to Illinois.

Increase in the number of businesses created in Illinois and neighboring states since 2001

If only the fees to incorporate/form an LLC in Illinois were cheaper, I'd bet there would be even more.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

The problem for me is the only places I would consider moving to in the US would likely cost double what it costs here to live. And our household income would not be doubled in such a move. Probably would not get more than 25% more.

This. After spending two years in SF there is no way I'd go back, the hit to our lifestyle was dramatic.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by emathias

I was talking to a recruiter from Google last night and she asked if I'd be open to moving to Mountain View.

No, absolutely not, I said. And that wasn't even about the taxes. I told her I live downtown in one of the most popular neighborhoods in Chicago and walk to work and Google headquarters simply can't compete with that lifestyle. It sounded like she'd been hearing that sort of answer a lot lately. I did tell her I might be open to their Seattle office since I have family there, but even then, their offices in Seattle are nowhere near as urban as Amazon's. I know Google has some urban office space in San Francisco, and in New York and obviously Chicago, but overall they really don't seem to buy into the idea that a lot of people like to work in city centers. Even their Chicago and Manhattan offices are more on the edge of the business areas than really in the center.

But that's why I like living in Chicago, taxes or no taxes. It would take a huge jump in income for me to afford the lifestyle I have here in many other cities.

To be expected from companies that evolved very much in their own suburban bubble and have been slow to change. Google seems to be better at this than others but that's probably necessitated by the sheer scale of their enterprise and requirements for very top talent in a lot of areas. Companies like Apple are on the other end of the spectrum...for example they seem very pleased with the undersized/outdated campus they just built for a few billion dollars in Cupertino.

[bnk]

https://patch.com/illinois/chicago/c...nd-amazons-hq2


Chicago Submits Amazon HQ2 Bid

The city officially sent its bid Monday to become the site of the online giant's 2nd headquarters to be built outside of Seattle.

By Joe Vince (Patch Staff) - Updated Oct 16, 2017 6:39 pm ET




CHICAGO, IL — It's official: The Chicago area has made its bid for Amazon's HQ2, a second headquarters that the online giant wants to build outside of its Seattle base of operations, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office announced Monday. Chicago is one of a group of cities across the United States — Dallas, Atlanta and St. Louis are other candidates — looking to become the home for Amazon's second home. The company plans to spend around $5 billion building and running HQ2, which is expected to create 50,000 jobs in the area that's eventually chosen.

Chicago's bid, which was sent to the company electronically Monday, touted the area's access to "top-quality talent across all industries" and its "transportation advantages" thanks to O'Hare and Midway airports, the mayor's office said in a statement released Monday. City officials would not give any details of the bid, citing competitiveness. Monday was the first day of a four-day window for bids, which are due Thursday. The next steps of the bid process are not yet known, according to the city.
“Chicago offers unparalleled potential for future growth for businesses of all sizes and is the ideal place for Amazon to build its HQ2,” Emanuel

...

If Chicago can land its HQ2 bid, Amazon's presence has the potential to give the area a huge financial lift. A study commissioned by World Business
Chicago estimates that, over a 17-year period, HQ2 could generate:



“Amazon represents an extraordinary opportunity for Illinois to grow jobs, attract new residents, and build our tax base,” Gov. Bruce Rauner said in a $341 billion in total spending, thanks to ongoing operations. That includes $71 billion in salaries and wages, as well as supporting 37,500 added jobs to the region yearly.
$7.4 billion in construction-related spending. That includes $2.4 billion in salaries and an average of 3,500 added jobs annually.
$2.72 for the area's overall economy for each dollar the company invests in operations and construction.statement.


Rauner, along with Emanuel, traveled to Seattle last month to visit and tour Amazon's main headquarters. “Our bid makes a powerful business case, linking our advantages in innovation, commerce, and R&D with Amazon’s aspirations for growth and talent recruitment.”
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...

If Chicago does become the site of HQ2, it will be another part of Amazon's continued expansion in Illinois. The company has an office in downtown Chicago with 200 employees, and the size of that facility has recently doubled. An Amazon bricks-and-mortar store also opened in the Lake View neighborhood in 2016.
Across Northern Illinois, the company has fulfillment centers in Joliet, Romeoville and Aurora. In May, Amazon announced plans to hire 2,000 full-time employees in state over the next 14 months. That will bring its total Illinois workforce to around 7,000 people.


Amazon’s Seattle home....