CHICAGO | Politics and Current Events

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

What’s even further maddening is the precivied lack of affordable housing in our region is a total myth, borne out of the fight over a select few rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, while huge swaths of the region are suffering from abandonment and demolition. The average price of a home sold in Harvey last year was $32,000, as recently reported in Crains. How in the hell can we legitimately claim there is an affordability ‘crises’ when entire communities with direct transit access to the Loop have the average single family home being sold for the price of car?

And for the love of god, can lawmakers actually review the abundantly available case studies on rent control before passing any laws on it? Even Stanford University concluded in their longitudinal study on San Francisco that the combination of strict zoning and rent control was the primary reason the city became so expansive during the tech boom.

It's a dirty lie pushed by the likes of Carlos Rosa and Will Guizzardi (oh yeah, whitey Will is suuuuper in touch with the plight of minorities, see he wants to ban rent!) just to pander for votes. Comrade Rosa has already demonstrated an utter lack of understanding of basic economics with his attempted Milwaukee Ave downzoning and this is just an extension of it.

The worst part is we are already facing an ongoing preservation crisis here in Chicago. We have lost more irreplaceable historic housing stock in Chicago since the 1950's than possibly any city at any point in history including the sack of Rome. Stupid shit like this basically dooms whatever we have left that hasn't already been upgraded, which is like 50% of our city. If this passes North Lawndale, Garfield Park, etc is basically gone. Those areas are on the cusp of redevelopment and are littered with abandoning or nearly abandoned buildings. Once it becomes illegal to make a profit fixing buildings, expect there to be maybe half of the structures in those areas demolished in the next 10 years.

[tjp]

Any thoughts on the odds of this going through? I remember JB spoke out in favor of rent control during the campaign but that could just be pandering.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Guess what is happening to that building now by the way? It's being razed, another greystone six flat biting the dust

the rest of your post aside, this is untrue. the are demoing the rear "structure"

Gutierrez and his family are negotiating with contractors to demolish the rear building, Anthony Peraica, Gutierrez’s attorney, said by phone this week. The family intends to rehab the front structure, which has been vacant since the fire.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

the rest of your post aside, this is untrue. the are demoing the rear "structure"

^ Yes, in our present non-rent control era, no doubt.

But if you put in price caps, and it costs the owner $30,000 for repairs, where does he recoop his investment?

The source of money by which landlords make fixes to property is RENT.

That money does not come out of thin air. The guy who owns this building is the classic example of a person who will be hurt by rent control. A guy who is probably not wealthy, penalized due to some pandering politicians who don't give a shit about the negative externalities of their policy-making, tampering, etc in industries which they basically don't understand.

[bnk]

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/bi...oral-campaign/






Billionaire Ken Griffin donates $1 million to Bill Daley mayoral campaign

By Fran Spielman
@fspielman |

02/13/2019, 10:02am  


Bill Daley has been blanketing the television airwaves with commercials hammering away at the issues of crime, taxes and downtown-centric development.

Now, he’ll be able to do a whole lot more of it, courtesy of Illinois’ richest man.

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin has contributed a whopping $1 million to Daley’s mayoral campaign.

In a statement, Griffin said he is proud to support Daley “after careful consideration.”

“Bill is a proven leader who understands the critical importance of working for all Chicagoans regardless of politics, race or background,” Griffin was quoted as saying.

...

.

Business leaders who crave stability and predictability have anything but that in the current field of 14 mayoral candidates vying to replace Emanuel.

They’ve filled Daley’s campaign coffers amid concern that Chicago could take a sharp turn to the political left under a new mayor who targets business for dramatically higher taxes.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

the rest of your post aside, this is untrue. the are demoing the rear "structure"

That's good to hear, the front structure is a beautiful greystone, but even the rear coachhouse was brick and, due to the fact that coach houses are banned, will never be coming back. A few days after that fire they actually offered to sell the building to me, but given the political blow back I've already gotten for what I'm doing, I absolutely could not afford to touch such a notorious property with a ten foot pole. If I would have bought it, the coachhouse would be staying obvious haunting be damned.

I know you are probably in the group of people that hates me for reviving abandoned structures in Little Village, but this is what displacement looks like. When properties go vacant because no one invests in them, people are displaced. When those properties burn down (often killing or maiming in the process) that is displacement. When those vacant properties ignite next door properties that are totally serviceable and cause more families to lose their homes, that is displacement. When the end result of the fire is a demo order, that's permanent displacement.

At the end of the day the most nefarious aspect of rent control is that it incentivizes disinvestment and slumlording. If you can't raise the rents, why would you put a dime into the building? If the only way you can raise the rents is to get the tenants to leave on their own accord, then your goal is to make the building uninhabitable. We do not have an affordability crises here in Chicago, but we do have a preservation crisis. If this goes through expect the crises we do have to jump into overdrive.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

At the end of the day the most nefarious aspect of rent control is that it incentivizes disinvestment and slumlording. If you can't raise the rents, why would you put a dime into the building? If the only way you can raise the rents is to get the tenants to leave on their own accord, then your goal is to make the building uninhabitable. We do not have an affordability crises here in Chicago, but we do have a preservation crisis. If this goes through expect the crises we do have to jump into overdrive.

^ The good news is, if this gaggle of goofballs gets their way and they actually pass rent control, get ready for a whole shitload of cheap as dirt property to hit the market as property owners panic and want to divest themselves of multiunit property that is overly taxed due to our pension nightmare.

You might be able to get some really good deals, although bearing in mind that your rent increases are limited and you better not have to do a lot of work in fixing them up--not worth the money.

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ Actually the only properties that will be worth more will be the ones that are already totally and completely vacant. Everything else will be stuck with tenants, there was even a proposal that the state mandate repair reserves to try to stop landlords from slumlording.

What a clusterfuck...

[Natoma]

Will Madigan allow rent control?

[the urban politician]

I long ago gave up on lawmakers doing things that make sense.

This is about appeasing a certain group of people to win votes. The push for rent control is almost entirely coming from the south side of Chicago

[the urban politician]

I know everybody here hates Trump, but if there was one thing that could have come out of his first 2 years of office when both Houses had a Republican majority, it could’ve been a Federal rent control ban. It’s too bad nobody thought about that.

[the urban politician]

^ Which is why you need to revisit the "Chico and Preckwinkle are equally bad" mentality.

No they ain't. One will usher in rent control if given the opportunity, the other has already stated that he opposes it.

The truth is, though, if we don't have a State rent control ban then rent control is essentially coming to Chicago--it's only a matter of time. There will inevitably be a liberal enough administration to pass it on the grounds that the regular folks who own buildings are "evil profiteers", and that it's everyone's God-given right to live in Lincoln Park and Lakeview. Englewood and West Garfield Park be damned, let those areas of town deteriorate into fields of grass.

[sentinel]

I'm as bleeding-heart liberal/progressive as they come and even I know that rent control laws are idiotic and ineffective, especially in a city like Chicago that is losing population.
Happy I don't own physical property in Chicago anymore; it's also perhaps the quickest way to make a city's appeal to property buyers plummet.

[Mikemak27]

Gery Chico opposes rent control and has probably the most coherent, pro-business platform out there. He has won my support.

[SIGSEGV]

Crains endorsed Daley.

[Steely Dan]

so crain's and tribune endorse daley.

the sun-times endorses lightfoot.



i think i'm leaning daley for the 1st round, as much trepidation as that gives me.

but in the run-off, i'll vote for anyone not named toni preckwinkle.

[bnk]

https://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/war...505857991.html

Telemundo Chicago/NBC 5 Exclusive Poll Shows 5-Person Dash to Finish of Chicago Mayoral Race

Nearly six out of 10 voters said the city is on the wrong track, again with more women than men disenchanted.

Published Feb 14, 2019 at 9:51 PM | Updated 3 hours ago

In the poll, conducted in both English and Spanish from Feb. 11-13, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle barely leads the 14-person pack with 14 percent of the vote.

Following her are:

Bill Daley: 13 percent

Susana Mendoza: 12 percent

Lori Lightfoot: 10 percent

Gery Chico: 9 percent

Amara Enyia: 7 percent

Jerry Joyce: 4 percent

Willie Wilson: 4 percent

Garry McCarthy: 3 percent

Paul Vallas: 2 percent

Bob Fioretti: 1 percent

LaShawn Ford: 1 percent

Neal Sales-Griffin: 1 percent

John Kozlar: ----

The leader of the pack was "Undecided" at 19 percent.

[the urban politician]

Ugh, what is up with people? How in FUCK is Preckwinkle leading the pack?

GRRRRRRRRR............. dumb Chicago voters..

[Baronvonellis]

I'm guessing women and liberals who are sympathetic to the teachers union are for Preckwinkle. Since she has more name recognition. And the voters who are against another Daley no matter what. All the adds in the world aren't going to convince some people to go with another Daley. The name has a bad taste in some peoples mouths. I hate to say it but I could see her winning.

I don't know anything about Lori Lightfoot or Amara Enyia. I don't think they have as much name recognition as Preckwinkle.

[sentinel]

Good read from A/N interviewing a couple of (haha) hopefuls for mayor. Long story short: Why is Bob Fioretti running?

https://archpaper.com/2019/02/chicago-mayor-election/