Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Chicago’s Affordable Requirement Ordinance has fallen short of creating the affordable housing needed in communities most at-risk of displacement,” James Rudyk, the executive director of the Northwest Side Housing Center, writes in a letter to the Sun-Times.
“According to the City of Chicago data portal, as of July 2018, the ARO has only generated 334 affordable units, under both the original 2007 ordinance and the 2015 revision that set a five-year goal of 1,200 units by 2020.”
That’s pathetic. What does Bill Daley propose?


Sears Jeers
“In more bad news for Sears, a suburban school district is suing the once-mighty retail giant, saying the schools should get back some of the millions of dollars in diverted tax money because Sears has violated the agreement that brought its headquarters to Hoffman Estates,” the Tribune reports.

Nearly 30 years ago, to lure Sears’ home base from Sears Tower in Chicago and keep it in Illinois, the retailer received nearly $250 million in tax breaks and incentives to move to its sprawling Hoffman Estates headquarters.
With that deal, much of the property tax revenue generated by Sears’ head offices in Hoffman Estates went back into the development of the surrounding Prairie Stone Business Park, near the Jane Addams Tollway at Illinois Route 59.
When the deal was to expire in 2012, local taxing districts like Community Unit School District 300 were supposed to see the full benefit of the increased tax base, but instead Sears landed an extended deal with the renewed threat of leaving the state.

Sears, you are Today’s Worst Business In Illinois.
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This story reminds me of one that I did for the Tribune in 1994:

When Sears threatened to pull out of The Centre at Park Forest in 1987, the village worked with the shopping center to put together an attractive incentive package, including $1.5 million to renovate the store.
Sears decided to stay and signed a 10-year contract.
But when Sears announced earlier this month that it was leaving three years early because it had been lured to Lincoln Mall in nearby Matteson, Park Forest officials decided not to yield to the rules of the economic development game.
Instead, they are demanding that the retail giant give the village its money back. Not just the $1.5 million in renovation money, but the $2.5 million it projects it would have received in property and sales taxes over the next three years. And when it goes, the officials want Sears to take its building with it.

This was the money quote:
“It’s unfortunate that Sears has a reputation of being where America shops and of having dependable products, and they come to the All-American city, the All-American suburb, and they’re breaking their word,” said Village Manager Jack Manahan. “I wish they were as dependable as their products.”
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New on the Beachwood . . .
SportsMonday: Come On, Vic!
This one is on the defense.
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Chicago Book Haul: The Dial
From transcendalist journal to modern literary magazine to bookstore.
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Chicagoetry: West Side Blues
Even Joey the Clown had to move.
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ChicagoReddit

Sears files for bankruptcy. from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram


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ChicagoTube
2015 Chicago Halloween Parade Thriller Finale
“For the first time, Columbus Drive hosted a Halloween Parade in Chicago. A Michael Jackson impersonator led an impressive Thriller dance to top of the festivities. Earlier, Lupe Fiasco served as Grand Marshal.”

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TweetWood
A sampling.


The media honoring bloodlines continues to amaze me.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Fish, chips.

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Posted on October 15, 2018