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Chicago Is America's Last Remaining Affordable Skyscraper City

chicagobusiness.com

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Re: Chicago Is America's Last Remaining Affordable Skyscraper City

#11

Post by toomuchtodo »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #8
toomuchtodo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chicago native who fled for Central Florida. I love Chicago, but taxes will have to rise to eye watering levels [+] to pay back pensions that should’ve never shortfalled in the first place. [+] http://midwest.chicagofedblogs.org/?p=3096 (How Should the State of Illinois Pay for its Unfunded Pension Liability? The Case for a Statewide Residential Property Tax)

> taxes will have to rise to eye watering levels [+] to pay back pensions If voter demographics keep rebalancing towards the young and un-pensioned, those pensions will probably be slashed quite a bit.

Not before they’re due, and it’s written into the state constitution (Article XIII, Section 5). Those obligations (~$105 billion) won’t be shed.

“Benefits to public employees are protected under the Illinois Constitution, and a recent attempt to reduce the unfunded liability by reducing retirees’ benefits was struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-illinois-pension-law-court-...

Re: Chicago Is America's Last Remaining Affordable Skyscraper City

#12

Post by npongratz »

excalibur wrote: post #3

I've never heard of this publication, I'm definitely going to pay them $5/mo to read this one article. Wait, no I'm not: http://archive.is/pLqLI

Title probably should also read, "To Chicago with love: Emanuel is a housing policy pioneer".

Edit: ... versus the current, "Chicago Is America's Last Remaining Affordable Skyscraper City"

Re: Chicago Is America's Last Remaining Affordable Skyscraper City

#13

Post by sailfast »

Chicago's a great town, but honestly the taxes are a killer. I grew up in the area and have a great deal of love for the place. Almost moved back after a hiatus, until I calculated the percentage of my mortgage I would have to toss away just to own a home.

Prices are often quite affordable but taxes can add 30-50% on top of the monthlies which makes it quite hard to stomach. If you add in the fact that taxes at the state level pretty much _have_ to increase I'm not sure the affordability argument holds up in the medium term. I hope, however, that they can start to fix some of those underlying issues.

Re: Chicago Is America's Last Remaining Affordable Skyscraper City

#14

Post by debt »

I've been saying this for years.

The math is pretty straightforward: as cost of living skyrockets in most cities, any city that has the infrastructure and housing to accommodate large numbers of people will win the race.

So for example, at this point San Francisco and the Bay Area are in fact losing the race even though surrounding economy is booming; all because housing is lacking and incredibly unaffordable and there's zero political will to change it.

Re: Chicago Is America's Last Remaining Affordable Skyscraper City

#15

Post by maxsilver »

bunderbunder wrote: post #4
pc86 wrote: post #2

Call me crazy but I think a publication named "Chicago Business" would probably have a conflict of interest here. Edit: Nevermind, it's an opinion piece, and behind a paywall to boot.

But still, they may be biased. Chicago is affordable compared to many other big cities, but getting from there to "last remaining" probably requires a careful choice in the cutoff for what you'd call a "skyscraper city". About an hour and a half north you'll find another American city that has skyscrapers, and also has a cost of living that's somewhere between half and 3/4 of Chicago's.

> "About an hour and a half north you'll find another American city that has skyscrapers"

If Milwaukee counts as a "skyscraper city", then practically every city in the US counts, and the term becomes mostly meaningless.

Re: Chicago Is America's Last Remaining Affordable Skyscraper City

#18

Post by acover »

debt wrote: post #14

I've been saying this for years . The math is pretty straightforward: as cost of living skyrockets in most cities, any city that has the infrastructure and housing to accommodate large numbers of people will win the race. So for example, at this point San Francisco and the Bay Area are in fact losing the race even though surrounding economy is booming; all because housing is lacking and incredibly unaffordable and th…

Do you have any evidence?

From what it seems like the disparity is increasing between big cities and not.

Re: Chicago Is America's Last Remaining Affordable Skyscraper City

#19

Post by [deleted] »

RubenSandwich wrote: post #9

I'm going to dispute this claim. Pittsburgh, PA has skyscrapers[1], defined as any building with or over 40 floors, and is more affordable then Chicago[2]. In fact Atlanta, GA also fits in this category as well. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_P... [2] https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

[deleted]

Re: Chicago Is America's Last Remaining Affordable Skyscraper City

#20

Post by brian-armstrong »

remyp wrote: post #5

I've lived in Chicago for nearly 10 years and will continue preaching its advantages to anyone who will listen. Crime isn't as big a problem as people think it is (it's isolated to a few long-disadvantaged neighborhoods), it's affordable, cars are optional, and we have two airports to escape the winter weather.

Nah.

The job opportunities for people newly graduating are piss poor in Chicago compared to elsewhere. A lot of old opinions on work prevail, compared to new flexibility in working that we're seeing.

Also, having lived in the suburbs for a while, I was shocked how much casual racism is present there.

Chicago is in many ways trapped in the past. It's corrupt and dirty. When I see billboards for strip clubs above sprawling concrete freeways, I know I'm in Chicago.

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