Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Capitol Fax: Sun-Times has a tax hike freak-out


Rich Miller believes based upon the screencap of the Sun-Times' front page the "adults" need to intervene and then notes the response of the editorial page which it appears Miller agrees:
Mayor Daley and, for his first term Rahm Emanuel, allowed Chicagoans to live in a fantasy world where they didn’t have to pay for the services they received. And they were enabled by the city’s media and, particularly, its editorial boards which endorsed those guys at every turn.
The question to ask here is whether or not you all agree?

Another property tax increase coming soon...

Chicago Board of Education
Remember during the 2015 municipal elections where I expressed support for an elected school board - though my idea was a hybrid with both appointed and elected members? Well we need to get to work on this idea especially if Gov. Bruce Rauner signs legislation that sets up another property tax increase here in Chicago that would be approved not by Chicago Aldermen, but by the appointed Chicago board of education.

Tapped-out Chicago property owners would face yet another tax hit for teacher pensions — but their aldermen would escape another difficult vote — under a historic new statewide school funding deal now headed to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk.

That “compromise” bill — approved by Illinois lawmakers this week — authorizes the Chicago Board of Education, comprised of mayoral appointees, to impose a property-tax hike worth $125 million without any involvement whatsoever from the Chicago City Council, whose members are elected.

The Board of Education does indeed plan to approve the increase, enabling the Chicago Public Schools to walk away with a total of $450 million in new state and local money for the 2017-18 school year once Rauner puts his signature on the bill, school officials said.

Rauner plans a bill-signing ceremony on Thursday, his office said.

It’s unclear when the city’s school board will take up the property-tax increase.

This hike would amount to a 2.5 percent increase in the tax bill for an average Chicago homeowner. The owner of a home worth $200,000 would pay an additional $83 in property taxes, records show.
It brings to mind a recent column written by John Ruberry of Marathon Pundit
In Chicago it’s great to be part of the ruling class. But Chicago’s roads are crumbling, barely one out of four of its students in its government schools read at grade level, its bond rating is the lowest among major cities, and businesses lack confidence in Chicago and Illinois as a whole. If you are part of Chicago’s ruling class you might view high taxes as a downpayment on your next paycheck or your retirement, but Chicagoans endure the nation’s highest sales tax rate and they were slugged with the highest property tax increase in the city’s history to fund public-worker pensions.

Yet Chicago’s public pensions are the worst-funded among America’s biggest cities--at a rate of just 25 percent of its obligations. But the cruel joke may be on these well-compensated public-servants. Despite the strong pension protection clause in the Illinois constitution, a pension “haircut” seems unavoidable for retirees. Michigan has similar wording it its constitution, yet Detroit municipal retirees saw their pension checks cut after the Motor City declared bankruptcy.
h/t Newsalert

BTW, what you see in that Newsalert post is a screencap of the Sun-Times front page which is what I share now.
 

Friday, August 25, 2017

Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods Market means lower prices? #teamwfm

This is really old news, however, the talk has somewhat ramped up again. Back in June 2017 it was announced that Whole Foods Market will be purchased by Amazon. There had been talk before that of a purchase by Albertson's - the company that owns Jewel - and of course Kroger - the company that owns Mariano's.

Now that the deal is expected to close on Monday the talk has turned to the new parent company discussing cutting prices at Whole Foods Market. However, one trick to doing so is not hurting Whole Foods' reputation for quality food. One thing is for certain, perhaps with this merger Whole Foods  sooner or later could shed it's image of being "Whole Paycheck".

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Update on the restore the #63rdL petition...

[VIDEO] I wanted to replay this video in light of this online petition launched this summer to restore the East 63rd Green Line east from Cottage Grove. In January 2013 artistmac posted a video driving from Morgan/63rd east to Stony Island. To keep this vid germane this video should start at about 4:25. The total duration is over 9 minutes.

When the L was destroyed beyond Cottage Grove the neighborhood was likely much different than it is now. The East 63rd corridor was very blighted and largely vacant though in the past decade there has been construction with single family houses. Then fairly recently driving through I see a building under construction at 63rd & University - once the site of an L stop.

As of now it appears the CTA while a spokesperson at first said they're always looking to explore expanding service also indicated extending East 63rd green line service to Stony Island isn't currently in the cards. Just click on this tweet by Curbed Chicago for more information.
The petition started by Reuben Lillie earlier this summer currently has 743 signatures per the statistics shown on the petition page. My personal appeal if you support extending the red line past 95th then also consider supporting the restoration of East 63rd green line service to Stony Island. Tourists and Chicago resident should have much easier access to the future Barack Obama Presidential Library.

And while the petition is linked above I'll post this tweet below to make it easier for you to add your name to this also.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

West Chesterfield moves up on leader board State Farm neighborhood assist

From The Chicago Neighborhoods
We got an e-mail recently from West Chesterfield's Michael LaFargue
  • THANK those who have voted! and ask PLEASE VOTE TODAY, TOMORROW, THURSDAY and FRIDAY!

    UPDATE!
    We have moved up on the Leader Board to #145. We need to be at #40.

    VOTE:
    GO TO: www.neighborhoodassist.com
    SIGN UP: name, personal email…
    SEARCH: type in West Chesterfield
    VOTE: Today *
    VOTE: Daily **

    Please help the West Chesterfield Community Association Inc. win a $25,000 State Farm "Safety" Surveillance Camera Grant!

    Only the "The forty (40) Causes earning the highest number of votes by 11:59:59 P.M. ET, Friday, August 25, 2017 will be designated the winners"
Also there was a press release attached to this e-mail which includes reference to Cook County Judge Raymond Myles who had been murdered this past spring. The private surveillance camera network of West Chesterfield was instrumental in capturing his killers.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Crain's: Rehabs stabilizing market in this South Side neighborhood

Via The Chicago Neighborhoods
You might have seen this over at Worlee's Concerned Citizen's of Chatham fb page. Perhaps this is the expected outcome that we've been waiting for with Chatham referred to by Dennis Rodkin as "a longtime center of Chicago's middle-class black population":
In the past 12 months, nearly one in four of the houses sold in the neighborhood have been recent rehabs, typically by builders and investors, according to Crain's analysis of Midwest Real Estate Data records. Of 199 houses sold in the period, 48 were rehabs.

That's 24 percent, a far higher proportion than in other South and West Side neighborhoods that were hit hard by the downturn. Rehabs were fewer in nearby neighborhoods South Shore (15 percent), Park Manor and South Chicago (both 17 percent) and Auburn Gresham (19 percent).

"You're watching Chatham get rejuvenated," said Virgil Landry, a rehabber and Kale Realty agent.

In January, Landry paid $39,000 for a house on 90th Street that had recently completed a seven-year foreclosure process. He put the four-bedroom house through a rehab that included repairing a faulty foundation and installing new flooring, kitchen appliances, furnace and air conditioner. Landry put the 2,000-square-foot home half a block from Tuley Park on the market in late July, asking $199,000.

The median price of a house sold in Chatham has jumped this year, largely because of the higher-priced sales of rehabs. At the end of June, the median sale price of a house was slightly more than $120,000, up 42 percent from the year-earlier figure, $85,000, according to the Chicago Association of Realtors. That's not evidence of skyrocketing home values but of the shift from a market that was heavy on bargain-priced foreclosure sales last year to resales of improved homes this year. Data provided by Renovo Financial, a Chicago-based lender that funds many rehabbers' projects, shows that rehabbed houses in Chatham are selling at an average of nearly $212,000 this year.

Chatham was hit hard in the foreclosure crisis. At its worst, in 2009, the neighborhood had 4.2 foreclosure filings per 100 properties, according to the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University. Some neighborhoods, including Burnside, Chicago Lawn and East Garfield park, peaked at more than seven filings per 100. Yet like most of the South Side, Chatham saw a stark slide in home values. By November 2011, they had dropped 57 percent from their December 2007 peak, according to a study Crain's published last fall.

Not all of the rehabs are former foreclosures. Some are homes that longtime owners sold at depressed prices.
Unfortunately I'm not a real estate buff nor do I have any connections to the real estate business. With that said I wonder how many of the people who bought these rehabbed homes plan to put down roots in Chatham. Here's hoping we got new residents who plan to grow old in this longtime center for Chicago's Black middle class.

Friday, August 18, 2017

The vandalism of an Abe Lincoln bust...

DISCLAIMER: The Sixth Ward blog or sixthward.us is written by three bloggers who aren't associated with any public official in Chicago. If that changes there will be full disclosure of that fact. With that being said let's talk about something unusual that recently happened.

Recently Worlee was contacted by a reporter for RT America looking for a comment - likely from an Alderman and we can't help with that - regarding a bust of President Abraham Lincoln located at 69th & Wolcott being vandalized recently. Ironically the first time hearing about it was on John Ruberry's Marathon Pundit yesterday. Friday, Ruberry shared a segment from FOX News' Tucker Carlson Tonight where he discusses the Lincoln bust. [VIDEO]
So why is this in the news now? As you see in the above video there are people in the nation who want to eliminate primarily statues of prominent Civil War Confederates. As we all know the Confederate States of America is very controversial because we largely know them as the side that wanted to preserve slavery. And now that this bust of Abraham Lincoln - popularly known as the President who freed the slaves - is a target of those same individuals who want Confederate statues removed.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Thursday: 6th ward senior ice cream social

6th ward senior ice cream social
Thur. August 10th, 2017
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
706 E. 79th St.
Chicago, IL

For more information contact the 6th Ward service office @ 773.635.0006 and visit the website of www.6ward.com

Also refer to flyer below.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Seaway Bank Farmer's Market

Seaway Bank as a division of Self-Help FCU is hosting a farmer's market every Wednesday from Aug. 2 to Sept. 20, 2017 from 9 AM to 2 PM. at the main branch located at 645 E. 87th Street. Refer to flyer below for more details or click this link for a printable flyer.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Hinz: City projects lowest deficit in a decade


So perhaps Rahm Emanuel finally has displayed some financial acumen:
In a statement, Emanuel praised the moves under his direction to end the use of one-time revenues, gradually restore actuarial funding levels to the city's four major pension systems, exchange variable-rate debt for fixed-rate securities, trim spending (Emanuel claims $600 million in cuts) and phase out by 2019 the use of "scoop and toss" financing, in which the city delays repayment of both loan principle and interest.

"We are more financially secure today than we were six years ago," said Emanuel, who took office in 2011 and soon will have to decide whether to seek a new term in the 2019 election.

Emanuel has had the benefit of a much better economy than predecessor Richard M. Daley did. City Hall says vacancies in city factories are at the lowest rate in 15 years and occupancy of downtown office space at the highest level since 2008—though Crain's reporting shows that market is softening.

Still, the city faces some continuing fiscal headwinds: It needs hundreds of millions of dollars more each year by early in the next decade to completely stabilize the four pension funds, and city sales tax revenues are slowly decreasing.

Beyond that, city labor unions can be expected to try to benefit from the better times, and the mayor will be under continuing pressure to spend money to try and curb the city's horrific murder wave.