You guys are all mad from the perspective of the city or of simply liking skyscrapers. That's fine. But Reilly doesn't work for you. He works for the people in his ward. If they like him shooting this down, guess what, he's doing his job well. You don't have to like it. You can kick and scream about it. But that doesn't change anything about whether or not he's representing his constituents accurately.

^^ damn, kamin sounds legit pissed.

and very publicly so, directly calling out rahm at the end of his column.

it'll be interesting to see where this goes.

He's people of his ward aren't the only ones paying his government salary and this is about the bigger picture than catering to NIMBY's and limiting the public experience.

It's a bitch move... One again.

Lower LSD.

And that condo development needs to be bulldozed pronto

Who is he supposed to represent? Me? You? His constituents except for when other people really super duper want a building somewhere?

it's not about whether or not an alderman represents his constituency, it's the long (and entirely stupid) tradition of aldermanic prerogative that many people here disagree with.

one lone individual should not be granted sole development approval rights. not only is it a stupid arrangement, it's also a system that is extremely ripe for all kinds of corruption.

Alright Kamin!

One of the best articles he's written in a while. I'd be pissed too. He literally just wrote that article about Cityfront Plaza a few days ago and here comes ass-stankin Reilly doing exactly what Kamin warned about.

Yeah, I agree that even Reilly has to rethink this shit.

Well, they could vote him out, but I bet most of his constituents agree with him, so...:shrug:

You seem to be missing the point.

Any and all approvals of zoning and land use should not be at the whims of a single person, even if he is representing his constituency

you're not understanding the issue.

it's not about reilly or his constituents, it's the whole idea of "aldermanic prerogative" that's the issue.

these kinds of decisions shouldn't be in the hands of just one individual. chicago is the only (corrupt-ass) city that i know of that still does development approval so ass-backwardly like this.



however, with kamin so publicly calling out rahm, i won't be surprised if reilly is gonna get a little talking to on this one. reilly is generally a fuck, but this is really low, even for him.

:shrug: The Chicago Way. I don't see you guys complaining about it when it's something you want to go up that gets approval. Perhaps you can point me to one of those posts? If you're okay with it when it pushes through things you want, you have to take the bad with the good. I think the only reason anyone is upset is because you guys wanted this to go up. So did I. But let's not pretend there's any higher motivation beyond that, especially if you're conceding you don't really care what the people in the ward want.

perhaps you can show me an example of any human being who complains about things when they go their way?

maybe you're just unfamiliar with humans, but that's not how our species is wired.

it is possible to both be pleased that many developments do happen under the current crap-tacular system that we have and to also still wish to see a better system for development approval put in place. those are not mutually exclusive positions.

^ As they say, a broken clock is right twice per day

Huh? There is no good. A system that encourages one person to pander to monied interests at the expense of the public interest sucks. And even when Reilly doesn't oppose something, that doesn't mean he's pushing anything through; he's just not stalling it. There's never an affirmative act on his part.

Downtown Chicago is not a provincial gated community. It's a vibrant urban crossroads and all major developments within its borders should be regulated by a panel that doesn't have answer to a small group of millionaires but rather the public at large.

I think the solution would be for Related to buy the town homes and then tear them down to widen the street as well as making it a more accessible area to people rather than making it a gated community. I know this is easier said than done, but if Related is serious about this project, then those town homes will have to go.

Do you think there's any developments that have went through that wouldn't have in a "better" system?

There's never been a project pushed through because one guy wanted it?

The public at large is not the ward. Of course the people that live in the neighborhood should have an outsized influence on the business that is conducted within it, not some rando from Pilsen or South Loop or Rogers Park.

It's fine if you're upset this project has hit a snag; I like it a lot, too. But all this bitching about Reilly is really weird and misplaced at best, at worst just an emotional response that's not rooted in any rationality. The guy is doing what the people in the ward want. You might say they're dickheads, but it's their ward, not yours or mine. Does anyone have any plans to move there or do we just like walking around their neighborhood sometimes, seeing the pretty pictures, and enjoying the view when we're on the LSD?

I was in Reilly's ward for a large handful of years, and there were times where he did not act in line with what most residents wanted. He let a small, but vocal, minority dictate what should happen with various projects - a few that got completely shot down dead in the water never to be resurrected again. I don't think it's misplaced at all, especially if you know his history and he's represented you before. If I remember correctly at one point he had sent some of us surveys on various projects, but also remembering correctly I thought it was only for a little bit and it just randomly stopped. It's gone both ways even - there were projects he approved that I thought had dumb factors to them and could tell he wasn't even in line with what was going on around there on a daily basis. Some of them he approved without much hiccup which was great and others he let die or change a bit because of a small but vocal minority.

The first thing I thought when I read about this was "what a dick" because he actually represented me for many years and I remember him making decisions that many of my neighbors and I would talk about - and the consensus was that most of us were not even being asked what we thought about these things in the first place. Maybe it's the residents, but this isn't the first thought that comes into my head when I hear other aldermen reject things. Reilly though? Yeah - after living in his ward for many years, that's basically the first thought that comes to my head with that guy. I have also suggested things to his office and each response basically showed me that he's an asshole.


Regardless, I'm still curious what the objections against a 175 key hotel are in this spot.

Unless it's digital....

:tup:

Put in a couple nice mid-rises with some Ogden Slip-facing restaurant spaces.

Unfortunately, this is is not very likely. Rahm is a lame duck with no heir apparent, while Reilly intends to stay in office. Nor is Rahm a party boss like old Mayor Daley who could punish an alderman even from outside of City Hall.

No, the only thing that *might* happen here is that Rahm might gently point out to Reilly that kowtowing to NIMBYs, especially in violation of widely-accepted planning goals, is a bad look. Nobody wants to be the guy that killed a park because rich fatcats complained.

Also, though: way to grow a backbone, Kamin! I’ve never seen him take a stand this strongly, even for preservation battles like Prentice or Thompson Center. Usually he tries to stay above the fray.