CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[Chi-Sky21]

Yeah the thing with Texas is.....it is Texas...just like people telling me to move to Indiana...it could be half the price of here or less..i still would not care. you know why? Because it is Indiana!

[Tom In Chicago]

^Dollar Stores and Dairy Queens. . . even in Austin. . .

. . .

[OrdoSeclorum]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Neat perspective.


For me, the sweet spot is to buy a decent but not huge home in the burbs, use their schools, and visit the city often.

"Why should I put my shopping cart away when some other shopper will eventually move it for me? It's best for me personally if I make someone else do that."

This is why we need unified regional government. Some people will behave parasitically until they are forced to do what's right.

[ski_steve]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Neat perspective.

Now, Covid clearly changed that. There is pretty much zero reason to go to Chicago

I wouldn't say that's true for areas outside of downtown. I sold my place in July (Lincoln Park) with multiple offers, over listing. I do think its much slower downtown... neighborhoods sound like they are going fast still.

[galleyfox]

Originally Posted by ski_steve

I wouldn't say that's true for areas outside of downtown. I sold my place in July (Lincoln Park) with multiple offers, over listing. I do think its much slower downtown... neighborhoods sound like they are going fast still.

Capital One looks to shed big suburban office

“The credit card giant has its nearly 165,000-square-foot Rolling Meadows space up for sublease as it plans to move some of its suburban employees into the city while others will work remotely even after the COVID-19 pandemic.”

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...uburban-office

One thing that hasn’t been discussed much is that the suburbs can be walloped by work from home just as much as the city. Very few companies will be able to do 100% remote, but sending the interactive public facing employees downtown and making the back office workers remote is a very real outcome.

I think the Chicago Tribune is a valid voice of Midwestern suburban residents, but it can’t really capture the attitude of people who came to the city of Chicago to escape that lifestyle and mindset.

That’s been the central tension in the Chicago area. There’s no doubt the companies would prefer to be based in Lake and DuPage, but the white collar Big 10 and Ivy grads they most want to hire won’t come to them.

[jpIllInoIs]

Originally Posted by galleyfox

Capital One looks to shed big suburban office

“The credit card giant has its nearly 165,000-square-foot Rolling Meadows space up for sublease as it plans to move some of its suburban employees into the city while others will work remotely even after the COVID-19 pandemic.”

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...uburban-office

One thing that hasn’t been discussed much is that the suburbs can be walloped by work from home just as much as the city. Very few companies will be able to do 100% remote, but sending the interactive public facing employees downtown and making the back office workers remote is a very real outcome.

I think the Chicago Tribune is a valid voice of Midwestern suburban residents, but it can’t really capture the attitude of people who came to the city of Chicago to escape that lifestyle and mindset.

That’s been the central tension in the Chicago area. There’s no doubt the companies would prefer to be based in Lake and DuPage, but the white collar Big 10 and Ivy grads they most want to hire won’t come to them.

This was announced internally about 3 wks ago. A good friend was thrilled to get reassigned to DT when work in office returns. But corporate has said work from home till August is likely.

[sixo1]

Originally Posted by sentinel

- Texas is triple the size of Illinois, with the added benefit of 4 large metropolitan/urbanized areas that helps balance out their lack of state income taxes. Illinois has one. I've said it before, but Illinois' biggest problem is too many small government entities, as well as a stupidly written state constitutional amendment regarding pension liabilities.

Yes, Illinois does have many small government entities. This has historical roots in Illinoisans being distrustful of all governments. According to the U.S. Census (Source), Illinois has the most local governments. Texas is second.

Illinois had 6,964 government organizations in 2012; decreasing to 6,919 in 2017.

Texas had 5,148 government organizations in 2012; increasing to 5,344 in 2017.

Could this increase be due to population growth? I don't know, but some states growing as fast as Texas have "somewhat" reduced their number of local governments (such as Nevada, North Dakota, Utah).

Apologize for this side note.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Neat perspective.

I’m not sold on home ownership in Chicago, but hey, maybe there is something there.

For me, the sweet spot is to buy a decent but not huge home in the burbs, use their schools, and visit the city often.

Many people on this forum detest that idea for reasons that I understand, but I find that to still be the best value proposition and millions of normal people agree with me.

Now, Covid clearly changed that. There is pretty much zero reason to go to Chicago and nobody in power right now has even cared to realize how economically disastrous that is. I’m not surprised, of course, as since Rahm Emanuel left office this region has utterly lacked a champion who is willing to fight diligently for the local economy. We have a bunch of half-asleep laggards at the wheel right now and it’s very disconcerting.

Actually, there are many parts of the city itself that are experiencing properties with multiple offers causing it to go above listing price. Not only in areas like Portage Park, Jefferson Park, Norwood Park, Archer Heights, West Lawn, etx but also Edgewater, Lakeview, etc. I have a map going, privately. In fact for October, I have record of 437 properties in the city of Chicago itself selling for more than its public sale price. There were probably more, and also this isn't counting anything I don't have access to like a house selling for only $2K under its list price but having some $10K concession of the owner doing something for the next owners before closing.

There's been multiple articles in Crains on this dating back to September in the city proper itself. Many people takimg advantage of cheaper interest rates in cheaper but safe areas like those I mentioned.


Also regarding Texas. Great for them but if you actually break down the real data they arent as good as anybody else at attracting the college graduates. As discussed in here, Chicago is doing better than any of the top 7 cities in the US and even better than Austin.

To whomever said Texas is basically like Saudi Arabia..spot on. I have a coworker who was here in nyc for awhile but born and raised in Texas. He moved back a few years ago - very conservative guy. He told me the same exact thing that because they have oil, and the state government actually owns a lot of it, they can subsidize via government a lot of that stuff. He likened it to how China or Saudi Arabia funds a lot of its public things, and called people here in the US idiots for thinking Texas is that much different from either of those countries.

It is indeed great for them that they do have no income tax, which has led to fairly high property tax. However, wages are pretty relative. Companies will find Texas attractive due to this, but realize it means the COL is lower and therefore they don't pay people as much especially because no income tax. If you take a look at Census data, you'll see the Dallas area and Chicago areas aren't super different in percentage of households paying under 30% of their gross earnings towards housing.

2019 5 year ACS - percentage of households where rent is 30%+ of their gross income:
Nashville MSA: 45.4%
Charlotte MSA: 45.7%
Minneapolis MSA: 45.9%
San Francisco MSA: 46.2%
Dallas MSA: 46.3%
San Jose MSA: 46.4%
Seattle MSA: 47%
Washington DC MSA: 47.3%
Austin MSA: 47.5%
Phoenix MSA: 47.7%
Indianapolis MSA: 47.9%
San Antonio MSA: 48.5%
Chicago MSA: 48.7%
Baltimore MSA: 48.8%
Atlanta MSA: 49%
Boston MSA: 49%
Houston MSA: 49%
Jacksonville MSA: 49.6%
Denver MSA: 49.9%
Detroit MSA: 49.9%
Portland MSA: 49.9%
Philadelphia MSA: 51%
Las Vegas MSA: 51.5%
NYC MSA: 52.4%
Tampa MSA: 52.7%
Sacramento MSA: 54.2%
Orlando MSA: 55.5%
San Diego MSA: 56.7%
Los Angeles MSA: 57.4%
Riverside, CA MSA: 58%
Miami MSA: 62.6%

2019 5 year ACS - percentage of households where rent is 50%+ of their gross income:
Nashville MSA: 20.4%
Dallas MSA: 20.8%
Charlotte MSA: 20.9%
Seattle MSA: 21.6%
Minneapolis MSA: 22%
Austin MSA: 22.2%
San Jose MSA: 22.4%
Washington DC MSA: 22.4%
San Antonio MSA: 22.5%
Jacksonville: 22.6%
Indianapolis: 22.8%
Phoenix MSA: 22.9%
San Francisco MSA: 23%
Denver MSA: 23.1%
Atlanta MSA: 23.4%
Houston MSA: 23.7%
Boston MSA: 24.3%
Portland MSA: 24.5%
Las Vegas MSA: 24.8%
Chicago MSA: 24.9%
Baltimore MSA: 25.1%
Tampa MSA: 25.6%
Detroit MSA: 26.3%
Orlando MSA: 27.1%
Philadelphia MSA: 27.5%
Sacramento MSA: 28%
NYC MSA: 28.1%
San Diego MSA: 28.7%
Riverside, CA MSA: 29.7%
Los Angeles MSA: 30.1%
Miami MSA: 33.5%


2019 5 year ACS - percentage of households in owner occupied units with a mortgage paying 30%+ of their gross income towards housing:
Indianapolis: 19.7%
Minneapolis MSA: 21.3%
Charlotte MSA: 22.8%
Detroit MSA: 23.7%
Nashville MSA: 23.9%
Atlanta MSA: 25.1%
Dallas MSA: 26%
Austin MSA: 26.1%
Houston MSA: 26.2%
Baltimore MSA: 26.3%
Denver MSA: 26.4%
Washington DC MSA: 26.6%
San Antonio MSA: 26.8%
Jacksonville MSA: 27.3%
Portland MSA: 28.7%
Phialdelphia MSA: 28.9%
Seattle MSA: 29.1%
Chicago MSA: 29.9%
Boston MSA: 30.1%
Tampa MSA: 30.2%
Las Vegas MSA: 30.7%
Orlando MSA: 30.8%
Sacramento MSA: 32.9%
NYC MSA: 33.8%
San Jose MSA: 34.2%
San Francisco MSA: 35.5%
Riverside, CA MSA: 39%
San Diego MSA: 39.2%
Miami MSA: 40.7%
Los Angeles MSA: 42.2%

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Neat perspective.

I’m not sold on home ownership in Chicago, but hey, maybe there is something there.

For me, the sweet spot is to buy a decent but not huge home in the burbs, use their schools, and visit the city often.

Many people on this forum detest that idea for reasons that I understand, but I find that to still be the best value proposition and millions of normal people agree with me.

If everyone thought the same way, there would be no central city. That's how you can tell the actions are parasitic.

[SIGSEGV]

The stimulus bill includes $150M for computing at Argonne (and also some smaller amounts supporting projects at Fermilab/UChicago, e.g. $6M for CMB-S4 which is all over the country but in which UChicago plays a leading role, and $30M to upgrade SURF in South Dakota, presumably for the Fermilab-based DUNE experiment).

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by galleyfox

Not quite confirmed and over the hurdle yet, but Discover Fin. discussing plans for major call center at DL3 Realty’s 8560 S Cottage Grove. Also brings to mind earlier rumors of Discover eyeing the 78.

A friend mentioned that Discover is a new corporate partner for Chicago's Quantum Exchange. Since Discover is interested in using quantum computing for financial services, this could explain the rumor of why they're eyeing The 78

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

A friend mentioned that Discover is a new corporate partner for Chicago's Quantum Exchange. Since Discover is interested in using quantum computing for financial services, this could explain the rumor of why they're eyeing The 78

Quantum computing for financial services sounds really hokey to me, unless it's some sort of fancy crypto. But I am not that type of physicist...

[galleyfox]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Quantum computing for financial services sounds really hokey to me, unless it's some sort of fancy crypto. But I am not that type of physicist...

Biggest direct connection off the top of my head is that the quantum computers that already exist haven’t had much problem breaking encryptions which is problematic for a credit card company. Discover will want teams that can even understand this stuff even if the applications are unknown.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by galleyfox

Biggest direct connection off the top of my head is that the quantum computers that already exist haven’t had much problem breaking encryptions which is problematic for a credit card company. Discover will want teams that can even understand this stuff even if the applications are unknown.

yeah, shor's algorithm is a problem for public key encryption (at least the D-H kind I'm familiar with...) so probably they're looking into new types of encryption. I guess I'll be reading this tonight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-quantum_cryptography

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Quantum computing for financial services sounds really hokey to me, unless it's some sort of fancy crypto. But I am not that type of physicist...

There are multiple big banks now with people working on quantum computing, and I know this first hand. But it doesn't necessarily have to do with financial applications yet because of the issues in quantum computing in general that need solving. Some people at a few banks have actually had some nice breakthroughs in the field. It's more like foundations for potential future use in the field. Kind of an interesting thing to be honest.

And as I've talked about before..we're a long way away from actual legitimate applications of quantum computing for pretty much anything. People need to get realistic about these things. A long, long, long, long ways to go.

[the urban politician]

If Rahm were in office, I could see him going out hard to reel Discover into the 78. I don’t know if Chicago has that kind of leadership any more. But we’re going to need it!

[skysoar]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

If Rahm were in office, I could see him going out hard to reel Discover into the 78. I don’t know if Chicago has that kind of leadership any more. But we’re going to need it!

Its obvious that we don"t have that type of leadership in Chicago at this time. This was my greatest fear with a Lightfoot administration. Rahm Emmanuel, love him or hate him he was a great driver of Economic vitality in the Chicago area. Also Rahm seemed to have more control over Downtown Aldermen as it related to Downtown"s large development projects, as very few projects were downsized as has become routine now.

[Chicago_Forever]

^ I don't think Rahm's influence had anything to do with the height of any proposals. Most if not all major projects were "downsized" while Rahm was in office. 400 LSD, One Chicago, Salesforce, Equinox, etc., all got a haircut or started the process while Rahm was mayor. Don't get me wrong, I think Rahm had some great attributes and had a lot of influence but I also believe some give him too much credit.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Chicago_Forever

^ I don't think Rahm's influence had anything to do with the height of any proposals. Most if not all major projects were "downsized" while Rahm was in office. 400 LSD, One Chicago, Salesforce, Equinox, etc., all got a haircut or started the process while Rahm was mayor. Don't get me wrong, I think Rahm had some great attributes and had a lot of influence but I also believe some give him too much credit.

The posters above were talking about economic vitality, not various buildings getting built. I completely agree with them regarding Rahm - he was great for getting companies to open up shop or expand in Chicago. Hell, he even got Amazon to consider Chicago in basically the final cut for HQ2 when nobody internally on that board at Amazon in the beginning was seriously even considering Chicago. A major reason was because of him (and I have at least one friend who worked on the proposal - Rahm was huge in this effort apparently). A lot of other stuff - say what you will about him but he was actually great at expanding this type of thing in the city.

[Chicago_Forever]

I understand and agree with the part about Rahm being great at bringing businesses, and in turn, economic vitality to the city. I'm not denying that and anyone who does is either lying or in denial. Rahm was the city's biggest and most visible cheerleader with lots of connections/influence. However, I don't agree with the part about him having control over Alderman resulting in fewer buildings being downsized which is what Skysoar said.