School cancelled again tomorrow! Went downtown today for some adventure and the city had a very "Day After Tomorrow" feel to it. Seeing all the people walking and playing was nice and I enjoyed the lack of cars if even for one day.
The storm was pretty awesome. I really dug the whole lightning during a blizzard thing, that was really cool.
As for today, I think some people/companies were a little too quick cancel. you are certainly right, the loop was a ghost town. I ride the brown line, and at least from my stop, I was able to catch my normal train in without much delay at all, and yet my stop, which is normally quite busy, was absolutely dead. I realize other people are out in the boondocks or areas that clearly made it extremely difficult to get in, but it seems like most areas covered by the CTA could have made it into the loop with minimal delay (I'd say anything 20-30 minutes or less is pretty minimal).
U of I Urbana was closed today. Last night the class I help out with was about to tour a construction site when a sheet of plywood went crashing to the ground we decided to look at slides instead of braving the 40 mph gust and ice. In Urbana it rained ice cubes very small sharp stinging Ice granules for 6 hours. It is like a sandy beach was dumped everywhere. Being at the wrong end of an angry snow cone machine is what it was like down here.
Yeah that was really amazing... 20.2" at ohare... with the lightning and the wind it was pretty unreal. One of the most impressive storms ive ever been in, and probably the craziest winter storm ive ever seen. Funny though that everyones back to work and most of the streets are clear here... 20" of snow in a day... no problem...
The AIA Chicago job postings is on fire lately. Kind of. Still, I haven't seen so many job posts on there for a while anyway. Has anyone experienced an uptick in job interviews in this god forsaken, frozen of a turd city lately? Some optimism would be greatly appreciated.
"its cold out there its very very cold, and its going to last you the rest of your life" quote from ground hog day
I have received phone calls from recruiters, and nothing pans out from that 100 percent of the time for me.
I interviewed at one of those and applied at most of those listed. They are companies that have posted on their before not unusual to see them re posting again. One position says it will pay 10 or 12 dollars an hour unbelievable! and then they want very specific experience as if they don't know that 50% of people were fired like as early as 3 years ago, don't they know it was impossible to get experience for us in different sectors? with no job?
All of those postings could be summarized by a small paragraph.
We want you young and cheap so we can suck the life out of you. If you are old and licensed we want you too, and then only when you have very specific experience we will pay you a descent wage.
Sorry for being so bleak, on the up side, it seems that other careers are on the rise especially in the skilled labor areas.
I think a lot of firms are just now getting the books close to balanced, a lot of firms did not manage projects well and were dependant on having a new project in CD since they lose money in CA. when that cycle got stretched out to far the poorly managed firms had to dump staff and then started screwing up on CA phase stuff such as shop drawings and dealing with change orders. There are firms out there interested but the list of skills is quite extreme. That is what I have heard from several sources, Construction managers, architects and academics.
I have noticed that Rhino is more in demand these days, in addition to Revit. Community colleges are the best and cheapest place to learn these programs, I managed to get up to speed on Revit last year for $400 for a 15 week course. If you are still on unemployment they can pay for that as well.
How about freelancing? I have a few small things going and I then when you are finally at the table interviewing you will want some demonstrated ability to hustle, I think being a cad monkey is just not enough you need to be a mandarin speaking CAD, Rhino, Revit, sketch-up, speck writing, LEED certified monkey.
yeah torchia is always hiring, which tells me they're also always letting people go. i wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole.
i got my job back in july, and taking it on was a significant risk with no guarantees. as of right now we are keeping the doors open by being extremely resourceful. we have on intern on furlough. we are looking for projects, not people.
For me, it seems like things are on the rise, though it is a gradual development. This is probably pretty obvious, but I think not all the sectors will see the same gains right now. Architects, Engineers and firms that were well positioned in terms of their market expertise, whether by intention or luck, have survived this mess the best. Companies that were heavily into the housing market are probably going to be the slowest to rebound.
creativity expert,
It is unfortunate and understandable that you feel you can't gain the experience you need right now, but try not to get discouraged. PJN26 makes some good suggestions. As a young designer, I believe it is your responsibility to stay on the cutting edge of your industry. It may be the case that after you've worked for 30 years, you may be able to get by without investing much time into learning the latest software or industry development, but as a younger designers, you generally won't have that luxury.
With all that in mind, I suggest you do launch yourself into learning as much as you can in your spare time. LEED, just for example, is something you can study and learn on your own time. If you have access to a copy of the various programs you mentioned, you might consider taking a course like PJN26 mentioned, or if nothing else, there are many, many resources available online to learn them as well (in that case you won't get a certificate, which might be useful). Studying for licensing exams is also useful. Try to prepare yourself so that you can pass your exams the first time through.
Thanks for your words of advice,
I actually am up to date with the latest software, and have enough years to take a napkin sketch through CA and was fortunate to gain this experience before this downturn, but what I was saying is that in order to accumulate 7 to 10 years, in several different sectors, you need to work continuously, and that is the problem, no need for me to take courses in revit, i've completed several so called bim projects, and am well versed with sketch up, rhino, 3d max, photoshop, you name it, as far as Leed goes, I dont need a body of bureaucrats to pat me on the back, because I have always said the architect has always designed with the environment in mind, we dont need to be congratulated for it, if anything the client should be congratulated because he is the one that made that financial decision. I am going to start taking my exams as soon as I get my tax refund this year, the only thing holding me back from getting licensed was funding, and thats one thing im focusing on, lets just say that im going to be my own boss, in the future, i dont plan on being a project monkey or scapegoat all my life.
ive interviewd at a couple of those offices posting on aia chicago, and let me tell you it gets really awkward when they drop the "contract worker" terms and conditions on you, because i'm one of those people caught in the middle not an intern fresh out of college, and not a licensed architect yet, with over 10 years of work experience. One day the AIA chicago jobs link is going to be similar to looking for a job ad like the ones on craigslist. The one sure way I see out of this is to venture out gain knowledge in other fields, and combine those at the end and open up your own business.
Ahh I'm sorry, I was mistaken. From your previous message I thought you were putting yourself in the intern group. I tend to agree with you about LEED, I have it, but it means next to nothing for me. Technically, since I believe they instituted some continuing education system into the mix, I may have lost my status! Good luck on the licensure exams.
PJN26's comment about freelance work is a good idea too. I've been doing some freelance work for awhile. For me it is sporadic, but I enjoy it when I come by something. Lately I've been involved pretty heavily in helping a friend jack up and reinforce their existing floor structure. It has been quite a project, but very rewarding. With these projects, especially if working for a friend, I think one of the keys is to be upfront about costs. Don't be afraid to give them a legitimate price for your services. The worst thing you can do is undervalue your time and skills, because you'll never dig yourself out of that hole. If the real price turns them off, then what have you actually lost? all you've avoided is the frustration of being underpaid.
thanks Synergy,
and you bet your bottom dollar I'm going to charge for my services or products, by the time i'm through like a doctors office, ill have people stripping and wearing one of those linen cloth outfits, though i don't know if that would be too popular.
all that post office thing is about is an attempt to increase the value of the land by showing potential and possibility. i've heard that this particular developer does this over and over again. as a technique it probably worked pretty well during the boom.
1. buy a piece of property
2. have someone design a concept
3. get everyone all hot and bothered about potential
4. sell this high-potential property for more than you bought it for
This post office this is absolutely never going to happen.
So im sure a lot of you know about or read the urbanophile blog, if not i suggest you start. Well... Renn has a new article about the dramatic decline of chicago over the past 5-10 years... read it here if you havent already...
combine this with declining population, a dysfunctional state government, a furious teachers union and failing neighborhood schools, and all the work the tribune has been doing regarding the enormity of our unfunded pension liabilities... is there anyone out there that can talk me off this cliff? Or is chicago's fate sealed... relegation back to the 2nd division of american cities and off the list entirely in the international arena.
Corruption, high taxes, and crime are three principal reasons why Chicago is in big trouble. The parking deal is the icing on the cake. I got a $60 ticket for being 5 minutes late getting back to my car after going to shop a local Chicago retailer on a Sunday. Next time, I'll shop in Oak Park and not have to pay for Sunday parking.
I think of the parking ticket as Chicago's ticket to becoming the 5th largest City in America by 2020. Houston will surpass us and perhaps Phoenix as well. The people at City Hall don't realize this and it's still business as usual. Major change is coming whether we want it to or not.
Corruption yes, crime yes, taxes... i really dont think thats the case. That is too simple an argument. According to Renn, despite our famously high sales tax rate, we are almost exactly middle of the road for tax climates. Property, income, and corporate taxs are all relatively moderate when compared to the rest of the country.
As for the parking meter stuff... you getting a parking ticket because you were illegally parked is not the reason Chicago might get passed by houston (but i doubt phoenix...) in population. It was a disaster of a policy decision, but its one we now have to live with.
Letdown, I don't think that Renn has painted the complete picture. Property taxes are very high in many neighborhoods like North Center. Everything in that neighborhood costs more. If you have a family, you may want to send your children to a private school because many public schools have class sizes of 30 or more. So you are paying double for things like a reasonable class size. Many of us are. I can move to a suburb with a good public school system and pay much less. Thus, middle class people leave. The rich and those who cannot afford to move are left. That's what the City is becoming.
REnn also missed why the City grew in the 90s. Mexican immigrants are the group that spiked the City's population. They are now leaving or settling in places like Summit or Des Plaines and bypassing the City altogether. So the City's major source of growth is gone.
Our gasoline sales tax in CHicago make gas here the highest priced in the country. Working class people travel to Dupage or to Indiana or Lake County to fill up. It's 40 cents less or more per gallon. That's huge!
If I cannot park on the street without paying exorbitantly for parking then small and middle size retailers are going to move away. Why shop locally if you are hassled? The huge structural deficits have yet to be tackled. Daley papered them over. The parking ticket shows me that the City is more interested in taxing their way out than eliminating 3 men on a garbage truck or eliminating pensions in favor of self-funded plans like the rest of us have. Corruption has so many insidious consequences that are not easily deduced.
Buildings is eliminating intake visits. Will they lay off some of their $97k per year intake people? We'll see...
I think the parking thing is a bigger deal than anyone's talking about, because:
a) our city is out of money, and they could have simply raised the parking rates themselves and recouped tons of cash (it was fairly obvious our parking rates were too low vis-a-vis what people would be willing to pay, even a monkey could have seen that, but due to our extremely disfunctional city govt nobody wanted to get the political black mark for being the one to vote on a parking fee increase, which is fucked up, and is probably the real root reason for many of our issues
and b) the stupidest thing is that the lease is so fucking long that we'll never have a chance in any of our lifetimes to cancel or fix the deal. They couldn't have simply sold our souls for a 2-year lease, to TRY OUT the idea? They had to jump straight from 0 to 75 years?! This is what compounds a truly bad decision to begin with.
I just get so frustrated b/c we really need the cash and instead Morgan Stanley is walking away with MILLIONS of our taxpayers' dollars that the city could have had instead, every single year, for the next 75 years. That was a HUGE, huge huge huge fucking mistake. It's really symptomatic of the root issue which is completely incompetent city governance. They had one day to read the proposal before voting on it? Bullshit.
I also agree that there is a lot of bloat in our city payroll & needs attention. It grew for so many years on patronage and nobody ever seemed to want to cut any of those patronage positions, so they just seem to have added up and added up...
I haven't read Renn's article yet (about to) so maybe he covers this, but I've always been curious to see how many municipal employees we have per capita compared to other top-10 American cities. Also, how much do we pay per capita for our city government? Would be interesting to see. I'm not against city govt positions - am not a libertarian, or even remotely conservation - but NOBODY likes waste, even a progressive liberal like me, and every time I go to city hall I feel like i see see waste everywhere.
Actually Manta, Renn addresses government bloat in his article, and shockingly Illinois has the lowest number of public wokers per capita in the country.
William, i understand all your arguments. By the numbers, the general affordability of chicago is great. In fact, if one were to base the relative cost of living to the relative urban amenities, Chicago might do really well in that kind of comparison. But i agree, if were paying property taxes, our neighborhood schools shouldnt be complete crap.
Its a bit of a chicken and an egg problem. Middle class families leave cause the schools suck... and the schools suck cause all the middle class families assume they have to move to the burbs...
I've always been curious to see how many municipal employees we have per capita compared to other top-10 American cities. Also, how much do we pay per capita for our city government?
It's about the same. Everyone is having an issue with unfunded pension liabilities right now. It's completely counterproductive to be only looking at the problem as "too many employees" or "people are paid too much."
William, can you show me where you found this information about the average salaries of municipal workers?
And toaster is right... our problem is not in the scale of "too many employees" or even employees making 10k more than they should. We are in the 10's to 100's of billions with a B realm problem. Garbage collectors salaries being too high is not the problem.
so obviously you cant go over that list with a fine toothed comb... but im not seeing anything i would say is grossly overpaid... cops make 70-80... firemen make about the same... garbage men make 60k... there arent very many jobs id consider lucrative...
its easy to see how the governement COULD get bloated though... that list is overwhelmingly massive... and it doesnt even include the CPS...
Look at what private sector garbagemen make. It's less and 1 guy in the suburbs does the work of 3 in the city. We have the highest garbage costs of any large city. Then consider their pensions. They are not funded. After 20 years you get 80% of your salary and free health care for life. Who pays for that? The employees didn't.
Look at what the architects make. Some of them are not licensed and make $99k.
"Actually Manta, Renn addresses government bloat in his article, and shockingly Illinois has the lowest number of public wokers per capita in the country."
- We have the highest number of townships and other units of government here in Illinois. I am not sure that his work reflects this.
So here's wishing Dan Cronin success in his self-declared mission in his sophomore year as DuPage County Board chairman to consolidate, abolish or otherwise reduce the stunning 400 separate local government bodies that call the county of about a million people home.
"Let us be the leader, the demonstration model," Mr. Cronin told me over coffee a few days ago. "We need to eliminate units of government."
It's hard to argue with the chairman, who notes that he alone appoints members to 52 board and commissions.
For instance, DuPage has 45 different public entities — municipalities, districts and townships — that provide mosquito abatement services. All 45 collect taxes or fees for that cause, and 36 of them contract with the same provider.
THIS is something i agree with. There are clearly too many separate units of government, and honestly too many alderman. All that shiz should be stripped down... quit with the weirdly rigged wards, chop the city into like 15 blocks and move on from there...
What Renn misses is all of the Superintendents, Chairman and other big chiefs that make large salaries and commensurate pensions. Each of these units has them.
The 2011 budget for Chicago’s Bureau of Sanitation, the division of the Department of Streets and Sanitation responsible for picking up and disposing of trash and recyclables, is about $141 million. The city expects to collect about 975,000 tons of garbage and recyclables this year, which is about $145 a ton. By contrast, Los Angeles and Houston, the cities closest in size to Chicago, spend $133 and $94 a ton, respectively.
In Philadelphia, an old, densely-populated city where landfill space is more scarce and expensive, the cost is about $110 a ton.
When costs like employee benefits, worker’s compensation, and administrative expenses are factored in, the true cost of picking up and disposing of garbage in Chicago is more than $200 a ton. Critics contend that much of the higher cost is driven by the city’s current ward-by-ward system of garbage collection.
Aggregate Chicago
wow CPS snow day for tomorrow... first time in 12 years supposedly!
School cancelled again tomorrow! Went downtown today for some adventure and the city had a very "Day After Tomorrow" feel to it. Seeing all the people walking and playing was nice and I enjoyed the lack of cars if even for one day.
The storm was pretty awesome. I really dug the whole lightning during a blizzard thing, that was really cool.
As for today, I think some people/companies were a little too quick cancel. you are certainly right, the loop was a ghost town. I ride the brown line, and at least from my stop, I was able to catch my normal train in without much delay at all, and yet my stop, which is normally quite busy, was absolutely dead. I realize other people are out in the boondocks or areas that clearly made it extremely difficult to get in, but it seems like most areas covered by the CTA could have made it into the loop with minimal delay (I'd say anything 20-30 minutes or less is pretty minimal).
U of I Urbana was closed today. Last night the class I help out with was about to tour a construction site when a sheet of plywood went crashing to the ground we decided to look at slides instead of braving the 40 mph gust and ice. In Urbana it rained ice cubes very small sharp stinging Ice granules for 6 hours. It is like a sandy beach was dumped everywhere. Being at the wrong end of an angry snow cone machine is what it was like down here.
Yeah that was really amazing... 20.2" at ohare... with the lightning and the wind it was pretty unreal. One of the most impressive storms ive ever been in, and probably the craziest winter storm ive ever seen. Funny though that everyones back to work and most of the streets are clear here... 20" of snow in a day... no problem...
double rainbow, meet thundersnow...
thunderstorm rules
thundersnow rules
The AIA Chicago job postings is on fire lately. Kind of. Still, I haven't seen so many job posts on there for a while anyway. Has anyone experienced an uptick in job interviews in this god forsaken, frozen of a turd city lately? Some optimism would be greatly appreciated.
"its cold out there its very very cold, and its going to last you the rest of your life" quote from ground hog day
I have received phone calls from recruiters, and nothing pans out from that 100 percent of the time for me.
I interviewed at one of those and applied at most of those listed. They are companies that have posted on their before not unusual to see them re posting again. One position says it will pay 10 or 12 dollars an hour unbelievable! and then they want very specific experience as if they don't know that 50% of people were fired like as early as 3 years ago, don't they know it was impossible to get experience for us in different sectors? with no job?
All of those postings could be summarized by a small paragraph.
We want you young and cheap so we can suck the life out of you. If you are old and licensed we want you too, and then only when you have very specific experience we will pay you a descent wage.
Sorry for being so bleak, on the up side, it seems that other careers are on the rise especially in the skilled labor areas.
I think a lot of firms are just now getting the books close to balanced, a lot of firms did not manage projects well and were dependant on having a new project in CD since they lose money in CA. when that cycle got stretched out to far the poorly managed firms had to dump staff and then started screwing up on CA phase stuff such as shop drawings and dealing with change orders. There are firms out there interested but the list of skills is quite extreme. That is what I have heard from several sources, Construction managers, architects and academics.
I have noticed that Rhino is more in demand these days, in addition to Revit. Community colleges are the best and cheapest place to learn these programs, I managed to get up to speed on Revit last year for $400 for a 15 week course. If you are still on unemployment they can pay for that as well.
How about freelancing? I have a few small things going and I then when you are finally at the table interviewing you will want some demonstrated ability to hustle, I think being a cad monkey is just not enough you need to be a mandarin speaking CAD, Rhino, Revit, sketch-up, speck writing, LEED certified monkey.
yeah torchia is always hiring, which tells me they're also always letting people go. i wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole.
i got my job back in july, and taking it on was a significant risk with no guarantees. as of right now we are keeping the doors open by being extremely resourceful. we have on intern on furlough. we are looking for projects, not people.
woow it's great for all
For me, it seems like things are on the rise, though it is a gradual development. This is probably pretty obvious, but I think not all the sectors will see the same gains right now. Architects, Engineers and firms that were well positioned in terms of their market expertise, whether by intention or luck, have survived this mess the best. Companies that were heavily into the housing market are probably going to be the slowest to rebound.
creativity expert,
It is unfortunate and understandable that you feel you can't gain the experience you need right now, but try not to get discouraged. PJN26 makes some good suggestions. As a young designer, I believe it is your responsibility to stay on the cutting edge of your industry. It may be the case that after you've worked for 30 years, you may be able to get by without investing much time into learning the latest software or industry development, but as a younger designers, you generally won't have that luxury.
With all that in mind, I suggest you do launch yourself into learning as much as you can in your spare time. LEED, just for example, is something you can study and learn on your own time. If you have access to a copy of the various programs you mentioned, you might consider taking a course like PJN26 mentioned, or if nothing else, there are many, many resources available online to learn them as well (in that case you won't get a certificate, which might be useful). Studying for licensing exams is also useful. Try to prepare yourself so that you can pass your exams the first time through.
Thanks for your words of advice,
I actually am up to date with the latest software, and have enough years to take a napkin sketch through CA and was fortunate to gain this experience before this downturn, but what I was saying is that in order to accumulate 7 to 10 years, in several different sectors, you need to work continuously, and that is the problem, no need for me to take courses in revit, i've completed several so called bim projects, and am well versed with sketch up, rhino, 3d max, photoshop, you name it, as far as Leed goes, I dont need a body of bureaucrats to pat me on the back, because I have always said the architect has always designed with the environment in mind, we dont need to be congratulated for it, if anything the client should be congratulated because he is the one that made that financial decision. I am going to start taking my exams as soon as I get my tax refund this year, the only thing holding me back from getting licensed was funding, and thats one thing im focusing on, lets just say that im going to be my own boss, in the future, i dont plan on being a project monkey or scapegoat all my life.
ive interviewd at a couple of those offices posting on aia chicago, and let me tell you it gets really awkward when they drop the "contract worker" terms and conditions on you, because i'm one of those people caught in the middle not an intern fresh out of college, and not a licensed architect yet, with over 10 years of work experience. One day the AIA chicago jobs link is going to be similar to looking for a job ad like the ones on craigslist. The one sure way I see out of this is to venture out gain knowledge in other fields, and combine those at the end and open up your own business.
Ahh I'm sorry, I was mistaken. From your previous message I thought you were putting yourself in the intern group. I tend to agree with you about LEED, I have it, but it means next to nothing for me. Technically, since I believe they instituted some continuing education system into the mix, I may have lost my status! Good luck on the licensure exams.
PJN26's comment about freelance work is a good idea too. I've been doing some freelance work for awhile. For me it is sporadic, but I enjoy it when I come by something. Lately I've been involved pretty heavily in helping a friend jack up and reinforce their existing floor structure. It has been quite a project, but very rewarding. With these projects, especially if working for a friend, I think one of the keys is to be upfront about costs. Don't be afraid to give them a legitimate price for your services. The worst thing you can do is undervalue your time and skills, because you'll never dig yourself out of that hole. If the real price turns them off, then what have you actually lost? all you've avoided is the frustration of being underpaid.
thanks Synergy,
and you bet your bottom dollar I'm going to charge for my services or products, by the time i'm through like a doctors office, ill have people stripping and wearing one of those linen cloth outfits, though i don't know if that would be too popular.
just throwing this out there: http://chicago2011.adfilmfest.com/
just thought id put this up in case people hadnt seen it... seems like a blog ill check in on regularly...
http://gridchicago.com/
Soooo.... it appears that mr. davies is either a) a crazy old man or b) a very good con artist.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-old-chicago-post-office-redevelopment-plan-unveiled-20110721,0,3150609.story
Discuss --^^^
yeah that whole thing is totally bonkers... i'll give it a 0.00000000000001% chance of being built...
Hopefully though he can at least re purpose the old post office... id take that!
anyone hear about this?
http://insb.us/
or know anything about it?
a short documentary on gang
all that post office thing is about is an attempt to increase the value of the land by showing potential and possibility. i've heard that this particular developer does this over and over again. as a technique it probably worked pretty well during the boom.
1. buy a piece of property
2. have someone design a concept
3. get everyone all hot and bothered about potential
4. sell this high-potential property for more than you bought it for
This post office this is absolutely never going to happen.
and a little feature on K+S
...nice series of shots of the Crown Fountain
i suppose this is post worthy... http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/roosevelt-universitys-new-skyscraper-is-a-gamble/Content?oid=5527026
Roosevelt is paying their President $650k and going broke.
So im sure a lot of you know about or read the urbanophile blog, if not i suggest you start. Well... Renn has a new article about the dramatic decline of chicago over the past 5-10 years... read it here if you havent already...
http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_2_chicago.html
combine this with declining population, a dysfunctional state government, a furious teachers union and failing neighborhood schools, and all the work the tribune has been doing regarding the enormity of our unfunded pension liabilities... is there anyone out there that can talk me off this cliff? Or is chicago's fate sealed... relegation back to the 2nd division of american cities and off the list entirely in the international arena.
Corruption, high taxes, and crime are three principal reasons why Chicago is in big trouble. The parking deal is the icing on the cake. I got a $60 ticket for being 5 minutes late getting back to my car after going to shop a local Chicago retailer on a Sunday. Next time, I'll shop in Oak Park and not have to pay for Sunday parking.
I think of the parking ticket as Chicago's ticket to becoming the 5th largest City in America by 2020. Houston will surpass us and perhaps Phoenix as well. The people at City Hall don't realize this and it's still business as usual. Major change is coming whether we want it to or not.
Corruption yes, crime yes, taxes... i really dont think thats the case. That is too simple an argument. According to Renn, despite our famously high sales tax rate, we are almost exactly middle of the road for tax climates. Property, income, and corporate taxs are all relatively moderate when compared to the rest of the country.
As for the parking meter stuff... you getting a parking ticket because you were illegally parked is not the reason Chicago might get passed by houston (but i doubt phoenix...) in population. It was a disaster of a policy decision, but its one we now have to live with.
Letdown, I don't think that Renn has painted the complete picture. Property taxes are very high in many neighborhoods like North Center. Everything in that neighborhood costs more. If you have a family, you may want to send your children to a private school because many public schools have class sizes of 30 or more. So you are paying double for things like a reasonable class size. Many of us are. I can move to a suburb with a good public school system and pay much less. Thus, middle class people leave. The rich and those who cannot afford to move are left. That's what the City is becoming.
REnn also missed why the City grew in the 90s. Mexican immigrants are the group that spiked the City's population. They are now leaving or settling in places like Summit or Des Plaines and bypassing the City altogether. So the City's major source of growth is gone.
Our gasoline sales tax in CHicago make gas here the highest priced in the country. Working class people travel to Dupage or to Indiana or Lake County to fill up. It's 40 cents less or more per gallon. That's huge!
If I cannot park on the street without paying exorbitantly for parking then small and middle size retailers are going to move away. Why shop locally if you are hassled? The huge structural deficits have yet to be tackled. Daley papered them over. The parking ticket shows me that the City is more interested in taxing their way out than eliminating 3 men on a garbage truck or eliminating pensions in favor of self-funded plans like the rest of us have. Corruption has so many insidious consequences that are not easily deduced.
Buildings is eliminating intake visits. Will they lay off some of their $97k per year intake people? We'll see...
I think the parking thing is a bigger deal than anyone's talking about, because:
a) our city is out of money, and they could have simply raised the parking rates themselves and recouped tons of cash (it was fairly obvious our parking rates were too low vis-a-vis what people would be willing to pay, even a monkey could have seen that, but due to our extremely disfunctional city govt nobody wanted to get the political black mark for being the one to vote on a parking fee increase, which is fucked up, and is probably the real root reason for many of our issues
and b) the stupidest thing is that the lease is so fucking long that we'll never have a chance in any of our lifetimes to cancel or fix the deal. They couldn't have simply sold our souls for a 2-year lease, to TRY OUT the idea? They had to jump straight from 0 to 75 years?! This is what compounds a truly bad decision to begin with.
I just get so frustrated b/c we really need the cash and instead Morgan Stanley is walking away with MILLIONS of our taxpayers' dollars that the city could have had instead, every single year, for the next 75 years. That was a HUGE, huge huge huge fucking mistake. It's really symptomatic of the root issue which is completely incompetent city governance. They had one day to read the proposal before voting on it? Bullshit.
It all makes me so angry.
I also agree that there is a lot of bloat in our city payroll & needs attention. It grew for so many years on patronage and nobody ever seemed to want to cut any of those patronage positions, so they just seem to have added up and added up...
I haven't read Renn's article yet (about to) so maybe he covers this, but I've always been curious to see how many municipal employees we have per capita compared to other top-10 American cities. Also, how much do we pay per capita for our city government? Would be interesting to see. I'm not against city govt positions - am not a libertarian, or even remotely conservation - but NOBODY likes waste, even a progressive liberal like me, and every time I go to city hall I feel like i see see waste everywhere.
Actually Manta, Renn addresses government bloat in his article, and shockingly Illinois has the lowest number of public wokers per capita in the country.
William, i understand all your arguments. By the numbers, the general affordability of chicago is great. In fact, if one were to base the relative cost of living to the relative urban amenities, Chicago might do really well in that kind of comparison. But i agree, if were paying property taxes, our neighborhood schools shouldnt be complete crap.
Its a bit of a chicken and an egg problem. Middle class families leave cause the schools suck... and the schools suck cause all the middle class families assume they have to move to the burbs...
I've always been curious to see how many municipal employees we have per capita compared to other top-10 American cities. Also, how much do we pay per capita for our city government?
It's about the same. Everyone is having an issue with unfunded pension liabilities right now. It's completely counterproductive to be only looking at the problem as "too many employees" or "people are paid too much."
Toaster,
The average garbageman in Chicago makes $65k.
Arch plan, licensed or not, examiners make $97k.
We have 50 alderman that make $117k each and it's a "part-time" job.
I would like to see the figures...
But I need to finish my Mies exhibition.
We are making a 1:200 metric model of the IIT Campus. It's 14 feet long and 4 feet wide!
If anyone wants to lend a hand, we are on Lincoln Avenue north of Howard...
:-)
Try again
William, can you show me where you found this information about the average salaries of municipal workers?
And toaster is right... our problem is not in the scale of "too many employees" or even employees making 10k more than they should. We are in the 10's to 100's of billions with a B realm problem. Garbage collectors salaries being too high is not the problem.
https://data.cityofchicago.org/Administration-Finance/Current-Employee-Names-Salaries-and-Position-Title/xzkq-xp2w
Here is a sample:
holy crap that is an amazing link! thanks william
Rahm posted it.
well thats very cool...
so obviously you cant go over that list with a fine toothed comb... but im not seeing anything i would say is grossly overpaid... cops make 70-80... firemen make about the same... garbage men make 60k... there arent very many jobs id consider lucrative...
its easy to see how the governement COULD get bloated though... that list is overwhelmingly massive... and it doesnt even include the CPS...
Look at what private sector garbagemen make. It's less and 1 guy in the suburbs does the work of 3 in the city. We have the highest garbage costs of any large city. Then consider their pensions. They are not funded. After 20 years you get 80% of your salary and free health care for life. Who pays for that? The employees didn't.
Look at what the architects make. Some of them are not licensed and make $99k.
Again, they have the pension. It's very generous.
"Actually Manta, Renn addresses government bloat in his article, and shockingly Illinois has the lowest number of public wokers per capita in the country."
- We have the highest number of townships and other units of government here in Illinois. I am not sure that his work reflects this.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120613/BLOGS02/120619915/dan-cronins-mission-impossible-slashing-the-number-of-local
Greg Hinz of Crain's says:
So here's wishing Dan Cronin success in his self-declared mission in his sophomore year as DuPage County Board chairman to consolidate, abolish or otherwise reduce the stunning 400 separate local government bodies that call the county of about a million people home.
"Let us be the leader, the demonstration model," Mr. Cronin told me over coffee a few days ago. "We need to eliminate units of government."
It's hard to argue with the chairman, who notes that he alone appoints members to 52 board and commissions.
For instance, DuPage has 45 different public entities — municipalities, districts and townships — that provide mosquito abatement services. All 45 collect taxes or fees for that cause, and 36 of them contract with the same provider.
Read more: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120613/BLOGS02/120619915/dan-cronins-mission-impossible-slashing-the-number-of-local-governments#ixzz1xnRxIDcl
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THIS is something i agree with. There are clearly too many separate units of government, and honestly too many alderman. All that shiz should be stripped down... quit with the weirdly rigged wards, chop the city into like 15 blocks and move on from there...
What Renn misses is all of the Superintendents, Chairman and other big chiefs that make large salaries and commensurate pensions. Each of these units has them.
http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/service-couldnt-be-better-and-at-200-a-ton-it-should-be-2/
The 2011 budget for Chicago’s Bureau of Sanitation, the division of the Department of Streets and Sanitation responsible for picking up and disposing of trash and recyclables, is about $141 million. The city expects to collect about 975,000 tons of garbage and recyclables this year, which is about $145 a ton. By contrast, Los Angeles and Houston, the cities closest in size to Chicago, spend $133 and $94 a ton, respectively.
In Philadelphia, an old, densely-populated city where landfill space is more scarce and expensive, the cost is about $110 a ton.
When costs like employee benefits, worker’s compensation, and administrative expenses are factored in, the true cost of picking up and disposing of garbage in Chicago is more than $200 a ton. Critics contend that much of the higher cost is driven by the city’s current ward-by-ward system of garbage collection.
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