As if the city doesn’t have enough problems with crime, budget deficits, and school cuts and closings, Mayor Emanuel has decided to barrel headfirst into the South Loop real estate market—with at least $55 million of your property tax funds.
You’d think the mayor would dive into this deal only after months of analysis and debate, especially when the money’s coming from schools that are so broke they recently fired around 1,500 teachers.
Mayor Daley swore up and down that within a year or two, private developers would buy the land from the city, and no taxpayer dollars would be lost.
Like I always say, give a mayor a slush fund and he loses all self-control, like Patty Duke with that hot dog.
For the last decade, McHugh has been pushing to build a computer data center there—no TIF subsidy requested. Imagine that.
I don’t expect McHugh and his lawyers to go down without a fight.
