What nerve she has, an African-American, female school teacher, marching right in to the Billionaire Boys and Girls Club, otherwise known as the City Club and calling for a “LaSalle Street Tax.” Doesn't she know that the wealthy traders who gamble daily at the Merc will blow their tops and flee the city if their pot is raked by a half-penny tax of every trade? It's certain that they'll all pack up their North Shore abodes and set up shop in umm err...Dubuque? And it will all be Lewis' fault
Not only that. They say Lewis used unseemly language, insinuating that the corporations are motivated by greed. The board gives Lewis permission to say some things...
Go after their policies. Go after the way money can buy influence. But to go after their motives, to suggest they’re mere greedy billionaires looking to make another buck, isn’t helpful.No Karen, warns the board. It's not helpful, especially to the Mayor, who obviously feels threatened because you wouldn't even agree to extend the contract a year past its expiration date to help him through a non-confrontational election. And who but Karen would ever suggest that the giant corporations and billionaires like Rauner, Pritzker and Griffin are motivated by greed. Why that's absurd. Isn't it?
We're all waiting anxiously to see what happens if Karen doesn't obey the Sun-Times' admonition. Will she be grounded? Allowance cut? What?
As a former CPS kid who now watches Illinois circle the drain from the safety of the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, I’d recommend Davenport rather than Dubuque (which is also pretty nice).
ReplyDeleteExtraordinary quality of life, exceptional public schools, rich and diverse cultural heritage, Mayberry-like crime, reasonable taxes … beautiful public waterfront, national treasure ballpark, world-class art museum … clean air, no traffic congestion, common decency … the list goes on.
I grew up in awe of and in love with Chicago, but I can’t understand why anyone puts their life at risk to stay. Why businesses risk their capital in such a cesspool of dysfunction, when reason, stability and the honest work ethic of Iowans is a stroke of a pen on a development agreement away for their new and improved business in Davenport is an even greater mystery.
So tell me Craig. Would you really want the Chicago Mercantile Exchange fleeting a tax in Chicago and moving to your Mayberry-like town? I mean, there goes the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteThe Merc would fit nicely in Davenport. Have Mr. Duffy give me a call at 563 326-6139.
DeleteNot to split hairs, but Davenport isn't a Mayberry-like town. We do have Mayberry-like crime, in comparison to Chicago, and have been recognized as America's Most Livable Small City.
I'm a fan of the blog and your work. I just thought the dismissal of ... ummm, er Iowa was kinda cute and deserved a reply.
Best wishes.
Good point Craig. My big-city chauvinism is showing. Mea Culpa. Next time I get together with Terry (we all call him that) I will have him give you a ring. Maybe your people and his people can do lunch.
ReplyDeleteHow did an article about Karen Lewis turn into an excuse to piss on Chicago? Oh, wait, I just answered my own question. You hit the nail on the head, Mike. I guarantee there is violent crime, drug abuse, and other social ills in the Quad Cities, even on the west side of the river. What the Quad Cities don't have, and correct me if I'm wrong, is a cabal of well-heeled highwaymen who spend their waking hours cooking up new ways to skim off the top and to drain the lifeblood of the city. If we allow those unindicted thieves to complete their looting of our city, then the Midwest will have lost its main engine of economic activity. Sure, when the rest of the white-flighters tuck tail for greener pastures and the tax base dries up, they'll smugly look back at us and sneer as they do now at Detroit. But they may want to ask themselves if the Quad Cities (for example) are far enough away from Chicago to escape the inevitable migration of the social ills that we have been absorbing from everyone else for decades.
ReplyDeleteLet's be clear Sam, there's no way in hell that the Merc is leaving Chicago, especially over some chump change tax. The parasite and it's host are tied by a thousand threads.
ReplyDelete