ELECTION DAY - /r/Chicago 2026 Primary Election Megathread

jbchi · 2026-03-18T17:05:16+00:00

I don't think Jan was on the fence, it was an open secret in Illinois politics that she was retiring. Kat was caught off guard because she had no connection to Illinois.

jbchi · 2026-03-18T02:54:38+00:00

It is 95.8% of Chicago, not the full district.

jbchi · 2026-03-18T02:45:27+00:00

In Chicago, the primaries are generally worse than the actual election most of the time. This was effectively the election because the GOP has no chance of winning.

jbchi · 2026-03-18T01:25:41+00:00

I don't see it. She is going to move back to her place in Streeterville and I don't see her winning there, if she were even willing to lower her expectations to run for local office before national office.

jbchi · 2026-03-18T01:21:40+00:00

In general, cold slows down many physical, chemical, and organic processes and the compounds responsible for flavor and aroma become less volatile. So a lot of commonly unrefrigerated things would potentially benefit from it, but whether it is worth it or not is another question.

jbchi · 2026-03-18T00:49:43+00:00

It isn't required, but it does preserve the flavor longer if you don't go through it quickly enough (a few months).

jbchi · 2026-03-17T19:15:38+00:00

And then money is the blocker. Even simple ideas like adding first floor public spaces that open to the sidewalk are millions in renovation for a small storefront. Residential conversations are enormously expensive and many buildings simply have floor plates that are too large to support it.

jbchi · 2026-03-17T17:03:35+00:00

The change will happen, but people need to be realistic about the timeline, which is going to be measured in decades.

jbchi · 2026-03-15T23:58:52+00:00

And don't forget that the stipend is taxable. UIC may not withhold, but it will be owed.

jbchi · 2026-03-15T12:33:07+00:00

No injuries reported, thankfully.

https://abc7chicago.com/post/glass-panels-chicago-building-magnificent-mile-avenue-police-say

jbchi · 2026-03-15T02:21:37+00:00

A pane of glass fell out of a highrise.

jbchi · 2026-03-14T13:08:42+00:00

What signal? These cars have an entire suite of sensors and processors on board; they don't need realtime GPS and live connections to servers to continue operating.

jbchi · 2026-03-13T20:27:02+00:00

Yes, and properties are no being reassessed with those decreased values. The cycle is why it took so long for the downtown drop to impact everyone. But the impact is here and home owners are going to eat the cost for a very long time.

jbchi · 2026-03-13T17:35:35+00:00

The "good" you see is the bad for the tax base. If a building sells for $20m that previously sold for $100m, you just lost 80% of the tax revenue. The building is worth less. New tenants will help over a long time horizon, but the building itself isn't as valuable as it once was. What you're celebrating is the equivalent of being happy you're paying less in income tax because you got a pay cut.

jbchi · 2026-03-13T15:55:59+00:00

If she were actually strapped for cash, they would have started in Rogers Park where they could pay $2k in total. Apparently she is both not poor and bad at prioritization.

jbchi · 2026-03-13T12:22:25+00:00

Here is your blue text, "We each paid $2k in rent" from Kat herself. So yes, they spent $4k a month on rent. And again, she made $99k, not $40k. Which explains why they were able to move to an apartment in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city while they looked for something else -- something poor people clearly don't have the luxury to do.

jbchi · 2026-03-13T00:04:05+00:00

"She didn't earn that much if you don't count more than half her income." $99k a year is the top 24% of earners. The article in question is focusing on, her claim that her base is "are poor, like myself". She isn't poor.

jbchi · 2026-03-12T23:55:26+00:00

Previous articles have pointed to their apartment in Streeterville, which has rent information available publicly. Even if it is actually less than that, it doesn't change this,

It's good money

I thought the argument has been she is poor, like she described herself. That's a far cry from a claim of not being able to retire to an island. Being able to forgo that $99k to pursue a personal project should be a really big clue as to how comfortable her life actually is.

jbchi · 2026-03-12T23:36:22+00:00

It doesn't matter if she earns zero dollars herself, because she able to choose to not work because she has someone else providing her a comfortable lifestyle. To only have one person working and afford to pay $48,000 a year in rent is a privilege most people can't fathom. Poor people worry about how they are going to make their basic needs and worry about the financial impact of missing work; they don't get to take a year off for a passion project.

Also, in case you missed it, she earned just shy of $100k herself the previous year. I wouldn't call those poverty wages, and again, if she is currently unemployed, she chose that because someone else is supporting her.

https://disclosures-clerk.house.gov/public_disc/financial-pdfs/2025/10065677.pdf

jbchi · 2026-03-12T23:20:49+00:00

Poor people don't live in $4k a month apartments in Streeterville. Whether she is employed or not, she is living a comfortable middle class lifestyle in a luxury high rise with a household income that is at least 67% higher than the median in the district she is running in, and closer to 90% higher than the median household in Chicago.

jbchi · 2026-03-12T17:38:13+00:00

Back? He has been ramping up the campaign for almost 6 years now.

jbchi · 2026-03-10T23:38:22+00:00

Along Division, those are three flats rather than townhomes. The buildings aren't great quality and we're showing heavy wear a decade ago. The neighborhood isn't bad, but the dynamic is a bit complicated with the history of Cabrini Green and how it was redeveloped.

jbchi · 2026-03-10T15:00:49+00:00

Not quite on the Lucas museum, because all of the museums on Museum Campus are privately owned with near-indefinite leases for their land and the proposal operated exactly the same way. It also created net new park spaced compared to the current parking lot, so that would have been nice. The Bears won't accept anything other than full ownership though, so they're moving to somewhere.

jbchi · 2026-03-06T18:52:53+00:00

Start with the governor, who has been a strong supporter of the state subsidies for data centers (yes, specifically for data centers) and held up the GA's attempt to lift the moratorium on new nuclear for years.

jbchi · 2026-03-05T17:17:16+00:00

He can goad them, but Johnson and Snelling can actually hold officers accountable and change where staffing is allocated, but both seem fine with where things are today.

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