I had one of those existential moments of doubt when I opened my morning Sun-Times on Tuesday and found myself facing the following headline: “TIF flap forgotten as mayor breaks ground on DePaul basketball arena.”
I confess—I was one of those critics.
Oh, brother. The arena’s being built at Michigan and Cermak in the South Loop, one of the hottest neighborhoods in town. This is the last Chicago neighborhood that needs a handout to stimulate development.
No matter how many games DePaul plays in that arena, or how many concerts get staged there, they will probably never make back the $55 million, much less all that future property tax money the land won’t generate.
In his first years in office he dumped millions of TIF dollars on a grocery store in Greektown, a luxury office building in River North, the Hyatt Hotel in Hyde Park, and the Marriott/DePaul monstrosity.
Of course, who knows how long the mayor’s restraint will last. As I write this, he’s probably devising new schemes to waste our money on bad deals.
