Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

1. “Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has endorsed Rep. Bobby Rush in his re-election campaign,” Shia Kapos reports for her Politico Illinois Playbook.
Flashback: Preckwinkle Stands Behind Bobby Rush – Even After Racially Inflammatory Remarks.
Also: Bobby Rush sucks.


2. How Ken Griffin Became A Multi-Billionaire Business Titan.
“In 1987, while many of his classmates at Harvard were out partying and living the stereotypical college life, a student named Ken Griffin was already focused on building his future. The 19-year-old was busy developing the skills and laying the groundwork for what would eventually become a financial empire, amongst the largest such firms in the world. His setup was Spartan and ordinary by most standards, composed of a telephone, a personal computer and a fax machine (eventually enhanced by a satellite dish he placed on the roof of his dorm), but his ambition was anything but modest,” Maxim says.
“Raising $265,000 that included money from his mother, grandmother and two other investors, Griffin sought opportunities to profit off the convertible bonds market. Despite these humble beginnings, it didn’t take long for Griffin to get noticed by the financial community.”
I’m not sure how raising $265,000 from his mother, grandmother and “two other investors” qualifies as “humble beginnings,” but you do you, Maxim.
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P.S.: $265,000 in 1987 dollars is about $600,000 today.
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One of those “other investors” was his dentist, according to the New York Times.
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That same Times article says his father was a project manager for General Electric, though it’s also been reported that his father was a building supplies executive, which could be the same thing.
Which isn’t to say he’s merely a silver spooner – he obviously is a math whiz, though one who decided to use his powers for evil. But enough of the humble beginnings.
3. Red Light District.
“Former state Sen. Martin Sandoval pleaded guilty Tuesday to a bribery charge and agreed to cooperate in a burgeoning, widespread probe of public corruption that has sent shock waves from Chicago’s City Hall to Springfield,” the Tribune reports.
“During the lengthy hearing in federal court, Sandoval admitted soliciting multiple payments from a red-light camera company for acting as its ‘protector’ in the state Senate.”
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This thread by the Sun-Times’s Jon Seidel nicely captures the details.


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My favorite Sandoval is Hope. My god, what a talent.
4. Let’s Active.
“On Tuesday, [ActiveCampaign] announced the closing of its $100 million Series B. This is among the largest Series B funding rounds in Chicago, according to data from Crunchbase, and comes over three years after ActiveCampaign raised its Series A,” Built In Chicago says.
“ActiveCampaign has created a customer experience automation platform that helps businesses automate their marketing efforts across social platforms, e-mail, messaging, chat and text, with hundreds of integrations and pre-defined automations.”
I must confess I had never hard of ActiveCampaign – which was founded in 2003 – before today’s headlines.
And yet, more than 90,000 companies worldwide reportedly use their platform!
You can start your free, 14-day trial here and give it a whirl.
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This is not an endorsement. Something tells me it’s evil. Let me know!
5. U of Jewels.
“Less than a year after opening, the Jewel-Osco in Woodlawn has a new owner: the University of Chicago,” Crain’s reports.
Huh? Are they expanding the econ department or something?
“A venture connected to the university paid $19.8 million in November for the 48,000-square-foot grocery-and-drug store at 61st and Cottage Grove Avenue, according to a deed filed with Cook County. The venture acquired the store from the developers that built it, Chicago-based DL3 Realty and Wilmette-based Terraco Real Estate.

The University of Chicago considered the Jewel-Osco “an important community asset and decided to purchase the property to ensure that it remains locally controlled rather than going to a national buyer,” university spokesman Jeremy Manier wrote in an e-mail.

First, for the zillionth time, pick up the damn phone. Second, I don’t get it. Why does the University of Chicago care who owns the store and why do they want to own it? Answers not forthcoming!
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“Yet the deal still needed a subsidy to work out. DL3 and Terraco financed the Jewel-Osco project, which cost more than $20 million, with $11.5 million in New Markets Tax Credits acquired by Northern Trust.”
Is that a public subsidy?
“New Markets Tax Credits are federal income tax credits used to encourage private investment in low-income communities around the United States,” according to tax firm Baker Tilly.
So federal tax credits were used to help a private university buy a grocery store. Something is missing here.
6. Lori Is A Cop.
“Though Mayor Lori Lightfoot believes the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park will be a ‘tremendous’ asset for Chicago, she is charting a more activist role in addressing concerns of local residents, telling the Chicago Sun-Times ex-Mayor Rahm Emanuel was too eager to please the Obama Foundation,” Lynn Sweet reports.

“I think the city of Chicago in the prior administration, essentially said, ‘Come, whatever you want you get.’ That’s not who I am,” Lightfoot said . . .
“[T]he City of Chicago itself had been relatively on the sidelines and kind of letting the process be played out between the center activists, pro and con, (the) University Chicago and coming out of that discussion, I said to my team, ‘There’s a void here that we have to fill'” about the impact on South Shore and Woodlawn residents.
There is no written agreement obligating the U. of C. to do anything; the school’s bid landed the project for the South Side.
Lightfoot hinted something might be in the works.

Bobby Rush, who endorsed Bill Daley for mayor before turning to Preckwinkle, could not be reached for comment.
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Lightfoot probably won’t go as far as I’d like to see her go forcing concessions out of the Obama Foundation – in fact, I don’t much like the project as a whole at all to begin with – but she won’t hand them the keys to the city the way Rahm did either. Same to developers on the whole.
7. Carol Stream.
“Carol Stream was the namesake of the DuPage County village developed by her father, Jay,” the Tribune reports.

A Wheaton native who spent all of her adult life in Arizona, she returned periodically to Carol Stream, which today has a population of 40,000.
“When I go back, I’m so proud that people have taken such good care of the town,” Stream told the Tribune in 1991. “It’s like they’re taking good care of me.”
Stream, 77, died of respiratory failure Jan. 18 at HonorHealth Scottsdale Thompson Peak Medical Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, said her cousin, Debra Campbell. A longtime resident of nearby Paradise Valley, Stream had suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and pneumonia.
Carol Jayne Stream grew up on the north side of Wheaton, along Geneva Road. Her father, Jay, was a developer in DuPage County during the 1950s, building homes in Wheaton and Naperville through his company, Durable Construction.
At one point, Jay Stream was frustrated by the red tape and required infrastructure improvements related to a 350- to 400-home subdivision he had been proposing in Naperville. According to the 1984 history of Carol Stream, Build Your Own Town, the Carol Stream Story, written by historian Jean Moore, an employee at Naperville’s City Hall reportedly told Stream, “Why don’t you go build your own town?”

So Carol Stream is named after a person and not a stream? What’s next, no buffalo in Buffalo Grove? Oh.
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“Stream’s final visit to the suburb was in 2010.

“In 2008, my family had a chance to visit her and her mother and brother at their house in Paradise Valley, and she was warm, funny and clever, and she was very interested in what happened in Carol Stream,” said Carol Stream village trustee Rick Gieser. “She was very, very proud of the fact that the town was named after her. She was disappointed that Glenbard North High School (in Carol Stream) was not named for her, and I reminded her that an elementary school also is named after her and she said, ‘I want both.'”

For all your achievements as a namesake.
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TIL: Glenbard is a portmanteau of Glen Ellyn and Lombard.
8. UIC Receives Archives Of Chicago’s First Hospice.
“AIDS patients were a particular focus for the hospice, and in 1992 it partnered with Chicago House, a residential center that provided patients with end-of-life care.”
9. The EITC And Minimum Wage Work Together To Reduce Poverty And Raise Incomes.
Duh.
10. McDonald’s Doubles Down On Chicken For Breakfast.
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New on the Beachwood today . . .
Goop’s Pseudoscience Now On Netflix
Gwyneth Paltrow is just the latest in the world’s longstanding series of snake oil salesfolk, monetizing the gullible while doing them grievous harm.
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The Mad Gasser Of Mattoon
In 1944, hysteria swept Mattoon, Illinois, as residents reported a paralyzing gas being sprayed into their bedrooms. Today, the mystery remains: real or not?
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ChicagoReddit

Send Valentine’s Day cards to sick kids at Lurie Children’s Hospital from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram


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ChicagoTube
“Chicago” / Martin Taylor

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BeachBook
Leaked Documents Expose The Secretive Market For Your Web Browsing Data.

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50 Surprising Facts About Bubble Wrap.

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Iconic Songs Played By Musicians Around The World.

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TweetWood
A sampling of the delight and disgust you can find @BeachwoodReport.


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Business casual.

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Posted on January 28, 2020