MAYOR’S JULY 4 GOAL
Lightfoot wants city ‘fully open’ by Independence Day
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday she wants Chicago to be “fully open” by July 4 — and she is “working night and day” toward that goal.
“I need you to continue to be on this journey with us. And that means getting vaccinated now — as soon as possible,” Lightfoot told reporters Tuesday morning at McCormick Place, where details of the return of the Chicago Auto Show were announced.
“Every day that our COVID-19 metrics continue to tick downward brings us a day closer to being able to put this pandemic in the rearview mirror,” Lightfoot said. “And we are too close to accomplishing this mission to give up now.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he shares the mayor’s optimism about the “trajectory that we’re on now” and what that means to moving toward his “Bridge Phase,” followed by Phase 5, which means a full reopening. But he also sounded a warning.
“We can’t predict the future. This virus has proven to be very challenging. … The development of variants. The times in which it seems to surge in states like, recently, Michigan. … We all experienced November and December and January here in Illinois. So we always are on guard. We’re watching the numbers like a hawk.”
Getting Chicago fully open by the July 4 weekend also could mean the return of Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago and the Air & Water Show, the city’s most popular and iconic summer events.
“Don’t skip to the end of the chapter. There’s more coming,” the mayor said.
Just last week, Lightfoot vowed to be more cautious than other major cities in reopening Chicago. She said the last thing she wanted to do is to move too quickly, only to be forced to shut things down yet again.
Asked how that jibes with her goal of being “fully open by July 4th,” the mayor cited “steady progress” in all the health metrics Chicago follows and “modeling” that suggests those trends will continue.
“If we take care of our business” and keep building vaccination rates, “I feel very confident we can get there. … We will be one of the first cities to fully and safely reopen,” she said.
The return of any large event to McCormick Place was good news to Lightfoot, who said “one of the grimmest” memories she has from last year was telling Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter about the need to shut down the convention center.
The massive complex was turned into an alternative care facility for overflow coronavirus patients that, mercifully, was never used. The facility was bankrolled by FEMA and “built by union labor,” the mayor said, noting the overflow hospital was “incredible to behold.”
The CFL has an ownership interest in the Chicago Sun-Times.
The return of conventions can’t come soon enough for city and state finances.
The losses have been staggering since the March 6, 2020, shutdown: 230 canceled events that would have drawn 3.4 million attendees; 2.2 million lost hotel room nights; $3.05 billion in lost economic impact; and $233.8 million in lost state and city taxes.
With conventions and trade shows on hold and hotel rooms empty, the McPier Authority had no choice but to use the state as its financial backstop.
The $15.2 million “unreimbursed drawdown” of state sales tax revenue was the first since the 2008 recession.
If tourism taxes rebound, a revised budget approved last week outlines a plan to “repay the state fully” and “completely replenish” $30 million in McCormick Place reserves by 2023.
Even if the recovery is delayed, the state will be fully reimbursed “by 2025 at the latest,” officials said.
As bleak as the situation seems, it could have been worse.
In September 2020, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority refinanced $118.4 million in 2021 expansion project bond debt service, the maximum amount allowed by law. Without that refinancing, the state sales tax draw would have been nearly $130 million.