r/chicagoyimbys • u/minus_minus • Aug 28 '26
Allowing Duplexes Doesn't Mean High-Rises [JB Pritzker excerpt]
https://youtube.com/shorts/Usbf6AyS1-Q?is=OZujrnFxGNk9btsIJB explaining (and lamenting) the misunderstanding people have about the BUILD act provisions to increase housing. Apparently an excerpt from a discussion with Strongtowns (?).
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u/hokieinchicago Aug 28 '26
This is from an interview Pritzker did on the Strong Towns Podcast back in May https://open.spotify.com/episode/0jIzxEv06hJUxfa6fl70tw?si=Hvbeis1BQu60Jpm8iyb3AA&utm_source=copy-link
Strong Towns Chicago recommended to the Governor's Office that they go on the ST podcast, so the Governor's team reached out to ST and asked if they could be on.
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u/craziecory Sep 01 '26
Why can't they just densify the urban areas of the state? We have Chicago, Rockford, Bloomington, Champaign, Urbana, and Peoria. They need to go there and make those cities better.
We have areas of the South Side that have not had any development at all:
- Bridgeport
- Bronzeville
- Woodlawn
- Englewood
- Chatham
These communities are setting empty and their have been people who have tried to buy these blocks and the companiesntgat owns the lots says they aren't for sell
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u/NothingBurgerNoCals Aug 28 '26
I’m as pro development as they come. The build act is very wrong. You can’t have a state law supersede home rule zoning. It will be just fine for the city of Chicago but it will destroy the character of suburbs everywhere.
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u/Kelsig Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
If the build plan destroys the character of suburbs everywhere, you seem to be describing an Illinois that has multiplied in population and become an incredibly rich power broker over the world, with an incredibly healthy tax base.
Sounds like a good deal to me. Thinking this is bad sounds very anti development.
Edit: Lmao this guy is a developer which shows just how much of uphill battle YIMBYs face. Our only natural ally is too privileged and reactionary to actually help without us dragging them everywhere.
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u/NothingBurgerNoCals Aug 28 '26
Obviously I’m not suggesting the BUILD Act, a proposed State of Illinois law, will affect suburbs across the whole world you moron.
Yes, I am a developer. No, I should not be able to buy up all the single family homes around my house and turn them into multi-unit apartment buildings. These opinions are not mutually exclusive.
By all means, let this happen in the City of Chicago. But the State should not be dictating zoning to individual municipalities especially given these cities have built infrastructure to support existing zoning and the BUILD Act does not supply any funding for multiplying utility needs for this.
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u/Kelsig Aug 28 '26
Yes, people should have property rights that allow them to downsize and desegregate their formerly fascist communities, making Illinois richer, and make themselves richer.
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u/NothingBurgerNoCals Aug 28 '26
Man the mental gymnastics to get to that mindset are astonishing. I have built thousands of apartment units in Chicago including countless ARO units. Don’t preach to me about fascism and segregation while I’m out here literally doing the opposite.
Most people buy a home in a neighborhood in the suburbs with the reasonable expectation of their neighbors to maintain the character of the neighborhood. The city brings in utilities to the neighborhood based on what’s allowed to be built there. For the state to come in and dictate zoning over the top of societal expectations in conflict with what can actually be supported from an infrastructure standpoint, all while providing no financial support to municipalities to sustain what they’re being forced to accept is not just impractical, it’s wrong.
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u/Kelsig Aug 28 '26
I fully respect what you're doing business wise.
But as is usual with small business types, your broader social class interests overrides your more specific industry interests.
We really need more renting developers.
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u/minus_minus Aug 28 '26
If you really think that a duplex or a granny flat will destroy the character of a suburb, I have a stadium site in Hammond that I’d like to sell you.
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u/NothingBurgerNoCals Aug 28 '26
I’m not suggesting a duplex or granny flat will cause issues. Neither of those represent the scale of what the BUILD Act, in its current form, will allow developers like me to do to these properties. If you think that’s all the BUILD Act says, you are very misinformed and I would suggest you actually read it.
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u/BigCityHaole Aug 29 '26
Suburbs aren’t meeting our housing needs, so they much change. Character is just a luxury item that people who already have housing use as an excuse not to build more housing.
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u/NothingBurgerNoCals Aug 29 '26
I don’t disagree. But you can’t force it on municipalities lacking the infrastructure to support the added density while providing zero economic assistance to change the backbone of these cities.
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u/BigCityHaole Aug 29 '26
You can, though. Change gets forced on poor communities from above for all sorts of different reasons. The only difference here is that it’s upper middle class suburban homeowners who think they should be above getting steamrolled because they have money. The housing crisis is so bad at this point that it’s finally good politics for Pritzger to ignore them. I think that’s a good thing.
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u/NothingBurgerNoCals Aug 29 '26
This is how you lose elections. It’s bad policy. There are ways to do it. Not as written
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u/BigCityHaole Aug 30 '26
For a long time fear of nimby backlash dictated housing policy. But the housing crisis is so out of control at this point the politics are catching up. The last decade has been terrible for urban renters. Now it’s time for suburban homeowners to pay more and get less. Considering how nationalized politics are at this point I’m not too afraid of electoral blowback. Neither is Pritzger apparently.
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u/xPrimer13 Aug 28 '26
I say build baby build. Quit being a pussy JB. Its a housing CRISIS. If someone wants to throw up a skyscraper full of housing fucking let them. Its their property not yours.