Posted on 05/09/2022 9:23:15 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last October, Boeing’s headquarters in Chicago was described as looking like a ghost town, with few people showing up to work at the company’s corporate offices. And that was largely after the city began reopening following the pandemic lockdowns. Many employees may still have been working from home out of caution over COVID, but others simply didn’t want to brave the streets of the Windy City for fear of being carjacked or otherwise harmed by the criminals who seemed to be running the streets. Now the “ghost town” reputation is apparently going to be amplified because the company announced that it will be escaping Chicago and establishing its HQ in Virginia. And could any sane person really blame them? (National Review)
Boeing, the world’s third-largest defense contractor and a famous maker of passenger jets, is moving its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Va.
The move comes as Chicago is increasingly ravaged by crime and random drive-by shootings in the middle of downtown. In recent weeks, the theater district in downtown Chicago has had to shut down plays because the area has become so unsafe at night.
Crime in Chicago is up 35 percent this year compared with the same period in 2021. Theft is up by 67 percent.
To be clear, Boeing isn’t pulling out lock, stock and barrel. They have promised to leave roughly 500 workers in the area. But Boeing employs literally thousands of people in Chicago, so that represents a major loss of jobs. And almost all of the corporate brass will be departing. As noted in the excerpt above, nearly all categories of crime are up significantly again this year, despite Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s continued efforts to deny this reality during press conferences. They had to shut down the theater district because it was unsafe for patrons or theater workers to be on the streets after dark.
So the decision to leave Chicago probably wasn’t a difficult one for Boeing and it’s likely been in the works for a while. But why Virginia? Why not Texas or Florida or one of the other red states that have been courting businesses away from increasingly violent cities? As pointed out in the National Review article, Virginia is in the process of reducing taxes and decreasing regulations. They are also beefing up law enforcement.
It also didn’t hurt to have Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin working behind the scenes trying to tempt Boeing to move to his state. It turns out that Youngkin opened up private negotiations with Boeing on the day he was inaugurated. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun even made a point of thanking Youngkin for his leadership in this effort when he announced the move.
The municipal government of Chicago needs to wake up and smell the coffee burning on the stove because Boeing isn’t the only major outfit that’s pulling up stakes and fleeing. The Citadel hedge fund is in the process of planning a move to Florida. The Chicago Bears franchise is forming plans to move out of the city and into the suburbs. In December, United Airlines moved 1,300 employees out of downtown Chicago. Others are either planning or have announced similar moves.
Without some serious and immediate changes, Chicago could realistically be at risk of becoming the new Camden, New Jersey. For more than a century, Camden was a center of industry and wealth, boasting one of the larger and more successful shipyards on the east coast. Then in the 60s and 70s criminal gangs began to take over the streets and the decline of the city was both rapid and dramatic. By the mid-eighties, the town had been virtually overrun. Most businesses were gone and the crime rates were among the highest in the nation. Camden turned into hell on earth and it didn’t take long at all. If you don’t think the same thing could happen to Chicago, you haven’t been paying attention to your history lessons.
Chicago is ruled by racists, crooks, corrupt politicians, lunatics, all Democrats. Maybe this has something to due with it being one of the major cesspools in America.
That was one of the major issues in the Boeing/McDonald Douglas mega merger. McDonald Douglas HQ was in Chicago. I also believe Boeing had to accept the McDonald Douglas CEO as the CEO of the surviving entity.
Chicongo is just another leftist cesspool.
This is what happens when you get crooks in office let alone the latest one who looks very weird.
They moved to Chicago to earn favors from the ubama crime family. But, then Barak and Michelle left for greener mansions. In Arlington, they can suck up to Biden’s crime family now, and others at the same time.
In my 25+ years working for the “military industrial complex” several major defense contractors have moved to the DC area (DC proper, VA and MD); General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, SAIC, Orbital.....and now Boeing. Willie Sutton was right —you go to where the money is and all the decisions are in DC.
And there have been countless mergers and buyouts of smaller tech firms to create financial powerhouses.
I’m retired now, but I still miss the underlying nervous energy of the DC area.....
Comical. Boeing’s move to Chicago was less than 20 years ago? They view Chicago as a throw-away city?
Well, I hope they don’t backstab Glen Youngkin.
City leaders already realize that what they’re doing is working.
The voters never will. They keep being lied to.
The two groups aren’t after the same result.
Most people probably don’t recall that Boeing was headquartered in Seattle until 2001 when it moved to Chicago. So the Chicago HQ lasted only 21 years.
Back in 2000, Chicago, Cook County and Illinois awarded Boeing more than $60 million in tax and other incentives over 20 years to relocate to Chicago. Those credits have expired (though Boeing was set to receive 2021 funds this year).
It’s disappointing they chose Virginia for this move.
I see what they doing here. /s
Moving from one Leftist cesspool to another Leftist cesspool with the only difference being the amount of crime and violence being committed in one vs. the other? Okie dokie.
Only a slight improvement.
Jam Boeing down in Arlington somewhere? Must be office space available.
Gotta be office space available.
If there ain’t no office space available fire the hamhead who wanted to torture the employee’s to that degree UNLESS like N-Grumman Boeing telecummutes with One in-office day per week. Reston would have been wiser.
Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Oh no!, three times in a row!.
I don't miss it a bit.
I was on a one-way flight to Thailand one week after my retirement and haven't looked back. I only wish I'd retired a year or two earlier...
So, they’re moving from a corrupt, crime infested Democrat chithole to a corrupt Democrat chithole.
Hey, at least they’re getting away from the violent crime. The crime in the DC Swamp is of the White Collar variety.
Though nowhere near as bad as Chi-raq, with MS13, there is increasingly plenty of the good old fashioned crime in Arlington.
When in trouble focus on either improving competence or politics. Boeing is choosing politics. Boeing is a dying company
They only have to walk a short distance to lobby our political leaders for more fat contracts.
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