Free Republic

The activity and vibrancy of Chicago's downtown area, once the heart of the city's economy, shifted dramatically in the wake of the pandemic. Physical offices and gathering places closed while remote work soared. Cities across the US are now dealing with the ramifications of that workplace upheaval, despite many companies' attempts to get their employees back into the office. As a result, downtown crowds eating, drinking, and shopping are a fraction of what they once were. Chicago's downtown office space posted a 22.4% vacancy rate in the first quarter of 2023, which poses the question: What does the city do...

Legendary comedian Dave Chappelle inspired more outrage when he joined a group of local residents to kill a proposal for low income housing in rural Ohio as a part of a large residential development. Chappelle grew up in Yellow Springs, Ohio, a small rural village of 3,700 people about 20 miles from Dayton. He bought 39 acres of farmland there and moved back in 2005. On Monday, he attended a village council meeting where he threatened to pull his plans to develop a restaurant called “Firehouse Eatery” and comedy club called “Live from YS" in the town. "I cannot believe...

Men on the Gurnos estate in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, can expect to live 58.8 years - three years less than people in Haiti and eight years less than those in Iraq. Life expectancy....is 20 years lower than the national UK average - and the same as it was for men in Britain back in the depression era of the 1930s. The grim figures revealed by the local Public Health Board are blamed on poor diet, heavy smoking and a high suicide rate due to unemployment. There is also a "culture of despair" in the former iron and coal town...

Thousands of residents of subsidized housing in New Jersey got a last-minute Christmas gift this week, after federal officials agreed to a complex arrangement that advances 21 housing authorities $80 million to renovate old buildings.The authorities will repay the money over 20 years, using 30 percent of their annual appropriation for capital maintenance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. And they benefited from a joint borrowing operation overseen by the state."It's a good news story for housing authorities for once," said David Gardner, executive director of the Morristown Housing Authority, which helped organize the borrowing effort through...