Cold Hard Cash

The sidewalk is a sheet of ice.  We decided to walk from the hotel to our 9:00 a.m. meeting at Moodys and I’m wondering if hailing a cab would have been a better idea.   I’m in standard protective mode, walking just behind Assistant Finance Director Linda Folland and Mayor Gluba, ready to grab them if they slip.    The bridge deck over I-90 is especially hazardous, but we make it over, and all decide to take a cab to Standard and Poors when we’re done at Moodys.  Risk management is a division under Finance Director Brandon Wright’s responsibility, and he ponders the potential workers compensation cost savings of moving our annual bond sale into the summer months when walking in downtown Chicago doesn’t require crampons.

Brandon and Linda are well prepared for the inquisitions that await after we make it through the Khumbu Icefall and past the congenial security guards at the office buildings which house Moodys and Standard and Poors.  Moodys is in the Boeing headquarters building on the west bank of the Chicago River and S&P is on the 26th floor of the Prudential Building, with a panoramic view of Millennium Park.  Both conference rooms are well stocked with general issue pastries and beverages.  They’re also stocked with credit analysts with precise and peering questions about Davenport’s finances.

We have exact answers to their questions, along with an excellent story to tell.  Mayor Gluba and Finance Chairman Justin tell the story well.  Davenport is on track to add a half billion dollars of taxbase to the regional economy from 2010 to 2015.  We’ve gone from $6.075 billion in 2010 to $6.368 billion in 2014, and have projects lined up to push us past $6.5 billion by the end of 2015.  In the past few years we’ve also built our general fund balance from $9.8 million to $15.3 million.  We have good relations with our collective bargaining groups and have reserved revenue flexibility other cities have long ago used up.  In short, we’re ahead of challenges other cities are behind on, and are an excellent city to invest in.  A pdf of the presentation handout Brandon walks the analysts through is available here.

The analysts have combed through the City’s financial documents in advance of the meeting, and have budgets, CAFRs and official statements brimming with post-it notes.  They page through their notes and ask questions.  If Brandon doesn’t have an immediate answer, Linda does.  Aldermen Justin, Mayor Gluba and I provide context, while Brandon and Linda provide precision.  It’s an annual test proctored by people who poke through city finances for a living.  The final grade, in the form of bond ratings, won’t be posted until next week, but the analysts are generally nodding their heads when we answer.  That’s a good sign.

The 11:00 S&P meeting ends a little after noon, and we thank the analysts for their time.  As we gather up our coats the group makes their way to the windows overlooking Millennium Park.  You can’t help yourself from looking out over the park and lakefront.  The 26th floor gives a perfect vantage point.  Not too low so you can’t see everything.  Not too high so you lose detail.  As Chicagoans do, the analysts point with pride to aspects of the park they like most.  As credit analysts do, they note the park spurred billions in downtown investment.

I remember the park as a railyard.  Since its construction, I’ve seen it many times from various skyscraper and aerial vantage points.  I’ve visited the park dozens of times since it opened in 2004 and I’m hardly alone.  Four million annual park visitors contribute more than one billion a year in tourism dollars to Chicago’s economy, and they’re not done yet.  Maggie Daley Park on its eastern flank is under construction now.  It will be a highly active space, focused on kids, adventure and nature.  You can tell it’s going to be a great park because people are already using it before it is finished.  There’s ice on the sidewalks of Chicago, but there’s also an ice skating ribbon at Maggie Daley Park to go along with the rink at Millennium Park.     It’s lunch hour on Monday, and both are packed.

As we watch the skaters glide along, the parallels to Davenport’s public waterfront are unavoidable.  The vast passive green spaces have no one in them.  The small active play spaces are full of people.  It is Urban Design 101, and from the coldly detached vantage point of the Standard and Poors conference room, prosperous, creative and cool (icy, actually) looks like it’s working