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Rahm Emanuel
Tuesday, October 11, 2016 1 :56:41 AM
Michael D. McCurry
While the whole city is enraptured with our Cubs' postseason run, I wanted to make sure you didn't miss several
other key pieces of news coming out of Chicago recently.
Last week S&P announced they upgraded their outlook for the financial future of the City of Chicago from
negative to stable. This is a major milestone for the city. They follow Fitch, who also improved their outlook for
the city three weeks ago. Both recognize the strength of our economy and lauded our work to address decades
of financial mismanagement, from shrinking the budget deficit to putting all four city pension systems on the
path to long-term solvency. Below is an article from Crain's Chicago Business on the news.
http ://www. chi cagobusiness .com/arti cle/20161007 /BLOGS02/ l 6 l 009864/sp-gives-chicago-some-good-creditnews
Additionally, after years of hard work, we opened a new Whole Foods in the Englewood community on the
South Side in late September. This was an important moment in Englewood's economic development. Not only
did we create new good-paying jobs for Chicago residents in Englewood and give more than 30 local vendors
the opportunity to sell their goods on the shelves of this new store, we brought healthy and nutritious food to a
former food desert. Today, we opened another new grocery store on the South Side, a Mariano's in Bronzeville,
which will create 400 new jobs and stock its shelves in part with products from local vendors.
http://www. usatoday. com/story /news/2016/10/10/whol e-foods-marianos-dip-toes-poor-chicagoneighborhoods/91794408/
Chicago also generated some major news in the corporate world. In late September, Wilson Sporting Goods
announced they are relocating 400 employees and their global headquarters to the Prudential building
downtown. Last week we learned that Chicago will soon be home to the new Mars Wrigley Confectionerywhich
will be world's largest candy company.
There's also more good news about continued progress of our students. Following recent record-setting
achievements by CPS students, this year more than 80 percent of schools in the district were rated in one of the
top 3 ratings levels--compared to just 70 percent of schools last year. More schools have risen to the highest
rating category, and fewer schools are ranked in the lowest category, further evidence of the systematic
improvements in Chicago's schools.
Finally, over the weekend as thousands of runners were trying to break records in the Bank of America Chicago
Marathon, Chicago broke another kind of record. We are already one of only three U.S. cities to welcome more
than 50 million visitors annually, and in the first three quarters of the year Chicago saw record tourism again - 2
percent growth from 2015, putting us on pace for 53 million visitors this year.