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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I enjoy that there are two competing Harold's food trucks at Daley Plaza

Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

We published the Cook County Treasurer's Office 2025 Tax Year Bill Analysis! The report analyses bill changes across the county and reviews data from the reassessment of the North suburbs. Read the (interactive!) analysis and view the maps/data here: www.cookcountytreasurer.com/researcharti...

Screenshot of Bill Analysis Map Dashboard showing bill changes in Arlington Heights

Screenshot of Data Dashboard showing 30 years of property tax changes in Cook County

Chicago Tribune Front Page, Monday August 24, 2026

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

The city hall Farmers Fridge hates to see me coming

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Thinking of the newly placed "ice 4 scream!" vending machine in the pedway

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

If the train car lights are partially out, you need to take a calculated risk. You're more likely to get a seat, but the AC is almost certainly broken

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

kingdom hearts but it's me and the boys shooting hoops

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I will not tolerate Donald Duck slander

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I think the odyssey should be on the great lakes

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Love a work commute through the haze of wildfire smoke

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Oh, to walk outside for lunch and enjoy a farmers market tamale while watching a dragon dance on a bright spring in day in downtown Chicago

Dancers at the Daley Plaza Farmers Market in Chicago

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

The good people at the Cook County Assessor's Office just released the initial 2024 update for PTAXSIM! This release required a lot of work for them to account for the new TIF calculation method and changes to the county's source data. Excited to test out the new update! github.com/ccao-data/pt...

github.com

GitHub - ccao-data/ptaxsim: R package for estimating Cook County property tax bills

R package for estimating Cook County property tax bills - ccao-data/ptaxsim

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Reminds me of my favorite, from 1895: a mob throwing red pepper at the police while attempting to abduct a priest at St. Hedwig's in Bucktown

Article from the Chicago Tribune in 1895 describing a riot at St Hedwig's Church

Article from the Chicago Tribune in 1895 describing a riot at St Hedwig's Church (pt 2)

Article from the Chicago Tribune in 1895 describing a riot at St Hedwig's Church (pt 3)

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

I like how meteorologists can do something cool like predict the size of hail that rains down from the sky and then have to be like "it's kinda golf ball sized?" when they explain it

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Reposted by Christopher Silber

Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · 09/03/2026

Property owners in Chicago neighborhoods slammed with big bill increases have come up short paying them in full, according to a new analysis of collection rates from Treasurer Maria Pappas’ office measured roughly a month and a half after the due date.

trib.al

Property tax collection rates drop in Chicago neighborhoods with big bill hikes

Residential property tax collections fell in 11 of the 13 community areas with the highest tax increases in 2024.

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Read the report, with several interactive maps and dashboards, here: it works better on desktop than mobile (we're working on fixing that...) If you're interested in a community, region, or property type, I tried to make it easy to filter the data. www.cookcountytreasurer.com/pappasportal...

cookcountytreasurer.com

Cook County Treasurer's Office - Chicago, Illinois

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

It's worth noting that homeowners in these neighborhoods paid a lot more in taxes than last year, but it just wasn't enough to cover the increased bill amounts. I also found many tax delinquent homeowners made partial payments, meaning they're trying, but struggling, to pay their bills.

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

For this analysis, I crunched the numbers on Tax Year 2024 collection rates as of Feb 1, 2026, and compared those to collection rates at the same point in the cycle in prior years. People who are late on their bill payments still have a lot of time to pay, but monthly interest will be added.

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Remember those large residential property tax increases in Chicago's South and West Side? I found that those tax spikes resulted in lower initial collection rates, meaning more homeowners in places like W. Garfield Park, N. Lawndale and Englewood are tax delinquent than last year at the same time:

Graphic from Treasurer's Office Analysis of Tax Year 2024 residential collection rates in Chicago Community Areas, showing a drop in collection rates compared to last year in communities that saw large bill increases

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Found a fun Tribune article from 1995. The newspaper got a hold of the Bears' internal PR strategy for using the media to help the team get a new stadium. And yes, almost exactly 30 years ago the Bears said they were looking at Indiana to persuade Illinois to go in on a new/refurbished stadium

First page of November 8 1995 Chicago Tribune article by Julie Deardorff detailing the Chicago Bears PR strategy for pitching a new stadium to the media.

Second page of November 8 1995 Chicago Tribune article by Julie Deardorff detailing the Chicago Bears PR strategy for pitching a new stadium to the media.

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

As a reminder: the TIF distribution calculation changed in tax year 2024. What had been tax code-level distribution calculations now occur at the property-level, necessitating a PIN table to explain TIF revenue.

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

btw, it looks like the Cook County Clerk published the new PIN-level TIF distribution table on its website. This is the same table I used to do the TIF analysis section of the Treasurer's Office 2024 Tax Bill Analysis. Link here: www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/property-tax...

Screenshot of the Cook County Clerk's website highlighting the new "TIF PIN List" table for tax year 2024

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

I admit today was a bad day to get a flat tire

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Yeah, I think that's fair, and probably worth taking a hard look at in future TIF studies. I don't think either way is wrong, just diff interpretations of how TIF works. I saw Prof. Weber mentioned the differences in a paper back in 2007, if you're interested (p10): www.cdfa.net/cdfa/cdfaweb...

cdfa.net

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

(I don't have an official answer bc the Clerk's Office handles TIF distribution.) I think in the past the Clerk was limited by the old mainframe. The new way is how many collar counties do the calculation (see Lake, for example), and IMO it's more transparent. www.lakecountyil.gov/268/Tax-Exte...

lakecountyil.gov

Tax Extension Data 2016-Present | Lake County, IL

View tax extension data by year dating back to 2016.

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

It's one reason why this year the tax amount going to south suburban TIFs increased by 19%, even though it's not a reassessment year:

Graphic showing TIF tax amount changes from 2023-2024. The South suburbs increased by 19.1%, higher than the north (9.7%) and Chicago (10.4%)

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

This means individual properties in a TIF will have different distribution percentages depending on how much each property's value increased. The main difference is that now TIFs with a lot of properties losing value will collect more money, because any property gaining value will add increment.

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

For Chicago TIF data wonks: you might be surprised to find out that Cook County's TIF distribution calculation method changed this year!! In the past, current/frozen EAVs were aggregated at the tax code level to determine an area TIF distribution %. Now, this calc occurs at the property level.

Snippet from the Treasurer's 2024 tax bill analysis noting that the TIF distribution calculation method changed in 2024

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

For this year's tax bill analysis, I revamped our map dashboard! Users can view block-level AV and tax bill changes by property type in any Cook County municipality, Chicago community area, or assessment region. Works on phones, best on a computer! Link: www.cookcountytreasurer.com/taxbillanaly...

Screenshot of the Treasurer's Office 2024 Tax Bill Analysis map dashboard showing a 76.71% tax bill increase for residential properties in North Lawndale.

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

I've seen some great articles on our report, including pieces in the Tribune (featuring web maps!), the Sun-Times, and Crain's. Give them a read!

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Today marks the release of the annual Cook County property tax bill analysis! It wasn't an easy year to put this together, but we hope it helps shed light on changes to your tax bills. You can read the full report and view our data dashboards here: www.cookcountytreasurer.com/taxbillanaly...

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Read my Cook County property tax collections update on the CCTO website! Major topics: -Collections have rebounded after a slow start -Southland residents are struggling -many place still have very low collection rates Read and and peruse the data here: www.cookcountytreasurer.com/pappasportal...

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

I'm not even mad, Yamamoto was so good he deserved to finish it

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

Do new CTA bus stop signs not tell you the number to text 41411?

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Kinda obsessed with the concept of a pedway sidewalk cafe

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Would be cool if they brought back a music venue here. But I don’t have much faith in this landlord

Screenshot of a Google search for the Milwaukee Ave YETI store showing that it is permanently closed

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Every day is muggier than the last

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

Deconverting a 4 unit apartment into a single family home shouldn’t be legal in the city of Chicago

Chicago building permit for the reconversion of a 4 unit, 2.5 story apartment into a single family home

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

I have seen the light. Chicago’s bagel/deli desert must be remedied

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Coming to terms with the fact that I just look severely midwestern

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

What should I do in New York City

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

The CTA is always innovating, today I got the sauna car 🤩

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Scientists believe the universe began at the intersection of Madison and State streets. After some catalyzing event, the universe expanded in all directions in a grid-like fashion, as calculated by comparing street address numbers near the intersection with those further away.

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Christopher Silber @csilber.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

FYI - the Cook County Treasurer plans to postpone this year’s tax sale. During the delay, no extra interest will accrue on delinquent taxes subject to the sale. Here’s the press release with more info:

Press Release from the Cook County Treasurer’s Office stating that the office plans to postpone the annual tax sale until March 2026 once legislation passed by the Illinois General Assembly officially becomes law. The postponed sale will allow the office more time to work with state legislature to pass comprehensive property tax foreclosure reforms. During the delay, no extra interest will be added to delinquent taxes subject to the sale.

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