BEARS: Arlington Heights bid forces a tough negotiation with Chicago officials. PAGE 3 JOE CAHILL: A voice is missing in Illinois’ energy debate. PAGE4 CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 21, 2021 | $3.50 WHY YOU CAN’T GET A RIDE IN CHICAGO Slow return of drivers explains long waits and high prices BY A.D. QUIG AS CHICAGOANS RETURN to o ces, active ride-hailing drivers on the road restaurants and airports, some have at the end of April 2021, down 60 per- griped of trouble hailing once-ubiqui- cent from April 2019. ere are 1,000 tous cabs downtown, as well as long active cabbies—a decrease of 82 per- wait times and higher prices for ride- cent from 2019. share services. But those numbers represent a big In part, the trouble re ects a mis- jump from the early weeks of COVID match in supply and demand: Driv- stay-at-home orders. In April 2020, ers aren’t returning as fast as cus- there were only 15,000 active ride- tomers. e city’s Department of hail drivers and just 700 cabbies. Business A airs & Consumer Pro- tection estimates there were 27,000 See DRIVERS on Page 19 JOHN R. BOEHM R. JOHN Can Insight stop the NEIGHBORHOOD INVESTMENT bleeding at Mercy? New owner has ideas for struggling safety net BY STEPHANIE GOLDBERG Insight Institute of Neurosurgery A SECOND CHANCE FOR & Neuroscience, which operates e sale of Mercy Hospital & outpatient programs and a 20- Medical Center entrusts one of bed surgical hospital in Michigan. Chicago’s most vulnerable hospi- With 412 beds on Chicago’s tals to a Michigan biotechnology South Side, Mercy presents chal- rm with no experience running lenges that Insight hasn’t faced in AUSTIN a full-service hospital. its home state. e hospital serves Money is vital to any community revitalization. Insight Chicago paid $1 to buy large numbers of low-income pa- struggling Mercy from Catholic tients on Medicaid, which pays Here’s what else is needed, as seen through this hospital chain Trinity Health. hospitals far less than private in- e newly formed nonpro t en- surers. beleaguered neighborhood. PAGE 13 tity is owned by neurosurgeon Dr. JOHN R. BOEHM R. JOHN Jawad Shah, 54, who also runs the See MERCY on Page 28 NEWSPAPER l VOL. 44, NO. 25 l COPYRIGHT 2021 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CHICAGO BOOTH MCDONALD’S INSIGHTS Speeding up the Doing good doesn’t drive-thru: Would have to hurt the you like privacy bottom line. PAGE 8 with that? PAGE 2 P001_CCB_20210621.indd 1 6/18/21 2:52 PM 2 JUNE 21, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS GREG HINZ ON POLITICS What it’ll take to get an infrastructure deal done Chicago caught a little as under existing law, with glimpse of the future a few generous gures for transit days ago. It was hard not to ($155 billion), Amtrak and be impressed, even if you’re other rail ($120 billion) and not a passenger railroad fan. electric-vehicle infrastructure Right there in Union Sta- ($25 billion). e caucus pro- tion was a sparkling Amtrak posal is roughly similar to a long-distance train, complete plan now being backed by 21 with refurbished passenger bipartisan senators, includ- coach and sleeping cars, ing Illinois’ Dick Durbin, a white linen and china in the Democrat. dining car and a powerful “I’m looking for any way to new, low-polluting locomo- get it done. We can’t aord to tive up front. Lots more like do nothing,” says Schneider, a BLOOMBERG that is on the way—and to a member of the Problem Solv- lot more cities, from Louis- ers Caucus. e nation really ville and Toronto to Min- needs far more, something neapolis and Iowa City—if like $4 billion, to invest and McDonald’s drive-thru automation Congress approves its plan catch up with items such as for $75 billion in capital ex- deferred maintenance and penses, Amtrak says. reconstruction of roads and But will it? at’s the bil- bridges, but a step toward clashes with privacy concerns lions-and-trillions question that will help, he argues. e as Congress gets down to de- caucus plan includes raising An Illinois law that’s resulted in drawn-out, multimillion-dollar settlements from cision time on President Joe the gas tax and indexing it to Biden’s huge infrastructure ination, a step that won’t be the likes of Facebook and Six Flags is now threatening the Chicago fast-food chain plan in coming days. popular in suburban areas ere’s a compromise to be such as Schneider’s, but BY ALLY MAROTTI the pandemic in the form of same- intelligence voice assistant violates made here—one that, like all that’s better than putting it store sales growth. an Illinois’ law protecting consum- good compromises, will tick on the plastic. Schneider says An Illinois privacy law that has at was the relatively low-tech ers’ biometric information, which o the hard-liners in both the bigger obstacle in passing ensnared Facebook, Six Flags and part. e high-tech part, however, can include data from iris and camps. But in now utterly something is, as usual, the other companies in yearslong could prove to be a legal snag. ngerprint scans, facial maps and toxic Washington, compro- Senate. lawsuits with multimillion-dollar In November, McDonald’s an- voice information. mise has become a dirty Davis is “not optimistic” settlements is now threatening nounced a plan to deploy technol- e 2008 law is one of the strict- word. So where do things that a bipartisan deal can be McDonald’s eorts to reduce its ogy at some stores that allows au- est of its kind in the country. It al- stand? reached. Now the chairman drive-thru times. tomated ordering and payments, lows private citizens, rather than Here’s what I hear, includ- of a subcommittee that deals e Chicago-based fast-food as well as tools that alert crew just governmental entities, to ing thoughts from two Illinois with roads and bridges, and giant has been working for years members when customers are le lawsuits and has turned Illi- congressmen who are sort of the potential chairman of to speed up drive-thrus, a key ele- nearby to ensure fast pickup. nois into a hotbed of legal activity in the middle of this, Demo- the House Transportation & ment of CEO Chris Kempczinski’s A recent lawsuit takes aim at over the issue. Facebook last year crat Brad Schneider of Deer- Infrastructure Committee if plan for revenue growth. e com- technology McDonald’s uses in agreed to pay $650 million to mil- Republicans control pany streamlined menus, getting some drive-thrus that allows voice lions of its Illinois users to settle a IN UTTERLY TOXIC WASHINGTON, the House in 2023, rid of more complicated items, automated ordering. e lawsuit he generally is a and saw its eorts pay o during alleges that McDonald’s articial See McDONALD’S on Page 7 COMPROMISE IS A DIRTY WORD. roads-and-bridges guy and wants to eld and Republican Rodney avoid anything that smacks of Davis of Taylorville, both of the Green New Deal. But he them about as moderate as is an Amtrak fan. He likes the they can be in their parties, idea of public-private part- give or take. nerships as a funding means, Biden started the bidding hedges on a gas tax and says at $2 billion, money for not he’s convinced Democrats only roads, bridges and really want to ram through something big on a party-line airports but transit, trains, wintrust.com/privateclient incentives for high-tech in- vote rather than hacking out dustries like chipmakers and a compromise. “human infrastructure” like The final outcome could senior and child care, all paid go either way. Some law- NEW NAME SAME GREAT SERVICE for partially by reducing the makers on the GOP right big corporate tax cuts Donald want to drive spending Trump pushed through a few numbers way down. Some years ago. Biden since has on the Democratic left want come down to $1.7 trillion. to go the budget reconcilia- Let us re-introduce ourselves. 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