It had been a long time since The 78 had been in the news, but the billionaires who want you to fund a monument to themselves have apparently just been lying low.
The unholy trinity of Jerry Reinsdorf (Forbes net worth, two billion-plus), property owner and convicted Anglo-Iraqi fraudster Nadhmi Shakir Auchi (convicted in France and Iraq, net worth also two billion-plus) and developer Stephen M. Ross of the Related Companies (personal net worth now pushing 13 billion) apparently didn’t give up when the legislature adjourned and said no state money was coming their way. They still had useful idiot Mayor Brandon Johnson acting like the city — the dead broke, worse than broke, in godawful financial straits city — might cough up something to make them happy, so they went into stealth mode to await their public handout of billions.