MADELEINE DOUBEK: One fix could solve many problems with city government. PAGE 2
JOE CAHILL: Airlines enjoy their moment in the sun. PAGE 3
CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | JANUARY 23, 2023 | $3.50
Get ready for income-based utility rates
Jim Crown
Huge rate hike proposals from Peoples Gas and Nicor include discounts for lower-income customers, funded by those who make more
GETTY IMAGES
BY STEVE DANIELS
A new Crown steps into the civic spotlight As head of a task force on Chicago crime, Jim Crown is taking on a challenge even more difficult than his father Lester’s causes I BY STEVEN R. STRAHLER AT A RECEPTION LAST SUMMER at the Museum of Contemporary Art, an exhibition of works by Chicago artist Nick Cave wasn’t the only center of attention. Jim Crown, scion of one of Chicago’s richest families, was immobilized by a throng of well-wishers on the museum’s terrace. Crown, though, is on the move elsewhere. Since October, he’s been leading a public safety task force established by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. At 69, he may be finally stepping into his father Lester’s civic leadership shoes to take on Chicago’s scourge of gun violence and the city’s regrettable global image as one big crime scene. The issue is more intractable and politically radioactive than even the knotty ones like O’Hare expansion and a new county hospital the elder Crown took on. See CROWN on Page 21
“BUSINESS WANTS TO SEE POLICE VISIBLE IN FRONT OF ESTABLISHMENTS FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT.” David Olson, a Loyola University Chicago criminology professor
For the first time ever, Illinois utilities are proposing to charge lower-income customers lower rates than everyone else. Both Nicor Gas, which serves most of suburban Chicago, and Peoples Gas, which serves Chicago, have proposed new discounts for tens of thousands of residential customers as part of their record-setting rate-hike requests filed earlier this month. Chicago-based electric utility Commonwealth Edison says it will offer a “progressive” rate-set-
ting proposal by next year. But the discounts wouldn’t cost the utilities any money. Their other residential and business customers would pick up the tab for the subsidized customers. The utilities are responding to a directive in December from the Illinois Commerce Commission, which was authorized in 2021 to reduce utility rates for lower-income households, funded by commensurately higher charges for those above the income threshold. The initiative See GAS on Page 22
Tech ethos on trial in Outcome Health case Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal are the latest startup founders to face serious jail time if convicted of fraud BY JOHN PLETZ Not so long ago, Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal were the shining hope of Chicago’s startup scene. This week, the 37-year-old co-founders of Outcome Health will be tried in federal court on criminal fraud charges stemming from one of the most spectacular business flameouts in Chicago
history. They pleaded not guilty, as did former Chief Operating Officer Brad Purdy, 33, who is also charged with fraud. Shah, Agarwal and Purdy face up to 30 years in prison each if they’re convicted on charges of mail, wire and bank fraud in a scheme that prosecutors allege duped big drug companies and See OUTCOME HEALTH on Page 20
NEWSPAPER l VOL. 46, NO. 4 l COPYRIGHT 2023 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
P001_CCB_20230123.indd 1
YOUR VIEW
REAL ESTATE
Here’s how we can help support women-owned businesses. PAGE 10
The rehabbers of this bungalow refused to pop the top. PAGE 23
1/20/23 3:32 PM