Sterling Bay, Lincoln Yards and the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund.

I had to do a double take on the story in Chicago Crain’s Business yesterday.

The Chicago mega-developer Sterling Bay was asking the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund to loan them money for their struggling Lincoln Yards project.

A personal disclaimer: Although I am a retired teacher and receive a pension, it does not come from the CTPF. Only CPS employees are members of the CTPF. All other public school teachers outside of Chicago are members of the Illinois Teacher Retirement System.

What both teacher pension funds have in common is that due to politician’s failures to adequately meet their actuarial responsibilities, they are hugely underfunded.

The Lincoln Yards project, a massive high-end residential and retail project slated for land along the north branch of the Chicago River, was a last minute stinky deal approved by Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago City Council just prior to Rahm leaving office.

As part of the deal, there was an agreement that Sterling Bay would build below market rate units, but way off-site, far away from the rich folks who would live in Lincoln Yards.

Using TIF funds the City would pay for all the infrastructure work supporting the project.

It was, to put it bluntly, a flagrant misuse of public funds. A boondoggle.

Although the incoming mayor, Lori Lightfoot, opposed the project, she was powerless to stop it once the City Council voted 32-13 to approve the use of TIF funds.

That didn’t stop the Chicago Teachers Union, which had supported Lightfoot’s opponent, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, from blasting Lightfoot for it.

So, you can imagine my surprise at learning that the CTPF, controlled by the CTU, would consider a proposal to now lend Sterling Bay money to bail out the troubled project.

After all, it was the CTU leadership that had once led protests against the corporate misuse of money, TIF dollars that were supposed to go to blighted neighborhoods.

To be fair, Crain’s reports, “CTPF Chief Investment Officer Fernando Vinzons said in a statement to Crain's that the discussions around Lincoln Yards are only "conceptual at this point" and that the investment committee would still need to recommend the Lincoln Yards deal to its board of trustees, which would ultimately have to sign off on any funding commitment, a process that could take months.”

But that these discussions are even going on between Sterling Bay and the CTPF is sort of mind-blowing.