I was asked to give a few “now what” remarks at the end of this forum on running for office in 2015 as progressive standard bearer. Listen to these remarks (with introduction, 4 1/2 minutes).
My (Brief) Vision For Chicago
Monthly Archives: October 2013
It’s Good To Be A Lawyer In Chicago
How can Chicago be broke? The city has paid out $737.1 MILLION in legal settlement and judgement expenses in the nine years of 2003 to 2012. 65% of that is police-related litigation.
$96 MILLION has been spent by the City and Cook County defending Jon Burge and settling with his victims.
In addition, the City has spent $176 million over the past eight years in outside legal fees!
The City has spent a whopping $913,1 MILLION on legal messes.
I should’ve gone to law school!
Privatization 101
I gave this presentation to the Loyola Law School’s Public Interest Law Program Thursday. The audio is 47 minutes. If you’d like a copy, email me at tom@tresser.com.
Hey, Brad, Here’s An Idea – Let’s NOT Privatize Chicago
Chicago Ideas Week founder and chief honcho Brad Keywell (Groupon) ran a full page ad in today’s Chicago Tribune (my scanner isn’t big enough to get it all – this is like one third)…
Thing is, Brad and his wife, Kim each gave the mayor $5,300 for his re-election effort. This from his campaign’s October 2 A-1 report.
The ad gushes about Emanuel, “His vision is raising a city higher than its tallest buildings.” Really? What about the 49 school closings. The $68 million in cuts to the neighborhood schools left standing. The closing of public health clinics. The layoffs of public sector workers. The cuts in service to the CTA. The ever expanding privatization of city services – likehow we pay to get onto subways and buses and the pending shut down of city mammogram programs.
So here’s an idea for Chicago Ideas Week – throw the investment bankers out of City Hall and end the patronage, corruption and insider trading that stands for public policy here. We need MORE public, not less.
DePaul Forum On Proposed Stadium Illuminates 2nd Ward
Students as DePaul organized a public forum on the proposed DePaul Stadium and asked for an Illumination of the 17 TIFs inside the 2nd Ward – spotlighting the site and adjacent TIFs. This research is from The TIF Illumination Project. If you want a copy of this presentation please email tom@civiclab.us.