The volunteers of the CivicLab’s TIF Illumination Project are honored to be profiled in the July 22 issue of The Nation in a cover story feature entitled, “Chicago Rising.” The author attended the 4th Ward TIF Illumination on May 13. You can see all the presentations made at all 12 Ward Illuminations here – http://tifreports.com/tif-town-meetings.
It was a packed house at the Loyola Park field house on July 1. Despite a beautifully balmy summer night, over 100 people came to see the TIFs of the 49th Ward Illuminated.
Thanks to Don Gordon and the other organizers for pulling off a great meeting.
Here is the presentation. The audio is 55 minutes long.
We’re heading north on July 1 to Illuminate the four TIFs in the 49th ward. Details and RSVP via Facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/
A special TIF treat – Chicago Reader political reporters Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke will be featured speakers. Ben got us started in the TIF biz! CivicLab co-founder Tom Tresser produced a meeting on TIFs in Lincoln Park back in 2008 where Ben broke it all down. No, Ben won’t be appearing with former Mayor Daley. It’s just a great picture!
It was a packed house at the McKinley Park Library for the 11th and 12th Ward Illumination. The TIF Illumination Project lit up the 16 TIFs inside those two wards. See the presentation and listen to the audio (59 minutes). If you find this work valuable, please make a non-deductible investment via WePay. Who else is telling you how TIFs are impacting Chicago on a ward-by-ward basis? Read coverage from Progress Illinois.
Check out this ten minute interview from Outside The Loop radio to get an overview of TIFs and a sneak preview of the 11th Ward TIF Illumination coming up on June 5.
The Mayor has announced plans for hundreds of millions of dollars on tourism-related construction, including 10,000 seat basketball arena for DePaul University near McCormick Place. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the project will require $103 million in public finance and TIF-related dollars. Read DePaul’s description of the project.
When you read the hy
pe, you hear phrases like “world-class destination” and “tourism mecca” being offered as visions for the city. The plan includes giving DePaul naming rights to the new stadium. The President of DePaul, Rev. Dennis Holtschneider said “I’d like to keep our student tuition from rising. Any way we can keep the cost down so I don’t have to put this on student tuition is a wonderful thing.” I’d like to keep my property tax bills down. I’d like to keep our public schools open and hire more teachers. I’d like to expand public transportation, not cut service. Giving DePaul, the largest Catholic university in America over $100 million of public dollars for a private stadium is a gross misuse of public funds.
DePaul’s 2013-2014_budget is expecting revenues of $629,557,366! Why do they need our $103 million for their facility?
It’s another example of…
Despite a Bull’s playoff game 50 people came Room 43 on Monday, May 13 for the 4th Ward Illumination. Read the coverage at Progress Illinois. See the presentation and listen to the audio at SlideShare.
It’s time to shed some light on the 11 TIFs inside the 4th Ward. Join us on Monday, May 13 at 6pm at Room 43 to learn:
– How much property tax is extracted from each TIF inside the ward
– How much money FROM the ward was left in the TIFs at the end of 2011
– What projects inside the ward got funded
You can get the details and RSVP here: http://tinyurl.com/
Is your alderman on the list of sponsors of the Privatization Transparency Ordinance”? If so, call them and tell them to get it out of Alderman Mell’s committee and have voted on by the full City Council.
The sponsor is 6th Ward Alderman, Roderick Sawyer. He said, upon introducing this bill in November of 2012, “I do not believe that there are no good privatization deals, I just think we should be clear about which deals are in the best interest of the city and which are not. I have a concern about touting a monetary savings if we haven’t thought about the people that will lose a job, the families that could lose a home and the local businesses that could lose a loyal customer. ”
Download the proposed law here – Privatization Transparency and Accountability Ordinance. Read it for yourself.
If our City Council can’t pass this, they should all be fired in the 2015 municipal elections.
The Chicago Tribune reported the obvious today.
