We are proud to announce that the CivicLab’s TIF Illumination Project was a finalist for the MIT Solve Global Challenge “Antiracist Technology in the U.S.”! Seven winners were chosen from the 15 finalists from this challenge. There are four other global challenges and over 1,800 solutions were submitted from 29 countries! The 35 winners across all five challenges shared a $2 million prize pool! Our solution-> http://tinyurl.com/Vote-4-CL-Tech-Challenge Watch the pitch below:
This has been an incredible few weeks! On April 23, 2021 the Chicago Tribune ran the most complete explanation of the TIF Illumination Project since we started the work in 2013! Thanks to the citizen organizers of Save Our Southland SOS!
On May 10, 2021 I was interviewed on WBEZ’s “Reset” program by Sasha-Ann Simon. The 16 minute segment was part of their series “Re-Imagine Chicago.”
I teach “Civics 101” for the awesome training and leadership development organization i c stars. The most current class, Cycle 47, sent me a wonderful set of images expressing how the class (four sessions) impacted them. I was deeply touched. Thank you. If you would like a civics workshop, please contact me at tom@civiclab.us. You can see the workshops I offer via the POWER Institute.
Have you heard of We Will Chicago? This is a new city-wide planning effort launched by the city with a few major partners. Here’s my comment on their web site:
“I am deeply suspicious. The city has a long history of top down planning loaded with clouted mega nonprofits whose HQ are in the Loop and who are run by former Daley insiders and for-profit consultants (mostly White). What have you all given us so far that makes you the proper home for this work? Pushing the 2016 Olympic bid on us? Pushing privatization scams? Standing to the side as over policing runs rampant in communities of color? Standing by as TIFs stole $10 billion and sent billions to clouted developers (who will gain even more from this work, I’m certain). Where were you all when the two racist super TIFs were approved for Lincoln Yards and Project 78 that will divert $2.3 billion in public dollars to subsidize two mega developments in affluent White Chicago? Oh wait, the VP of the Metropolitan Planning Council was a “public representative” on the Joint Review Board that voted to APPROVE the Lincoln Yards TIF despite hundreds of people protesting and seven aldermen-elect protesting in the street on the morning of that cursed vote. No, I would say, surrender this approach and turn over all funding (past and forthcoming) for this work to grassroots groups who are struggling to make ends meet and who deliver real service and justice every day DESPITE your planning and love of clouted projects that shower love and resources on already prosperous parts of the city.”
They deleted my comment! Here is what they said:
“Hi Tom_Tresser, Thank you for signing up and providing feedback on the 2020 Citywide Plan Referendum consultation. Unfortunately your comment was removed by our moderators because it breached our moderation rule: The comment was potentially defamatory . Comment Details:
Project: 2020 Citywide Plan Referendum
Topic: Citywide Plan Referendum Survey
Moderators Comments: The comment was potentially defamatory. Please edit before reposting. Thank you.
If you feel our decision should be reviewed, please reply to this email with an explanation of the reason/s your comment should be reinstated. Your argument will be considered by our moderation team in due course. We will advise you if we change our decision. Please note, however, the decision of the moderation team is final and following a review, no further correspondence will be entered into. Moderation of this site is provided by Bang the Table Pty Ltd.
Here’s my reply (I was agitated): “What a load of crap. There was nothing “defamatory” about my comment. Just some facts and a strong opinion. How dare you silence my comment – I’m a taxpayer, a long time activist, educator, and former candidate for county-wide office. The leaders of the Metropolitan Planning Council are adults and they can take a dose of criticism, as should the mayor and all the people behind this planning effort. Your decision mocks the mayor’s repeated declarations of “transforming” Chicago’s corrupt and arrogant government. It reminds me of the days of Mayor Richard J. Daley turning the mike off on aldermen who got too disagreeable.
I ask you to reverse your decision and post my comment as I wrote it.
If you are offended by my few words, you better get ready for much stronger stuff as grassroots organizers get wind of this nonsense.
By the way, who, exactly is the “Moderation Team” – do you work for the Bang The Table that has offices in Australia and Boulder, CO. What do you know about the civics here in Chicago?”
My chapter “Chicago Is Not Broke – Moving from Scarcity to Abundance” appears in Prof. Dick Simpson’s newly released “Twenty-First Century Chicago” from Cognella Press. Guess who has the next chapter in the book? Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Pretty cool, no?
Check out my first post for Medium, “Time To Embrace #More Public” and the related video at https://tinyurl.com/Great-Public-Hoover-Dam.
Saturday – July 18, 10am-12pm CST
Register @ https://tinyurl.com/CE-Time-Isolation-7-18-20
The times call for more participation in public life, not less. How can we do justice, do civic work, and fight for equity and the well-being of our neighbors in a time of isolation? This webinar experience will address this issue and participants will join small groups to explore, share, and – hopefully – laugh! We will share insights around isolation, resilience, effectiveness, tool building, and more. It will be facilitated by Tom Tresser and Jonathan Peck, of the CivicLab (www.civiclab.us), Chicago’s “do tank” for innovation and capacity building around civic engagement and social justice. Jonathan and Tom have a combined 60 year experience in social justice, organizing, and grassroots campaigning.
Registered for the June 13th session were leaders from these institutions:
University of Chicago – WTTW Public TV Chicago – Loyola University – Northwestern University – Ohio University – Mercer University – Cal State University (Channel islands, Chico, Los Angeles, East Bay, San Marcos, Long Beach) – Stanford University – Centenary College of Louisiana – San Jose State University – Emory University – Tisch College of Public Life, Tufts University – Stanislaus State University – Sonoma State University – Texas Christian University – Worcester Polytechnic Institute – Frederick Douglass Center for Collaborative Leadership- Cincinnati Federation of Teachers – Indivisible Illinois – New Have Christian Church – Sierra Club – STRUT Learning – Center for Media & Democracy – Blocks Together Chicago – Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights – Arts Alliance Illinois – Lutheran School of Theology – Northside Action for Justice – SEIU – Enlace Chicago – Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights – NAME Illinois – Vietnamese Association of Illinois – Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago – Public Health Institute – Arts Alliance Illinois – Ohio University – Northside Action for Justice (Chicago) – UNICEF USA – Illinois Collaboration on Youth – UBUNTU Academy
…with these titles:
Director of Campus & Community Engagement – Faculty Director of Community Engagement – Director, Office of Service Learning – Director of Community Partnerships – VP, Community Engagement -Executive Director, Student Civic Engagement – Faculty Director, Global Studies Program – Program Director, Community Action Volunteers in Education – Founding Director – Restorative Justice Coordinator – Organizer – Deputy Director for Civic Engagement – Team Lead – President – Census Coordinator – Youth Programs – Field Organizer – Deputy Director, Civic Engagement – Director of the Center for Campus & Community Engagement -Organizer – Community Engagement Manager – Chief Program Officer – CEO
Illustration: Gracia Lam
This is what I posted on LinkedIn on May 15.
“There can be no real equity in Chicago as long as TIFs roll along. INVEST Southwest promises $250 million in TIF funding for ten communities of color where 488,000+ people live right now. The two super TIFs for the mega developments Lincoln Yards and Project 78 have committed $2.4 BILLION in TIF subsidies. These projects are in White, affluent parts of Chicago. NO ONE lives there now. And now as THIRD mega-project, the Michael Reese Hospital site (on the lake front) wants $200 million in TIF public dollars. See our arguments for ABOLISHING TIFs at https://tinyurl.com/TIFs-Social-Justice. Tom Tresser – tom@civiclab.us”
On may 16, Paul O’Connor, the Senior Urban Strategist for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill posted this response:
“I have no idea whether TIF should be repealed or not, but I do know you are making a disingenuous, if popular, argument. On Lincoln Yards and 78, the developers have to build the TIF-covered infrastructure with their own money — all risk on them, not the taxpayers. If they build those bridges and CTA stations etc. as they promised, then they get the TIF money. But you suggest to those reading that this TIF money is cash that can be spread around. Not so. Usually, the TIF money doesn’t even exist before a development changes lower-valued land to higher-valued land for tax purposes: the value difference is the “increment” (the “I” in TIF). Where the cash comes in is that local units of government postpone collecting the full taxes taxes on the newly created property values, and the developer keeps a portion of the cash value it has created. But it’s not right to link the apple of INVEST South + West with the oranges of these other two projects under cover of racial discrimination.”
Here is my reply from May 17.
“Paul – thanks for taking the time to comment on my post. Here’s how I look at these mega-projects. First – why do we need to pick up any related costs to their for-profit ventures? As I look around the research and online posting by well respected developers and real estate firms, I find that developers are responsible for 100% of construction inside NEW communities – which Lincoln Yards and Project 78 are (and the newly announced Burnham Shore, aka Michael Reese Hospital site is). So – if you and your clients want to build mega-projects on these vacant or almost-vacant sites, then they need to pay for them, including new streets, water lines, and, yes, even a new subway station if that station’s main purpose is to serve the new development. This leads to the second, related, objection. Why should the siting of these mega-projects in mostly White affluent parts of the city DRIVE public infrastructure planning and spending? The good (mostly Black) residents of the far south side have been waiting for the Red Line extension for 30 years. I suppose that the mostly White people who live in the Lincoln Yards project will enjoy a new Metra Station and the mostly White people living in Project 78 will enjoy their new Red Line station way before the folks in Pullman board at their Red Line stop. You say that the tax money is created FROM the developments and goes to pay the developers back for their risky investments in public infrastructure. But I say those investments are part of the deal – part of the overall risk of building in the first place. Let them prosper – by all means – with NO TIF MONEY. This way our public services – most notably our public schools which serve a student body predominately of color – will not be starved of those property tax dollars for 23 years. Come on, the developers are imagining that thousands of people will be living in their units – many will have kids that will go to public schools – all will use public services – but NONE will pay for those services via their property taxes for a GENERATION. That pushes up the taxes on the rest of us. That is not right. That is naked inequity. And here’s a fact that needs to be shouted from our civic rooftops – buried in the fine print for the Lincoln Yards and the Project 78 TIFs are $800 MILLION in finance fees. Now that is plainly obscene. Haven’t we sent enough of our public funds to Wall Street? That’s $800 million that will NOT go to our public schools, public libraries, public parks, or any public purpose. And lastly, I object to clouted and wealthy firms like SOM running the development show in Chicago. I object to these large developers showing cash on the mayor, the aldermen, and elected from the Governor to the Attorney General and even justices of the Illinois Supreme Court. The CivicLab has documented too many cases of TIF recipients delivering bounteous campaign dollars to elected officials over the years. You and your firm, SOM, are masters at Chicago politics. SOM, you, and four other senior members of the Chicago office have contributed $136,944 to local electeds – that I could find using public records and a PC connected to the Internet. Imagine what we could discover if had vast resources like you have available to you. But your firm has been connected to Chicago politics for over 50 years. “Architecture was not a passive component but rather an active component of the political machine under [Richard J.] Daley” states Bill Motchan in a 2014 post on Chicagoarchitecture.com in an article entitled How Chicago’s Mayor Used the Power of Architecture to Influence Politics. So, I think the picture of TIFs in Chicago is one of clout and inequity. We have much more evidence and analysis on this topic and invite you to visit https://tinyurl.com/TIFs-Social-Justice to review the foundation of our argument. The full set of arguments with sources can be found in our new book “Eliminate TIFs & Establish the Right To Development” which can be downloaded at www.civiclab.us.
