Category Archives: Activism
“TIF 101” Webinar in February – Only $10!
Want to get Illuminated? Attend this one hour “TIF 101” webinar on January 6. It’s free. Tom Tresser of the TIF Illumination Project, will present. Please purchase a seat via EventBrite:
Tell The Mayor To Tell Us Where Our $1.4 Billion Is!
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND SIGN THIS PETITION.
Go the TIF Illumination Project to get the full 2014 analysis of Chicago’s TIF program.
Contribute to the TIF Illumination Project via PayPal (and get some swell swag). We’ve been turned down ten times by national and local foundations.
Help The TIF Illumination Project Survive!
The CivicLab has closed but the TIF Illumination Project can survive and thrive. But only if YOU pitch in. Please contribute to our crowdfunding campaign today. Happy Birthday, America!
CLICK HERE to support The TIF Illumination Project
CivicLab Closes June 30
After two years of jam packed work and hosting 17 social justice and organizing groups the CivicLab must close its doors on June 30, 2015. We’d love to hear from folks who used the space or who found what we did there valuable. Please visit our Facebook page to comment. Thanks!
No Games Chicago Told (Briefly) @ Do Not Submit
There’s a new venue for community-based storytelling in town – The Do Not Submit series. On May 18, 2015 the first instance came to Lincoln Park. I went over to City Grounds Coffee and shared this seven minute story about No Games Chicago.
Tom Interviewed on WGN – Talkin’ Democracy
Michael Stephen of Outside the Loop Radio interviewed Tom on WGN on April 1, 2015. They talked TIFs, what the CivicLab is all about and the need to DO democracy. 17 minutes.
CivicLab Profiled in NewCity
Check out this profile of the CivicLab in the April 22, 2015 issue of NewCity.
Thanks, Mike Workman!
“Among all the different types of maker spaces throughout the city, there’s really not another quite like the CivicLab in the city’s West Loop neighborhood. Operated by Tom Tresser and Benjamin Sugar, the space is a gathering place and laboratory for what Tresser describes as “civic science,” the enthusiasm in his voice rising as he seizes on a topic he is clearly passionate about, “we make Democracy here.” As a longtime public defender in the city, he is perhaps most well known for heading up the No Games Chicago initiative that opposed former Mayor Daley’s efforts to bring the Olympics to the city. “
Chicago, Why Are You So Lame?
April 7 was a very disappointing day in Chicago’s civic life. OK, I did not agree with the results of the election for mayor and there were SOME encouraging signs of progressive independence in aldermanic races. BUT – overall ONLY a 39% turnout? 47 wards had turnout less than 50%. 27 had less than 40% and 3 had less than 30%.
What is it going to take to get people to vote in Chicago?
Help Us Fund The TIF Illumination Project!
The mainstream media in Chicago won’t cover TIFs. The aldermen are all rubber stamps who vote with the mayor 90% of the time. The university public policy shops are not interested. The downtown civic groups won’t look into TIFs. So it’s up to US to investigate and report on what happens to the almost HALF BILLION DOLLARS IN PROPERTY TAXES that Chicago’s TIFs suck up every year.
Help support the The TIF Illumination Project via this crowdfunding campaign today.
Let’s Illuminate Tax Increment Financing Districts by Tom Tresser