Category Archives: Protect the Commons

Mayor Announces New “Opportunity Areas” – New Path To Privitization?

City Hall announced a new program called “Opportunity Areas.”

As part of a holistic and strategic vision to foster and seize upon growth and development in neighborhoods across Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced nearly $3 billion in private and public development projects in seven targeted Chicago neighborhoods through a new “Opportunity Planning” initiative. The neighborhoods include Englewood, Pullman, Rogers Park, Uptown, Little Village, Bronzeville, and the Eisenhower Corridor.

“Each of these areas is unique and full of potential and the City will play an important role in supporting their growth. Economic development and a neighborhood’s success are reliant upon the support and strategic vision these ‘Opportunity Area’ plans provide,” said Mayor Emanuel. “The City of Chicago in coordination with the private sector has a vital role to play to help communities showcase and support their entertainment, economic and cultural assets. Only then will Chicago be able to live up to its potential as the global city that it should be.”

Privatization alert! The Chicago Reader has been on this story for years. The Huffington Post notes the mysterious launch of a second “progressive” City Council caucus a day AFTER Aldermen announced the formation of a progressive caucus that would be closely monitoring privatization.

Washington Park TIF Town Meeting Packed!

I presented on the six TIFs in the 20th Ward at the Washington Park TIF Town Meeting. Wow. It was packed. Cliff Kelley was the emcee and the attendees had LOTS of questions. We are on to something with the TIF Illumination Project! Below are the presentations plus audio (56 minutes).

TIFs in the 20th Ward from Thomas Tresser

Watch Feb 12 TIF Town Meeting

Thanks to the great folks at CAN-TV you can watch the February 12 TIF Town Meeting produced by The Tax Integrity and Fairness Alliance at the Chopin Theater (1 hour, 22 minutes). View the media coverage and my presentation materials on the impacts of the 12 TIFs inside the 27th Ward here.

Sound Off At TIF Town Meeting

I’ll be presenting at a community town meeting on TIFs on February 12 at the Chopin Theater! Find out the details and RSVP on Facebook.

Featured Speakers:

Ben Joravsky – Award winning political reporter.

Tom Tresser – Citizen activist and civic educator, CivicLab co-founder.

Dr. Richard Dye – Professor at UIC Institute of Government + Public Affairs. (Research finding TIF districts hinder growth)

At the end of 2011 there was $1.39 billion left in TIF bank accounts, yet the City claimed a budget deficit of $636 million at the start of 2012. 30% of Chicago is a TIF district!

The Tax Integrity and Fairness Alliance is hosting a Town Meeting to spread knowledge and demand change on Tuesday, February 12th from 7-9pm, at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 West Division.

Featured Breakout Groups: Citizen Investigation, “Become a TIF Illuminator” with Tom Tresser. Participatory Budgeting, “Design Your Own Utopia” with Sharon Post of Chicago Political Economy Group. “Grassroots Organizing,” with Steven Serikaku, retired CTU teacher and PDA-IL activist. Speak up. Bring your questions!

Download a flier = TIF Town Meeting flyer / Download the press release = TIF Town Hall press release

Listen To Dave: Privatization Is No Panacea

Editor Emeritus Dave Zweifel has been with The Capital Times since he graduated from UW-Madison in 1962, serving as the paper’s editor in chief from 1983 to 2008. He was president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council for 15 years, served as a Pulitzer Prize judge in 2000 and 2001, and named to the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2011.

The common perception among many Americans is that government simply can’t do anything right.

There are whole books of jokes that feature government as the punch line. See those three guys filling a pothole? One’s working and two are supervising. But, what the heck, that’s close enough for government work.

To be sure, there are lots of inefficiencies in some government programs and because of the sheer size of the federal government, often one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing.

We know about that because in our democracy, government is open. When a government official or a bureaucrat does something foolish or wastes valuable resources or unnecessarily spends taxpayers’ money, there are news stories about it. When defense contracts come in way over budget, it makes the news. When a government official holds a meeting at a lavish resort, it hits the press, as it should. With rare exceptions, they can’t hide their mistakes or misdeeds.

That’s not usually the case in private business. Although the mistakes are just as rampant, just as wasteful, just as irresponsible, it’s much easier to sweep the problem under the rug without anyone except the insiders knowing about it. There is no free press serving as a watchdog on private business, as is its function with government…

For every example of alleged ineptitude in government there’s an example of incompetence in the private sector. There are some things that government, working on behalf of all the people, can do better, just as there are some jobs that only private companies should do.

The challenge for us is to not yield to inaccurate perceptions, but to be able to tell the difference.

HSBC Too Big To Indict

From the front page of today’s New York Times:

“State and federal authorities decided against indicting HSBC in a money-laundering case over concerns that criminal charges could jeopardize one of the world’s largest banks and ultimately destabilize the global financial system.

Instead, HSBC announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to a record $1.92 billion settlement with authorities. The bank, which is based in Britain, faces accusations that it transferred billions of dollars for nations like Iran and enabled Mexican drug cartels to move money illegally through its American subsidiaries.

While the settlement with HSBC is a major victory for the government, the case raises questions about whether certain financial institutions, having grown so large and interconnected, are too big to indict. Four years after the failure of Lehman Brothers nearly toppled the financial system, regulators are still wary that a single institution could undermine the recovery of the industry and the economy.

But the threat of criminal prosecution acts as a powerful deterrent. If authorities signal such actions are remote for big banks, the threat could lose its sting.”

You think? First these criminal institutions were too big to fail. Now they’re too big to indict. Sounds like the government is granting effective immunity to banks and corporations to break the law with little effective punishment. If it’s just a fine – well, that’s now the price of doing business. A price that’s passed on to the consumer, which would be us.

Folks, these banks are accused and are guilty of money laundering to terrorist outfits, rogue states and the drug cartels. Aren’t we “at war” with those players? Not to mention tax evasion, criminal fraud, collusion, cover-ups and a pervasive culture of greed and venality. Apparently ANYTHING is OK when there is profit to be made.

Where is the outrage from America’s universities, law schools and business schools? Where is the revulsion and alarm from the columnists, pundits and politicians who have defended the market so unhesitantly?

We Will Pay More For Infrastructure

From Reuters MuniLand Service, reported by Cate Long:

Two major American cities are embarking on large capital programs, but in very different ways. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has a $1.8 billion, five-year plan that he will fund with municipal bonds, while Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is trying to push a $7 billion plan, which will be paid for by private investors, through the city council. It would be hard to find to two more dissimilar approaches to rebuilding America’s urban infrastructure or two more different lists of who will reap the monetary benefit of the improvements.

Boston approaches its infrastructure needs with a rolling five-year schedule of projects that is updated on an annual basis. This allows for more controlled expensing and planning. In contrast, Chicago’s Emanuel announced his infrastructure privatization plan in January with very few details and buy-in only from the private investors who will benefit from their involvement. The Chicago proposal gives control of infrastructure decisions to a panel of four private citizens and one city council member with no ability for the city council to have oversight on projects and contracts. Chicago has a terrible history of leaving taxpayer money on the table in its privatization efforts. In 2008 the city’s parking meters were leased out to private investors for a tiny sum…

“Barber Shop Show” Strolls Down Olympics Memory Lane

The unique WBEZ public affairs interview program, The Barber Shop Show, interviewed Tom as part of a special show looking at the impacts and politics of the Olympics. Listen to the program:

bss87.mp3 on Vocalo.org 89.5

Crowd Says “NO To Privatization!” @ Bughouse Square

I was on the soapbox (again), this time at the Newberry Library’s annual Bughouse Square Debates in Washington Square Park. Prepared for hecklers, I inveighed against the privatizing crooks and back-room deals that have ripped us off and threaten to do worse. But the crowd warmed to my reminders of the Monroe Street Parking Garage, Skyway Bridge and Parking Meter rip-offs and really appreciated my blasting of Mayor Emanuel’s Infrastructure Trust. Listen to the speech (9 minutes):

Tom’s Talk About (and Prototype of) The Gift Economy

I presented at TEDxIIT on Saturday, April 14, on the south side campus of IIT. I talked about The Gift Economy and created one among the attendees. 82 of the 100 attendees actually offered something to their fellow attendees!

Here is the presentation:

Click on the player below to listen and click on the Slideshare viewer to watch the presentation.

The Gift Economy + Report of Prototype

View more PowerPoint from Thomas Tresser

You can watch all the presentations here – http://mypages.iit.edu/~tedxiit/video2012.html