Author: TomTee

Mr. Mayor, Empty The TIFs

From a press conference held outside the State of Illinois Building on August 2, 2013. The Chicago Teachers Union and the RAISE your Hand Coalition of concerned public school parents delivered a letter to Attorney General Lisa Madigan asking her to get the true story of where our $1.7 billion in TIF funds are being held.

Join with over 3,000 people who have signed this online petition to the mayor from The TIF Illumination Project demanding that the TIF accounts be emptied and all property taxes turned over to the units of government that should’ve gotten those dollars in the first place.

MoveOn Supports Petition Campaign!

MoveOn-TIF_petition
MoveOn has awarded the CivicLab a $1,000 Opportunity Fund grant to support the TIF IlluminationProject’s online petition drive aimed at getting the $1.7 billion in property tax funds that were in TIF accounts on January 1, 2013 distributed to the units of government that should’ve received those funds in the first place. Over 3,000 people have signed in three weeks! Thanks, MoveOn!

We Have A Home! Do YOU Need One?

114 Aberdeen-cropped The CivicLab has a home!

We are so excited to announce that as of July 1, 2013 we have moved into the first floor of an 1870’s firehouse at 114 N. Aberdeen in the West Loop!

We are seeking people and organizations to co-work with us, that is, to rent space at the CivicLab and to hang with us when you need a place to work and meet.

We are also seeking people to teach classes and workshops on a broad range of civic and science topics. See our main page on this website for full details.

WE NEED STUFF! If you have furniture, computer gear, book shelves, tools and other items that would help us get started – PLEASE DROP THEM OFF ON SATURDAY, JULY 20, between 10am and 7pm. For more information, please call 312-857-6485 or email info@civiclab.us

Please drop by any week day from 10am to 6pm!

Logan Square TIF Forum

TIFs_Logan_Square
Neighbors from Logan Square want to know what TIFs are doing to their community. Even though The TIF Illumination Project was supposed to be on summer break after doing 12 Wards in four months – we couldn’t say no. So – join us on July 18 at Haas Park at 6:30pm when we talk TIFs in Logan Square. Details and RSVP at Facebook, http://tinyurl.com/TIF-meeting-7-18.

49th Ward Illuminated! We’re Done (for now)

Crowd+textIt 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.

That makes 89 TIFs Illuminated in 12 wards though 15 meetings in four months. Time to take a break and evaluate this project.

 

 

 

 

Here is the presentation. The audio is 55 minutes long.

Time To Illuminate The 49th Ward

49th Ward_flier-web It’s going to be a TIF-APALOOZA in the 49th Ward on Monday, July 1st! Join us at 7pm at Loyola Park when we expose the TIFs in the north Rogers Park community. Details & RSVP via Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Present-7-1.

This is going to be an extra-special Illumination because we’ll be joined by the Chicago Reader’s amazing political reporting team of Mick Dumke and Ben Joravsky. They’ve reported extensively on TIFs and related issues here for years. Mick is a long-time resident of the 49th ward.

This will the TIF Illumination Project’s last community Illumination for a while. We are re-grouping and evaluating the work done over the past four months. We’ve Illuminated 89 TIFs in 12 wards before some 1,200 people. Not bad for an all volunteer effort!

Mick+Ben