Join us on December 4 when we Illuminate the 11th Ward! We’ll be at The First Trinity Lutheran Church, Community Room, 643 W. 31st Street from.
7:00pm to 9:00pm. Details here. Contribute to our crowdfunding campaign to produce five TIF training videos.
Category: News
TIF Project Included In New Book From SAIC
Tom Tresser has an article in Art Against the Law from the School of the Art Institute (edited by Rebecca Zorach), “The TIF Illumination Project and Civic Imagination.” Check it out at http://tinyurl.com/ArtxLaw.
27th Ward Illuminated (Again)
It was a star-studded 25th TIF Illumination Project town meeting on November 7, 2014 at VenueOne when we Illuminated the 12 TIFs of the 27th Ward.
Here is part of the presentation. The full version, including all the details of the TIF activity for the 27th Ward for 2013 (it’s staggering) is available for $2.50 at our TIF Data Store.
The meeting was hosted by Gabe Buekinga, candidate for Alderman of the 27th Ward. Joining us were former State Senator (and alderman of the 27th Ward) Ricky Hendon and 2nd Ward Alderman Bob Fioretti, candidate for mayor.
CivicLab Launches First Crowdfunding Project!
Do you want EVERYONE to get Illuminated? If you do, will you please make an investment in our first crowdfunding campaign? The TIF Illumination Project is seeking to raise $15,000 to produce five twenty minute videos on all aspects of the TIF Program in Chicago. Even if you live outside of Chicago you can pitch in because the basic truths and abuses we document here are applicable across the USA as 47 states have Tax Increment Financing Programs. Learn more and invest here.
We will use these funds to pay the videographers and to support the ongoing operations of the CivicLab. We’ll be posting updates and script outlines on the TIF Reports web site on this page.
Citizen Science @ The Lab as part of Chicago Ideas Week
We’re Learning How To Run
We’ve got candidates and campaign workers in the room for The CivicLab Campaign School featuring Kurth Lampe! All attendees received a USB drive with a campaign manual, a sample budget, a sample media advisory, a great communication strategy tool and spreadsheets with the ward-by-ward results of the 2011 Mayoral and Aldermanic elections. Email us at info@civiclab.us to find out how you can get one for yourself!
Interview Reveals (Mostly) All About Tom
CivicLab co-founder Tom Tresser was interviewed for the master designer series of podcasts produced by the American Design and Master-Craft Initiative. The podcst is 47 minutes long. What does Tom have to do with design? Well might you ask. You’ll just have hunker down and listen. Hint – Tom used to be an actor, theater producer and arts activist.
All TIF Presentations Now Available
Since February of 2013 The TIF Illumination Project has Illuminated 127 TIFs across 29 wards in front of some 3,400 people. In case you missed any of those thrilling presentations, you can now download any or all of them for only $2.50 each at our new TIF Data Store. Just click on the “TIF Illumination” category and you’ll see all the presentations and other files that are available.
Remember, while the TIF work is 100% volunteer powered, we have to cover the expenses of our home, the CivicLab and we’d also like to build an online platform to make all this data (and much more) easily available.
You can also donate a tax deductible contribution via our fiscal agent, the Investigative News Network here.
TIF Presentations Viewed 44,000+ Times
We upload all the TIF presentations to http://www.slideshare.net/tomtee. These presentations have been viewed over 44,000 times!
The champ is the two presentations on the 27th ward which were viewed a total 4,292 times.Thar works out to something like 10 views every day since they were uploaded.
So – if you are one of the people whose viewed these presentations and found them valuable – PLEASE support our work by (1) signing our email list at http://tinyurl.com/SignUp-CivicLab, (2) consider renting a desk with us (we’re in Chicago’s West Loop), and (3) making a deducible contribution via our fiscal agent, the Investigative News Network – http://tinyurl.com/SupportTheLab-INN. Contact Tom Tresser at tom@civiclab.us.
Chicago Reader Cites Work of TIF Project
Thanks to tireless TIF reporter Ben Joravsky of The Chicago Reader for this wonderful piece. He connects the dots from the supposed state of Chicago’s finances to the plight of our public schools and the tens of millions, nay, hundreds of millions of property tax dollars, we shower on major corporations.
None of this work would’ve been possible without the hundreds of hours contributed by our all volunteer team of coders, map makers, graphic designers, researchers and community organizers who – collectively – have now Illuminated 127 TIFs across 29 wards. The full record of these forums are here. If you want YOUR ward Illuminated, contact us at tom@civiclab.us.
When we Illuminate a ward we tell you: (1) overview of how TIFs work in Chicago, (2) how many TIFs in the ward, (3) best estimate of how much $ those TIFs took from your ward, (4) how much money left in TIF accounts FROM your ward, (5) who got paid from TIFs in your ward. We even provide a nifty graphic map that lays all this out in a super clear manner. No one else can tell you all this!