Category: Presentations

It was a packed house at the 33rd Ward TIF Illumination on August 8, 2013! Over 120 people filled the community room at the Christ Lutheran Church in Albany Park to learn the details of the four TIFs in their ward. Aldermen Deb Mell and Ray Colon attended the full meeting and heard from parents and school children on the devastating impacts of the recently announced school cuts on their lives. They Aldermen were asked to pledge to take the $1.7 billion from the TIF accounts and send that money to the units of government that should’ve received those funds in the first place. They did so. Then they were asked to sign a giant check for $850,000,000 – the public’s share of that money. They did so!

The meeting was organized by The Albany Park Neighborhood Council.

Review the presentation by Tom Tresser here.

Add your voice to the demand that the Mayor empty the TIF accounts and put that money to work for the people by signing this petition.

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.

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!

We’re heading north on June 11 to Illuminate the four TIFs in the 50th ward. Details and RSVP via Facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Forum-June-11. Download a flier.

A special TIF treat – Chicago Reader political reporter Ben Joravsky will be a featured speaker. He got us started in the TIF biz! CivicLab co-founder Tom Tresser produced a meeting on TIFs in Lincoln Park back in 2008 where Ben broke it all down. No, Ben won’t be appearing with former Mayor Daley. It’s just a great picture!