It 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.
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/
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/
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!
It was a packed house at the McKinley Park Library for the 11th and 12th Ward Illumination. The TIF Illumination Project lit up the 16 TIFs inside those two wards. See the presentation and listen to the audio (59 minutes). If you find this work valuable, please make a non-deductible investment via WePay. Who else is telling you how TIFs are impacting Chicago on a ward-by-ward basis? Read coverage from Progress Illinois.
Check out this ten minute interview from Outside The Loop radio to get an overview of TIFs and a sneak preview of the 11th Ward TIF Illumination coming up on June 5.
It’s time to shed some light on the 11 TIFs inside the 4th Ward. Join us on Monday, May 13 at 6pm at Room 43 to learn:
– How much property tax is extracted from each TIF inside the ward
– How much money FROM the ward was left in the TIFs at the end of 2011
– What projects inside the ward got funded
You can get the details and RSVP here: http://tinyurl.com/
Join us at The Peoples Church on April 11 at 7pm when we Illuminate the six TIFs inside the 46th Ward. If the last five TIF town meetings are any guides, then this meeting is going to ROCK! You can get the details and RSVP via Facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/
We invite to learn what TIFs are doing in YOUR community. TO schedule a TIF Illumination for your ward, email tom@civiclab.us.
Thanks to the great folks at AREA Chicago we are distributing 5,000 copies of the TIF Illumination Project’s graphic poster showing the results of our investigation of the 12 TIFs inside the 27th Ward. Awesome! The poster was written by Tom Tresser based on data research lead by Cory Mollet and designed by Carlyn So. The Spring 2013 issue focuses on housing.
It will be a 2-for-1 special this Saturday, April 6 at Chicago State when we Illuminate the many, many TIFs inside the 8th and 9th Wards. Join us at 10am. Details and RSVP at Facebook. http://tinyurl.com/
From Progress Illinois, “Dozens of South Shore residents weren’t too happy upon learning that a portion of their property taxes have been used as part of the city’s tax increment financing, or TIF, program.
Tom Tresser, co-founder of the CivicLab, came to the 7th Ward, and is heading to others, as part of the volunteer-based TIF Illumination Project, which is intended to promote TIF transparency and provide Chicago residents with a snapshot of what the program is — or isn’t — doing for their communities.
“I can’t believe that it’s so much money that’s out there that the community does not know about that’s not channeling back into our community, especially with all the schools closing,” Renita Jones, a South Shore resident of more than 14 years, said after Saturday’s meeting.
“It’s just amazing to me that (the city is) saying there’s no funds, and we have millions of [TIF] dollars that’s available that’s going to the corporate district, but the lower-class people are suffering from it,” Jones added.”
