June 13 WORKSHOP MAXED OUT – WE WILL REPEAT ON JULY 18
The times call for more participation in public life, not less. How can we do justice, do civic work, and fight for equity and the well-being of our neighbors in a time of isolation? This webinar experience will address this issue and participants will join small groups to explore, share, and – hopefully – laugh! We will share insights around isolation, resilience, effectiveness, tool building, and more. It will be facilitated by Tom Tresser and Jonathan Peck, of the CivicLab (www.civiclab.us), Chicago’s “do tank” for innovation and capacity building around civic engagement and social justice. Jonathan and Tom have a combined 60 year experience in social justice, organizing, and grassroots campaigning.
Registered for the June 13th session were leaders from these institutions: University of Chicago – WTTW Public TV Chicago – Loyola University – Northwestern University – Ohio University – Mercer University – Cal State University (Channel islands, Chico, Los Angeles, East Bay, San Marcos, Long Beach) – Stanford University – Centenary College of Louisiana – San Jose State University – Emory University – Tisch College of Public Life, Tufts University – Stanislaus State University – Sonoma State University – Texas Christian University – Worcester Polytechnic Institute – Frederick Douglass Center for Collaborative Leadership- Cincinnati Federation of Teachers – Indivisible Illinois – New Have Christian Church – Sierra Club – STRUT Learning – Center for Media & Democracy – Blocks Together Chicago – Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights – Arts Alliance Illinois – Lutheran School of Theology – Northside Action for Justice – SEIU – Enlace Chicago – Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights – NAME Illinois – Vietnamese Association of Illinois – Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago – Public Health Institute – Arts Alliance Illinois – Ohio University – Northside Action for Justice (Chicago) – UNICEF USA – Illinois Collaboration on Youth – UBUNTU Academy
Visual notes created real time by Emma, the amazing artist from the Ink Factory!
…with these titles: Director of Campus & Community Engagement – Faculty Director of Community Engagement – Director, Office of Service Learning – Director of Community Partnerships – VP, Community Engagement -Executive Director, Student Civic Engagement – Faculty Director, Global Studies Program – Program Director, Community Action Volunteers in Education – Founding Director – Restorative Justice Coordinator – Organizer – Deputy Director for Civic Engagement – Team Lead – President – Census Coordinator – Youth Programs – Field Organizer – Deputy Director, Civic Engagement – Director of the Center for Campus & Community Engagement -Organizer – Community Engagement Manager – Chief Program Officer – CEO
“There can be no real equity in Chicago as long as TIFs roll along. INVEST Southwest promises $250 million in TIF funding for ten communities of color where 488,000+ people live right now. The two super TIFs for the mega developments Lincoln Yards and Project 78 have committed $2.4 BILLION in TIF subsidies. These projects are in White, affluent parts of Chicago. NO ONE lives there now. And now as THIRD mega-project, the Michael Reese Hospital site (on the lake front) wants $200 million in TIF public dollars. See our arguments for ABOLISHING TIFs at https://tinyurl.com/TIFs-Social-Justice. Tom Tresser – tom@civiclab.us”
On may 16, Paul O’Connor, the Senior Urban Strategist for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill posted this response:
“I have no idea whether TIF should be repealed or not, but I do know you are making a disingenuous, if popular, argument. On Lincoln Yards and 78, the developers have to build the TIF-covered infrastructure with their own money — all risk on them, not the taxpayers. If they build those bridges and CTA stations etc. as they promised, then they get the TIF money. But you suggest to those reading that this TIF money is cash that can be spread around. Not so. Usually, the TIF money doesn’t even exist before a development changes lower-valued land to higher-valued land for tax purposes: the value difference is the “increment” (the “I” in TIF). Where the cash comes in is that local units of government postpone collecting the full taxes taxes on the newly created property values, and the developer keeps a portion of the cash value it has created. But it’s not right to link the apple of INVEST South + West with the oranges of these other two projects under cover of racial discrimination.”
Here is my reply from May 17.
“Paul – thanks for taking the time to comment on my post. Here’s how I look at these mega-projects. First – why do we need to pick up any related costs to their for-profit ventures? As I look around the research and online posting by well respected developers and real estate firms, I find that developers are responsible for 100% of construction inside NEW communities – which Lincoln Yards and Project 78 are (and the newly announced Burnham Shore, aka Michael Reese Hospital site is). So – if you and your clients want to build mega-projects on these vacant or almost-vacant sites, then they need to pay for them, including new streets, water lines, and, yes, even a new subway station if that station’s main purpose is to serve the new development. This leads to the second, related, objection. Why should the siting of these mega-projects in mostly White affluent parts of the city DRIVE public infrastructure planning and spending? The good (mostly Black) residents of the far south side have been waiting for the Red Line extension for 30 years. I suppose that the mostly White people who live in the Lincoln Yards project will enjoy a new Metra Station and the mostly White people living in Project 78 will enjoy their new Red Line station way before the folks in Pullman board at their Red Line stop. You say that the tax money is created FROM the developments and goes to pay the developers back for their risky investments in public infrastructure. But I say those investments are part of the deal – part of the overall risk of building in the first place. Let them prosper – by all means – with NO TIF MONEY. This way our public services – most notably our public schools which serve a student body predominately of color – will not be starved of those property tax dollars for 23 years. Come on, the developers are imagining that thousands of people will be living in their units – many will have kids that will go to public schools – all will use public services – but NONE will pay for those services via their property taxes for a GENERATION. That pushes up the taxes on the rest of us. That is not right. That is naked inequity. And here’s a fact that needs to be shouted from our civic rooftops – buried in the fine print for the Lincoln Yards and the Project 78 TIFs are $800 MILLION in finance fees. Now that is plainly obscene. Haven’t we sent enough of our public funds to Wall Street? That’s $800 million that will NOT go to our public schools, public libraries, public parks, or any public purpose. And lastly, I object to clouted and wealthy firms like SOM running the development show in Chicago. I object to these large developers showing cash on the mayor, the aldermen, and elected from the Governor to the Attorney General and even justices of the Illinois Supreme Court. The CivicLab has documented too many cases of TIF recipients delivering bounteous campaign dollars to elected officials over the years. You and your firm, SOM, are masters at Chicago politics. SOM, you, and four other senior members of the Chicago office have contributed $136,944 to local electeds – that I could find using public records and a PC connected to the Internet. Imagine what we could discover if had vast resources like you have available to you. But your firm has been connected to Chicago politics for over 50 years. “Architecture was not a passive component but rather an active component of the political machine under [Richard J.] Daley” states Bill Motchan in a 2014 post on Chicagoarchitecture.com in an article entitled How Chicago’s Mayor Used the Power of Architecture to Influence Politics. So, I think the picture of TIFs in Chicago is one of clout and inequity. We have much more evidence and analysis on this topic and invite you to visit https://tinyurl.com/TIFs-Social-Justice to review the foundation of our argument. The full set of arguments with sources can be found in our new book “Eliminate TIFs & Establish the Right To Development” which can be downloaded at www.civiclab.us.
It’s “The Great Public Report” from Tom Tresser. I’m a long time civic educator and public defender based in Chicago. I’m a co-founder of the CivicLab, a “do tank” dedicated to research, training, fabrication, activation, and leadership development to advance government accountability, civic engagement, and social justice. Contact me at tom@tresser.com.
I’ve been thinking about “public” and working to define, defend, and expand it for the past 12 years. Here is the first of a new series of webisodes I’m calling the “Great Public Report” as a way to talk about and stimulate dialog around the concept of “public.” Please watch it at our YouTube Channel and subscribe. Follow me at @tomstee and post using #MorePublic. If we don’t protect the Public, it will be taken from us.
The utter failure of the Trump Administration to deal with the global pandemic is a stark reminder of why we need a strong, competent, nimble, and service-oriented PUBLIC sector – ready to act powerfully for the public good. Take a look at Douglas Amy’s book “Government is Good – An Unapologetic Defense of a Vital Institution.” If you want a great response to these times, then check out the movement for a Green New Deal and help make it happen!
That was the grim assessment from the 2010 report “Chicago Civic Health Index.” The report was prepared by the McCormick Foundation and the Citizen’s Advocacy Center. “The 2010 Chicago Civic Health Index demonstrates
the failure of the region to prepare its youngest citizens for their
adult civic responsibilities, along with the effects of endemic
political corruption and the widespread cynicism and disengagement it
spawns.” Ouch.
Merle and I were in the Hilton Hotel overflow ballroom to witness and be part of history. The huge numbers for Lori Lightfoot went up a little after 7:00pm and soon the race was over. Lightfoot would carry all 50 wards!
It’s no exaggeration to say that I’ve been working to defeat and dismantle the Chicago Machine since 1990 when I did volunteer work for my professor from Roosevelt University, Hank Rubin who ran for Alderman in the 1991 municipal elections.
I created Greater Chicago Citizens for the Arts to endorse candidates who supported the arts and freedom of expression.
I saw the Machine field workers all over the ward to protect incumbent Bernie Stone. But the amount of Machine feet on the street for Alderman Stone was eclipsed by what I saw when I helped Professor Dick Simpson run for Congress in 1992. He challenged the most powerful Democrat in Chicago (right next to then Mayor Richard M. Daley), Dan Rostenkowski, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
I recall covering three precincts on primary day and seeing men at every polling place handing out literature, walking people into the polling places, ferrying signs and supplies back and forth and being present inside keeping track of the votes. I approached two large men, one who I recall had a well tailored coat and a large pinky ring and said “Hey, are you guys volunteering for Rosty?” “Nah, kid, I work for Streets and San” said the taller guy and the second guy said that he worked for the Forest Preserve.
They were actually doing their paid work right there. They were soldiers of the fabled Chicago Machine doing what they’ve been doing for sixty years. Working on the public dime to maintain and extend the power of chosen and connected elected officials.
Despite being outspent eight to one, Dick pulled 42% of the vote. Dick challenged Rostenkowski again in 1994 and again lost. A few weeks after the primary the Congressman embroiled in a scandal involving embezzling public funds which landed him an 18 month prison sentence in 1996.
This led to a Republication representing the 5th District for two years and then, in 1996 then Illinois State Representative Rod Blagojevich was elected to that seat. Blago is the son-in-law of powerful Machine leader Richard Mell who essentially put his handsome son-in-law in public office. Blago ran for and became Illinois’s governor in 2002, leaving his Congressional seat open.
in 2002, with the help of Daley’s patronage army, Rahm Emanuel was elected to that seat in Congress. From the Chicago Tribune (6/1/06): “By dangling the promise of public jobs and promotions, a high-ranking city official recruited a “white ethnic” patronage army of almost 300 campaign workers controlled by Mayor Richard Daley’s office, according to testimony Wednesday in the City Hall corruption trial. Daniel Katalinic, a former top official in the city’s Streets and Sanitation Department, described how his political group of city employees crisscrossed the Chicago area for the mayor, U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and pro-Daley candidates in suburban state legislative races. Testifying against former Daley aide Robert Sorich, Katalinic said he got election-season orders from Sorich and Greg Goldner, who managed the mayor’s 2003 re-election campaign and also worked to send Emanuel to Congress.” Sorich was convicted of corruption in 2006 and was sentenced to 46 months in prison.
So, let’s review. Machine workers – people on the public payroll – helped keep Congressman Rostenkowski in office. If it had been a fair fight – would Prof. Dick Simpson have been elected to Congress in 1992? And if so – would he have been re-elected mutliple times after serving with distinction. And if so – then two OTHER politicians, Blago and Rahm, would NOT have been elected to that same Congressional seat. They would’ve had a different path to power.
My next brush with the Machine was in being part of the city-wide coalition to stop casino gambling from coming to Chicago in 1994. I was part of a coalition led by Douglas Dobmeyer and Rev. Tom Grey, I started a small effort “42nd Ward Citizens for Chicago’s Future” and organized along the Gold Coast to build opposition to the proposed casino. The efforts worked and the casino was never built.
In 1997 I was a consultant for the Chicago Park District leading the transformation of Douglas Park into a community cultural center. I led some 70 meetings in and out of the park and connected the park to a wide range of cultural partners and curated many new partnerships with local artists and performers.
A youth choir celebrated the opening the Douglas Park Community Culture Center in 1997.
A full time job doing cultural development and planning opened up inside the Chicago park District. Before applying I had lunch with the director of cultural and arts planning for the district, Helen Doria. She told me that leadership loved my work but “Don’t bother applying for this position,” she said, “You’re a known Daley-basher.”
“What?” I said “Known by who?” She assured me there was a “no-hire” list at City Hall and that my name was on it. This list has never surfaced – unlike the 59 page “blessed” list of 5,743 names that was at the center of the corruption scandal that took down Robert Sorich. You can download your own copy below!
The list never surfaced but I know I’ve suffered because of it. I suppose I did not advance my case with Mayor Daley and his allies as I co-led two very public civic projects that further attacked and embarrassed Machine backed projects. These were the efforts to stop the privatization of Lincoln Park through the establishment of Protect Our Parks in 2008 and the No Games Chicago campaign to derail the bid for the 2016 Olympics in 2009.
I have not been association with Protect Our Parks since 2008 but support their law suit opposing the construction of the Obama Center in Jackson Park.
In 2010 I was the Green Party candidate for Cook County Board President and I ran against Roger Keats, the Republican nominee and Toni Preckwinkle, the Democratic nominee.
At the meeting of the Tribune Editorial Board in September of 2010 I sat with Mr. Keats and then Alderman Preckwinkle. I produced a copy of the recent issue of Chicago Magazine featuring a scathing investigation of Cook County Democratic Party Chair Joe Berrios who was then a commissioner of the county’s Board of Review and was seeking the Democratic Nomination to be Cook County Assessor.
I reminded the editors of Alderman Preckwinkle’s role in placing Todd Stroger as the outgoing Cook County Board President in 2006. The elderly John Stroger, the outgoing President of the County Board had disappeared from public view right before the primary then won the primary then resigned from his position and from the ticket. The Democratic Committeemen voted to replace the older Stroger with his son. Preckwinkle was a powerful and influential Committeeman. They passed on the opportunity to replace Stroger with the man he had just defeated in the primary, Forrest Claypool. I chastised Preckwinkle for her role in that scam. Todd Storger’s time in office was a litany of scandal and incompetence. She indignantly replied that she just DEFEATED Todd in the primary. “Sure, Todd was so toxic he lost the backing of the Machine and was not slated.”
With all that in mind I challenged Preckwinkle to renounce her support for Joe Berrios – who she was supporting in his campaign fro Assessor – and, instead, to support the challenger, none other that Forrest Claypool!
She said she could not support Claypool and then launched into a speech proclaiming Berrios “a reformer because he championed Latinas in elective office.” “Which Latina do you mean, Alderman?” I asked, ” Do you mean his daughter,State Representative Toni Berrios?” Preckwinkle replied “He is the leader of my party and I am a party loyalist.”
“I rest my case,” I told the Tribune editors. “That’s the definition of the Machine. Party over the people. Alderman Preckwinkle is the new face of the Democratic Machine.
In their editorial endorsing Preckwinkle for the job published on October 2, 2009 the editors said they were “tempted” to endorse me. But, they resisted temptation.
President Preckwinkle maintained her loyalty to Assessor Berrios over the years even after more scandals, investigations and a damning report showing his assessment system was racist and punished the people who lived in poorer communities and communities of color.
All this history replayed in my head as I listened to Lori Lightfoot’s victory speech. During her campaign she pledged to kill the Machine and end Chicago’s reign as America’s most corrupt city. She repeated that pledge Tuesday night.
Oh, it’s SO time to kill the Democratic Machine and its web of corruption, injustice, inequity, racism and disinvestment in our communities.
“Thank you for once again giving your talk “Memo to Chicago’s Next Mayor – Chicago Is Not Broke!” for the Future of Chicago Lecture series on October 24th. It was very timely with the Mayor’s race underway in Chicago and the early voting. The students learned a lot from your presentation, especially about the costs of corruption, police abuse and Toxic Bank Deals. Equally importantly, they learned about the alternative ways of funding Chicago and how to resolve the problem with TIFs.
Thank you for highlighting the issues of budgeting and more efficient ways to collect money in Chicago. These are issues which the students are still discussing. Your experience as a civic educator will inspire them to engage in the future civic activities.”
Spend your lunch hour on 10/24 with Tom!
Thanks to Prof. Dick Simpson for including me in his 2018 lecture series, “The Future of Chicago.” Other presenters this year include former Governors Pat Quinn and Jim Edgar and Uber Alderman Ed Burke.
