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America Needs #MorePublic. Desperately.
Category Archives: In The News
Tom Joins Inaugural National Advisory Board of the Public Banking Institute
I’m proud to be a member of the inaugural National Advisory Board for the Public Banking Institute.
They are the premiere organization in America explaining, organizing, and making public banking happen.
We Were Right In 2009…Will You Listen Now?
Oh, my colleagues in the nonprofit world. I may sound like Chicken Little crying “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” when I urge you to get involved in power politics in order to see your values realized in public life. But – here is an interview with Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Rick Telander from October 7, 2009 – just five days after the International Olympic Committee eliminated Chicago from consideration for the 2016 Games in the first round of voting…
Read the full article…
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Wide Ranging Interview With Bill Cameron
Tom was interviewed on the “Connected To Chicago” radio program with long time political reported Bill Cameron. We discussed “Chicago Is Not Broke. Funding the City We Deserve” in light of the Inauguration of Donald Trump, which took place shortly before we began the interview.
“Is Chicago Really Broke?” Chicago Magazine Interview
No Games Back In The Spotlight
Seven years after No Games Chicago did our work (with no support from any major civic organization, university or community group) the 2016 Olympics have begun. Some reporters have contacted us to get our perspective on the “Battle for the Bid” and the Olympic Games. Here is an interview from Chicago News.
Tom Talks Civics, Asserts “Chicago is not broke!” on “Chicago Newsroom”
Tom was on “Chicago Newsroom” with Ken Davis on April 7, 2016 to talk civics, TIFs and explain why it was great to NOT get the 2016 Olympics and how Chicago is NOT broke. (46 minutes)
Tom on CounterSpin – “Chicago is NOT broke!”
I Ask the Mayor About TIFs And He Answers!
What a night at Malcolm X College. About 300 people showed up for the first 2016 Budget Town Hall presided over by Mayor Emanuel and attended by all his department heads. Dozens of folks got one minute to ask a question or make a statement. The room was filled with supporters of the Dyett High School hunger strikers. People young and old expressed their anger and aspirations, stepping up to the mike and demanding that the mayor first meet with the hunger strikers and accept the community-development proposal to transform Dyett into a global leadership and green technology academy.
There were also calls for coming clean on TIFs and releasing TIF funds into the general stream of local government agencies – especially our beleaguered public schools. I asked the mayor to release all documents proving his claim that most of the $1.4 billion sitting in TIFs on January 1, 2015 are NOT available for distribution. The mayor and his budget director actually responded. Budget Director Alex Holt promised Tom a meeting in the near future to answer all our questions on where the money is. Stay tuned.
Watch the exchange here:
Listen to the full exchange here.
Tom Interviewed on WGN – Talkin’ Democracy
Michael Stephen of Outside the Loop Radio interviewed Tom on WGN on April 1, 2015. They talked TIFs, what the CivicLab is all about and the need to DO democracy. 17 minutes.