CivicLab co-founders Benjamin Sugar and Tom Tresser will be at PDF 2014 in New York Thursday and Friday. We’ll be part of a panel presentation on Friday, “City Labs For Civic Engagement” with folks from Hack Baltimore and BetaNYC. If you’re in NYC, contact us @ info@civiclab.us or @civiclabchicago! Here’s an interview with Tom.
Come by and visit The Civic Lab @ 114 N. Aberdeen Street. Take a workshop. Teach a workshop. Co-work here. Intern here
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The TIF Illumination Project has Illuminated 147 TIFs across 25 wards. Over 2,000 people have been at these meetings and over 40 media stories have been written about our work. We’d like to know what YOU think should now be done with or to the TIF Program in Chicago. Remember, in 2012 TIFs extracted almost $500 million in property taxes from Chicago property tax payers.
PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO COMPLETE THIS SURVEY. THANK YOU!
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Come June 1st, the lo
ft space at The CivicLab will be available! We have a great location in the West Loop blocks away from the Morgan St. El stop, and the Hasted Bus. Amenities include a full kitchen, private bathroom, conference room, business class Internet access, cheap copies, a shop for building stuff and a space for classes and events. Most importantly – a community of fabulous co-workers doing amazing projects to advance the public good. Become part of America’s only co-working space dedicated to civic engagement and social justice! For information, contact Benjamin Sugar at cowork@civiclab.us. Learn more about our space.
http://issuu.com/cmrenner/docs/cnu-conference-final-20140325 – Free download of presentations and material from 2013 conference on new ways of doing urban development. We did a piece on the TIF Illumination Project. Also great stuff on how Rockford is using creativity and the arts for economic development and Naomi Davis presenting on her vision for grassroots community development.
Can you help The CivicLab advance through the Knight News Challenge? We’re seeking support to evolve our Civic Illumination work. 
We need a new narrative for Chicago and U.S. politics. We are NOT broke. We need MORE public, not less. New book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” lays it all out.
The CivicLab is helping to build the “I, Citizen Project” with the folks from the Museum of Contemporary Phenomena. This interactive experience will be unfolding at the Columbia College Glass Curtain Gallery in April.
I, Citizen – The Activist Game MAKERS Workshop from Helen Slade on Vimeo.
