Chicago Tuesdays: The 55 promises of Rahm Emanuel

Eric Zorn's crib sheet on our new mayor's promises to Chicago is helpful, I suppose. In that it shortens what Emanuel was releasing to the public as his Chicago pledge to make us such a better city in an abridged version.

But it's still full of lofty pledges. Some good - such as the One Summer Chicago initiative which pledges to work with the County Board President (and best thing to happen in local politics) Toni Preckwinkle "and a broad range of civic, faith, community, and philanthropic leaders" to provide a "wide range of academic, recreational, arts education, jobs, and mentoring programs to a great number of at-risk teens" to reduce summer violence.

There's also this pledge about defeating (ending? I doubt it) food deserts in Chicago.

And then some are... debatable. At best.

Change of Subject: Crib sheet: The 55 promises of Rahm Emanuel

12. Introduce a consolidated, comprehensive capital planning and management process

The best-planned cities develop a 25-year vision and prioritize investments into five-year capital improvement plans using a multitude of investment options, including leveraging private resources and capital. Using this framework, all investments will be maximized and sequenced to reach their full potential and deliver the best value to Chicago. An investment management center will plan, coordinate, and oversee all Chicago infrastructure projects across a multi-year horizon...

Sounds good at first blush, perhaps. Maximizing resources for the best of Chicago. But then you realize that banker Emanuel and his banker pals are talking about further privatizing Chicago's assets for cash-flow purposes.

And then there's the TIF promise:

3. Reform [Tax Increment Financing]

The City will appoint a panel of experts and charge it with developing a policy for how the City invests these funds. The panel will identify return-on-investment performance goals for TIF districts and TIF-funded projects and develop guidelines for TIF transparency, including standards for an annual TIF report and audit, to be made public.

photo © 2010 basic_sounds | more info (via: Wylio)


Anybody who's been in Chicago long enough and has been paying attention (especially to the writing of Ben Jarovsky of the Chicago Reader) will realize that this promise isn't really any sort of actual reform. Whenever a leader who uses TIF funds talks about making the use of TIF funds public, he doesn't actually mean in a way that the public can actually access and grasp that information. Furthermore, this doesn't seem to offer true reform of the Tax Increment Financing districts, funds, or how they're used. In case you're new to this conversation, a TIF fund was originally intended (or so we're told) to help funnel business into blighted areas.

That hasn't happened. And it probably won't happen. And this promise does nothing to ensure that it would happen. Which is what this is about. The promise only promises to evaluate the ROI. In other words, tens of millions of dollars can - and probably will - still be funneled to the Boeings of Chicago, but the important risks, the risks that may give a chance to the south and west sides, may be deemed too risky until they can find just. the. right. person or developer.

In other words, as far as this promise goes, don't expect to see any real changes. Don't expect hope to come from Team Rahm.

For that, we're on our own.

Though it'd be nice if the local government was actually looking out for the best hopes for us...

Chicagoans for All Chicagoans

With the Chicago mayoral election out of the way, the last round of the aldermanic elections underway, and more centralizing and king-making decisions on the horizon, I thought it'd be a good time to introduce Chicagoans for All Chicagoans.

So far right now, we are only a Facebook group, but we exist to get Chicagoans engaged in local politics in a way where every community and every member of every neighborhood would be represented and protected.

That would include learning disabled students in the public schools, that would include Muslims, Christians, Jews, atheists, agnostics, polytheists, Buddhists, and pagans throughout the city; that would include residents of food deserts who need affordable and nutritious options; that would include lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgendered youth growing up outside of the LGBT-supportive BoysTown neighborhood; that would include neighborhoods on the Far South and Southwest sides that don't have equitable access to public transit; that would include small business owners trying to catch a break while most of the TIFs are going to big business; that would include working class families trying to stay in areas that they are being constantly priced out of; that would include residents who can't afford decent health care insurance but need options; that would include harassed young black men and targeted homeless women; that would include improving our schools by using actual verifiable research to determine how to improve our schools rather than, say, strong-arming the teacher's union to lengthen their days and year for no other reason than because Houston's doing it.

That may include you. It probably includes your neighbor.

Chicagoans for All Chicagoans. Opt in.