Thursday, May 20, 2010

Democracy In Action, Uptown Style

ClarendonMontroseTIF FOIA

A resident requested, through the Freedom of Information Act, a list of the interested parties who attended the CDC hearing about the proposed Montrose Clarendon (aka "Maryville") TIF.  A couple interesting things:
  • One speaker, the manager of the condo building at 4300 N Marine, spoke in favor of the TIF, but her name doesn't appear on the speaker list
  • An unknown person amended the sign-in sheet to indicate that another resident, who spoke at length against the TIF, was actually there to support it.  Tsk-tsk!
Funny, huh?  Coincidence?  No one would be trying to stack the deck here, would they?

These are good things to keep in mind if you're able to attend the "open discussion" meeting with the wannabe developers this evening.

UU Note:  There were two TIFs under discussion at the meeting.  The other is called "Lakeside Development" and is in the 7th Ward.  We put red lines through the names of people who weren't there to speak about the Montrose Clarendon TIF.

9 comments:

  1. I think addresses are public information as well so why are they redacted?

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  2. What's up with all of the south siders being on the list?

    No offense to the 7th warders, and the folks coming up from South Shore; but, unless y'all're paying property taxes up north, I fail to see how you have any skin in this game -- and can't understand why in the h*ll you are speaking in support of (or even against) a project which you aren't going to be funding.

    Last I checked, even if he still lived in Uptown, Trott still wouldn't be paying into the TIF.

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  3. Apparently they came that way from the city. I guess that's something to address with them. (We at UU put red lines through the names of the people who were for another TIF and didn't post the sign-in sheets that were sent that only included names of people there for those discussions.)

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  4. Yo - Seventh Warders were there to talk about another TIF called "Lakeside."

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  5. Helen's campaign mgr and out-of-ward resident George "Batman" Atkins was making sure people signed in and was ushering in people who supported it. Not sayin'... just sayin'.

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  6. Thanks for the clarification CN.

    Odd how the south side and north side "stars" align when there's public money in the trough, no?

    Kidding. It isn't odd at all.

    Speaking of TIFs, the Reader has a nice photo-tour of TIF money at work.

    Come see the awesomeness inherent in the system, and how well TIFs are de-blighting the blighted areas, specifically on the south and west sides.

    So, while our beloved alderman can frolic about with her herd of parrot-tongued dependents and glamorize the fact thet we gave tens of millions to private corporations and developers .. you can see, for a fact, that there was/is better use for that money.

    Yeah ... I know .. singin' to the choir.

    But, the boarded up "Rebirth of Englewood" office pic will tell you all that you need to know.

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  7. The whole process is a travesty of justice to the community. This was never about wanting community input. Never. This was all about making sure she got what she wants.

    Well, what I want in 2011 is a new alderman.

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  8. Politics as usual in Chicago....bend things to fit your agenda. Unfortunately people are fed up with Chicago style politics and Helen's days are numbered....277 to be exact!

    Run cockroaches run.

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  9. Well, I know we think the world revolves around Uptown but actually we weren't the biggest TIF on the agenda that day. The huge South Side TIF from the 7th Ward was being heard after the Montrose Clarendon TIF public hearing. That is why the 7th ward people are on the sign-up sheet to.

    BTW, I don't see 20 people showing up for the TIF as Shiller claimed to Lake Effect News.

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