Thursday, October 7, 2010

Your TIF Dollars At Work



Work is under way to renovate 4416-26 N. Clifton with Wilson Yard TIF funds. You might recall that according to Ald. Shiller, this building along with 4416-26 N. Magnolia are "among the few remaining low-income family rental properties in Uptown."

These two buildings are getting $4.2Million of TIF
money while our crumbling Wilson L station is getting $3Million. Food for thought.

16 comments:

  1. Sure, these building house people and the L station is a business that makes money. We should be appalled that ANY money is going to support the mis-managed CTA and demand that more money be spent serving people.

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  2. No to be critical of the less fortunate but, usually, not always, any neighborhood with an abundance of low-income rentals, nursing homes and shelters equates to bad news. The drug dealers know that. They know who their main target customers are and usually sell their goods in these types of neighborhood. It's blighted Uptown for many years and still years to come. I'm all for helping out the less fortunate but the common denominator here is quite obvious. Somewhere, a line has to be drawn.

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  3. I hope security cameras and tenant screening are included in the "investment".

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  4. wow. thanks for stating the obvious. but it doesn't have to be that way for many years to come. more and more people are doing something about it and not just standing around and watching it/putting up with it. The more people that get involved, the quicker things can change.

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  5. Another sad part of this is that Voice of the People will be managing this building and the one on Magnolia once they are "rehabbed." The one on Magnolia actually looks quite nice right now, but wait. VOP are exactly stellar when it comes to maintenance and screening. Unless everyone keeps on VOP to manage these sites, they will be blighted soon enough.

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  6. Here is VOPs number..they have 6 ppl working for them. So they are obviously understaffed and will never be able to maintain they standards they have set for themselves.


    Phone:
    (773) 769-2689

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  7. No, it doesn't ray. I didn't vote for Shiller nor would I vote for any democrat for that matter. Also, I've heard enough of that "CHANGE" slogan somewhere. Keep pulling the democrat ticket and there'll be more of the same.

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  8. "Sure, these building house people and the L station is a business that makes money."

    The very reason behind any TIF is purportedly to improve the blighted retail of an area. Helen has taken that money and used it for housing, thereby defeating the intended purpose of the TIF -- which is, again, to improve the business and retail of a blighted financial area.

    To promise a top-to-bottom rehab of the Wilson el, as Peter Holsten did, and then to give more money to rehabbing a residential building and slapping a band-aid on the blighted el station is just one more example of Helen and Peter's long history of TIF abuse.

    It's one more reason Helen's internal polls showed that she couldn't win another election.

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  9. Well put TSN...complete abuse of TIF funds and why we need to change the entire program.

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  10. There was a shooting in front of the Magnolia building this summer. A person got shot and a car window was shot out. Not everyone who lives there is bad, but as we know, it only takes a few bad ones to ruin it for everyone.

    Darn, I wish the city could be held responsible for this abuse of TIF funds. It will never happen.

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  11. @ Bluestreak

    Your 100% correct. Both of these properties have gang/violent histories. Unfortunately, we have to squeeze them all out to save the "hood". Until low income households can manage their sons, they have no place in my neighborhood and no place having the privilege of subsidized housing on my dollar.

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  12. GT, that may be the case with Schiller, but you might want to do some heavy research before you start deciding you will 'never' vote for a democrat. That 'change' slogan you referenced has become a reality, whether your side of the aisle wants to admit it or not, our current President has accomplished almost 70% of the things he promised during his campaign. And he did so against the toughest odds in history, against a congress full of people like you, ones that don't want to listen or even care to bring new ideas to the table. Maybe you should stop looking at it from a partisan view and start thinking about IDEAS. What can be done and who will do it? A candidates party should be the LAST thing you find out about them, unfortunately, we have developed a political system that is us vs. them. Let's try and change that, starting with Uptown.

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  13. The damage all these subsidized housing projects have done has surely made their mark on the neighborhoods. Let hope the new Alderman thats elected will offer a new agenda when it comes to the use of TIF dollars.

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  14. The Wilson Red Line stop isn't just good for business, community, the students and all. This particular train stop is also the anchor commercial property(s) at the core of Uptown. The 3 million is but a pittanc for a priority like the Wilson station.

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  15. @ GT
    Are you aware of any aldermanic candidate who wants the status quo rather than change? I'd like to see a change in the way we do TIFs in this ward and in this city.

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  16. The Wilson Yard TIF is like the Wizard of Oz, lots of smoke and magic to cover up what really happened.

    In the Wizard of Oz there was a wicked witch who scared the begeebees out of everyone with her broom and flying monkeys.

    She made all of the decisions on what went on in her kingdom without listening to the people who lived there. So people lived in fear, were constantly looking out for those flying monkeys, and let the witch rule with an iron clad fist.

    Then one day a little girl with a cute dog came to the kingdom and had to figure out how to get rid of the witch so she could go home--but along the way she discovered how to help people find their power with their heart, and brain and courage.

    The witch died, the monkeys were glad, and everyone realized that the $64 million the witch spent only on subsidized housing wasn't really what the kingdom needed...
    Oops, that's another story.

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