Progress Illinois

Local residents could begin to feel a financial pinch at the kitchen sink as more private investment firms take aim at public water utilities.

That’s according to a new report from a citizen’s advocacy group that shows some major financial players, like JPMorgan Chase, Australian bank Macquarie and the Carlyle Group, are taking advantage of the public sector’s slow recovery from the recent recession by buying up public utilities.

Emily Carroll, Midwest regional director at Food & Water Watch, said Chicago’s water infrastructure system isn’t “at risk of being sold, per se.” But Carroll warned that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s controversial Infrastructure Trust will smooth the path towards public-private ownership of some Chicago utilities. Read more »

The Cook County Board passed a resolution today setting up a committee that has 60 days to devise a model for a county land bank, an ambitious proposal that board President Toni Preckwinkle called a “critical tool to help combat the foreclosure crisis and eradicate blight in our communities.”

As we have reported, a land bank is a quasi-governmental organization intended to seize and manage properties until they can be put into productive use. Read more »

The Infrastructure Trust ordinance, a plan where private investors will fund public infrastructure, passed City Council over two months ago, but the city has not identified Trust projects, besides an initial plan to retrofit municipal buildings.

So the Chicago advocacy group Action Now, which previously opposed the Trust, unveiled their own detailed proposal yesterday, calling for the Trust and developers to turn vacant city properties into affordable rental homes. Read more »