Progress Illinois

South Side residents unveiled plans for new sidewalks, a community garden and other infrastructure needs to be created with Ald. Leslie Hairston's (5th) $1.3 million in “menu money” at the ward's final participatory budgeting expo.

The projects are set to go up for a community vote next week.

Aldermen typically decide how to spend their pot of discretionary funds for ward improvements like fixing potholes and adding street signals, but participatory budgeting puts the decision-making process in the hands of the community.

"With your voice and your help, not only do you get a better understanding of how much things cost and what it takes to get a project from conception to completion, but also, I think, it helps to walk down the street and see a light post and know that you had a part in putting that light post there," Hairston told a few dozen residents at the expo, held at the Catholic Theological Union over the weekend. Read more »

The city’s tax increment financing, or TIF, program is an economic development tool, but it should really be called a Chicago bailout for private companies, some Uptown residents said at a town hall meeting Thursday night as part of the CivicLab’s TIF Illumination Project.

“Why don’t we call (TIF) Chicago welfare,” 46th Ward resident Ryne Poelker asked at the meeting held at the Peoples Church of Chicago. “Why don’t they call it a bailout?”

Property taxpayers in the 46th Ward paid out about $87.6 million for TIF projects in the area since the inception of the program under former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington through 2010, according to the CivicLab’s data analysis.

More than half of that money went to private developers for projects such as the Wilson Yard, a retail space at 4400 N. Broadway Ave., that houses a Target, Aldi grocery store and low-income housing units. The project received more than $50 million in TIF funds, according to the CivicLab. Read more »

Rogers Park residents gathered for the final installation of the 49th ward Participatory Budgeting Project Expo last night and listened to proposed infrastructure projects for their community.

The meeting, which was entirely in Spanish, was geared specifically for Rogers Park’s Hispanic residents.

Project organizers said they hoped the Spanish-language meeting would boost civic engagement from the community’s Hispanic population.

“It’s been a challenge to get the Latino community to participate, and the idea was that if we provided them with a space where they could dialogue about the projects it would be easier for Spanish-speakers to participate,” said Jose Melendez, a volunteer mentor to the Participatory Budgeting Spanish Language Committee and member of the Participatory Budgeting Leadership Committee.

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