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Nonbinding referendums in February found widespread support for protections from gentrifcation among residents near the Obama Center, as well as for a plan to build affordable housing on the largest city-owned lot in Woodlawn. Thursday, two City Council members introduced a proposal to expand protections in place in Woodlawn to include South Shore, as well as $12 million set aside for grants and down-payment assistance, $20 million for home improvement grants, and $2.3 million for grants to pay off property tax debt incurred by long-term residents.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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There’s no gentrification. The neighborhood will turn hispanix or latinks. Across the street from Obama’s rarely visited library will be taco carts and panhandlers.
Obammy — the self-described community organizer — refuses to listen this community’s issues — hypocrisy much?