Abolish TIFs! Save Lives!

April 2019 – 7 Aldermen-Elect Protest the Lincoln Yards TIF!

On behalf of the CivicLab, our constituents, staff, board and, community leaders I am excited to offer an incredible opportunity for you to be part of a very important campaign to end this racist, unjust slush fund, the Tax Increment Fund, otherwise known as TIFs. The CivicLab and our core allies and supporters are fundamentally opposed to TIFs and are demanding a complete shut down, with the $1.5 billion dollars in this slush fund to be immediately returned to the units of government that have and continue to serve all of our communities. Those local units of government are the Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Public Libraries and the essential Chicago city services which need to be fully funded to be effective.

Over the past several years we at the CivicLab have illuminated TIFs and exposed this massive corrupt scheme cloaked in benign rhetoric of helping marginalized and blighted communities. We see this program as a strategic and calculated and targeted attack to displace hundreds of thousands of African Americans out of Chicago all while enriching the extremely wealthy developers and the businesses and affluent movers and shakers of this city. A critical result of this has been the public subsidization of the hyper affluent Northside and Loop communities.

For the past three years in a row Chicago has been ranked #1 big city to visit and live in by Condé Nast readers in a recent poll of 600,000 people. The media has loudly trumpeted this announcement. But it must be noted that more than 14,000 black residents left Cook County between 2016 and 2017. Chicago has seen 61,000 residents leave annually, a population dwindle that has the Windy City on the brink of dropping from third- to fourth-largest U.S. city (Houston is expected to best Chicago’s population by 2025). Chicago’s Black population is on track to shrink to 665,000 by 2030 — down from a peak of about 1.2 million, according to the Urban Institute. 

The contrast couldn’t be more stark and shameful.  

We celebrate our #1 status all while displacing hundreds of thousands of our fellow Chicagoans. Less we forget that we are also #1 as the most corrupt city in the nation. We continue to be at the top of the list on all sorts of critical issues. In the realm of housing, we have over 125,000 homes combined in near negative to negative equity. Only about 43 percent of Blacks own their homes here, compared with 72 percent of whites. According to recent statistics, 15 percent of African-Americans in Chicago are part of the labor force, compared with 57 percent of whites. Statewide, things aren’t any better — the Black unemployment rate in Illinois hovers around 9 percent, among the highest in the nation.  

As a city we have over 86,000 homeless according to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH). CCH informs us that “In 2018 in Chicago, a household must earn $22.69 an hour or $47,200 in order to comfortably afford a two-bedroom apartment. Because the housing wage in Chicago is so high compared to the current minimum wage of $13 an hour, many homeless people work, but still can’t afford their own housing. In fact, among those experiencing homelessness in Chicago in 2017, 13,929 or 21% of those over 18 are working. “

These are just a few grim and dire highlights of the situation that many of our fellow Chicagoans face on the daily. We at the CivicLab say enough is enough and the racist unjust slush fund, known as TIFs must be shut down immediately. We call for the $1.5 billion sitting in TIF accounts to be reinvested back to the public service institutions of our local government so that we can address our most salient challenges that we face.  

Now more than ever we need to stand up as a city of neighborhoods, as Chicagoans from all diverse backgrounds and demand equity and justice in how this city is being managed by the current Mayor and Chicago City Council. 

We face a $838 million deficit in our city budget, we face three massive strikes totaling 35,000 Chicagoans. We face ongoing political and moral deficits of corrupt police and politicians resulting in a massive loss in trust in our system of government, a staggering loss of lives, and more displacement of our fellow Chicagoans out of the city and state and millions of dollars wasted and misused. In the midst of all of this tragedy the CivicLab has remained vigilante and focused at de-cloaking corrupt and racist policies and practices by our elected and appointed governmental officials. We remain focused on lighting the path for everyone to walk and see for themselves how the racist unjust slush fund TIFs work and the horrific impact it visits on Black and Brown communities across the city. 

After years of analyzing and illuminating TIFS, and conducting over 200 community engagements with thousands of Chicagoans and reaching over 200,000 people through our grassroots media efforts across Chicago Metro, we have come to this conclusion. We declare that the racist unjust slush fund known as Tax Increment Financing has been and continues to be a major causal factor in this severe displacement of African Americans through persistent negligence and disinvestment of Black and Brown neighborhoods.  

We declare that the siphoning off billions of dollars to support the hyper development of affluent neighborhoods and the downtown district through this racist unjust slush fund TIFs damages and undermines the very public institutions that are of service to the hundreds of thousands of Black and Brown children, youth and families. The results have been decimation of Black and Brown children’s education with over 200 school closings and the sustained efforts at segregating and locking out African Americans and LatinX in housing, economic development and job creation.

This concerted attack has directly resulted in the Chicago reverse Great Migration, the greatest migration out of a major U.S city in over 100 years. 

As the President and Chief Executive Officer of the CivicLab I am fully committed to re-imagining this city, working with all of you and with our allies and changing it to the city that we all deserve! 

I pledge to you that we will continue to speak truth to power and will do everything possible to shut down this racist unjust slush fund called TIFS! Join us in this worthy endeavor and together we can create a more fair and just city for all of our children, youth and families.

Monday Night Hang-Outs – Share/Laugh/Heal

Join the CivicLab and our Allies online Monday nights @ 6pm for one hour of civic healing. Register via Zoom.

We are now in a time of crisis. We know as in all past crises Black, Brown, and poor people take on the lion share of death and devastation. We now have the evidence for the local COVID19 crisis. Black Chicagoans are six times as likely to die from the COVID19 pandemic as White Chicagoans.

Let me be even more blunt.

If you live in a White community in Chicago you are safer than if you live where I live. Your children and elders have a much greater chance to survive and live through the COVID19 pandemic. If you live in a community along the Lake Front or close to the Loop, you are safer and more likely to have access to life-saving resources. If your income is above $100,000 year you are more likely to be well, have wealth and so be in a better position to survive this, and thrive post-pandemic than many of our fellow Chicagoans.

This is a moral and economic crisis that demands immediate political action and immediate relief to Chicago’s long neglected Black and Brown communities.

We know that historically civic planning, mutual aid, and disaster and emergency relief efforts have not benefited Black and Brown people. Rather, such efforts have criminalized our neighbors and committed irreparable harm to Black and Brown communities.

We demand immediate relief that does not criminalize nor harm Black and Brown people and we demand long term structural change in how public education, public health, and public and private services are meeting the needs and wishes of Black and Brown people throughout Chicago.

We are calling on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the Chicago City Council, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle and Governor JB Pritzker and all of our legislative bodies to do the right thing and take immediate action to Save Lives Now.

Our elected leaders must take immediate action to slow the community and workplace and prison spread of COVID19 and put in place substantial economic and public health measures that will address the long standing racial inequities that plague our city.

We must SAVE LIVES NOW. The People’s Response to COVID19 has crafted a comprehensive list of economic and public health solutions, a product of numerous groups and thousands of individuals across the city collectively working together for a more racially equitable and just Metro Chicago. PLEASE READ THIS LIST CAREFULLY AND SIGN THE PETITION.

The People’s COVID19 Response demands that the Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the City Council must reinstate the head tax on all businesses with more than 50 employees and use the $100 Million to fund The People’s Response to COVID19. The Mayor and City Council must Abolish All Tax Increment Financing districts (TIFs) now, including the TIFs for the Lincoln Yards and Project 78 developments, and use the $1.2 Billion public dollars remaining in TIF accounts to fund The People’s Response to COVID19 Demands.

To get a full description of The People’s Response to COVID19 Demands and direct access to our End TIFS Now Action Center. 

Are you ready RIGHT NOW to join this campaign then click here and sign up. We will contact you.

If you agree with us that TIFs need to be ABOLISHED, sign our online petition and share it widely. 

A Luta Continua!

Jonathan Peck

President, CEO, The CivicLab

Watch our video making the case for the ABOLITION of TIFs…