Tag Archives: storefronts

And you wonder why the 2nd city has so much gang related violence and gangs terrorize the streets(schools, hoods, and the whole culture) and the police doesn't do anything to stop it?. Here is why in this amazing report by the REader. The Shadow Budget: Who Wins in Daley's TIF Game The economic development funds are supposed to go to neighborhoods that need it. Guess where they're really going. For the first time ever: how the city spends TIF funds, ward by ward By Mick Dumke and Ben Joravsky http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-shadow-budget-who-wins-in-daleys-tif-ga… And you wonder why the 2nd city has so much gang related violence and gangs terrorize the streets(schools, hoods, and the whole culture) and the police doesn't do anything to stop it?. Here is why in this amazing report by the REader. If ever there was a community in need of economic development, it's West Englewood. It's riddled with vacant lots. Those that aren't turning to swamps or being used as fly dumps are littered with rubble, broken glass, plastic bottles, and piles of soiled clothes. Since the beginning of 2008, more than 1,300 properties have been foreclosed on here, and countless homes are boarded up, vacant, or clearly occupied by squatters. The roads and sidewalks are crumbling; on the side streets you can hear cars rattling over potholes a block away. On the major thoroughfares, like Damen or 63rd, most of the storefronts still standing are boarded up, gated off, or both—even the liquor stores and churches. At the corner of Damen and 62nd, an abandoned car is parked at an abandoned service station. The city of Chicago has a program to eradicate blight and stimulate new development. Between 2004 and 2008 it spent about $1.5 billion in property tax dollars on communities Mayor Daley and his aides designated as needing a shot in the arm. Yet only about $33,000—or 0.002 percent of that $1.5 billion—went to the 15th Ward, which includes most of West Englewood. It ranks 49th out of 50 wards on the list of communities receiving those funds, just ahead of the middle-class 41st Ward on the northwest side. The 41st Ward didn't get any of that money because its longtime alderman, Brian Doherty, is opposed to the program. But the other wards not receiving much in the way of TIF funds include depressed communities such as Ashburn, Roseland, Little Village, Auburn-Gresham, and West Pullman. added by: Sprinkler