Wednesday, February 28, 2007
* Student Newspaper Covers the Loyola TIF
Loyola is a school that prides itself on being an active, positive force in the local community. With Loyola's ambitious plans for expansion and renovation, however, the university's administration has butted heads with community groups and activists over funding and the location of its new development projects. Full story here. Excellent reporting by Derek Quizon. The 'Broken Heart' gives you an A+. You may be getting a call to the deans office?
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11 comments:
craig, i too read the article. it was horrible. in no way does it reflect reality. if the phoenix was so worried about the rogesr park community as a whole (eventhough half of the campus is in edgewater also) then why didn't they quote ald moore, devcorp, rogo community council or block clubs? seems to me the reporter went to the people he knew would give loyola a bad rap. i'm sorry you don't see that. the phoenix, unfortunately, has always had an inherent bias against the university.
Griag:
I sort of the same vein, I have a question, why is a chicago police officer sitting in his squad every end of the school day, on Rosemont?
I asked the 24th watch commander once I was told he was there to oversee the traffic of the parents cars that pick up their children.
My question is since this is a private school why is a office that is payed for by tax dollars overseeing a private school pickup. Do the local public schools have a patrolmen sitting in a squad car in front of the school. By the way the office is 95% sitting reading a book.
Just asking. Maybe Graig you can find this out!
Thanks! PS:A few beers on my tab awaits your answear
"why didn't they quote ald moore, devcorp, rogo community council or block clubs?"
Why indeed?
Last year, I attended the meeting at which the infamous Loyola TIF development plan was presented, which was really beside the point- the deal by which the taxpayers of Chicago are plundered of the money to pay for our failing schools, decrepit infrastructure, and starving city services is directed to a wealthy, private, well-endowed institution that can exclude anyone it pleases and will NEVER NEVER PAY A DIME OF TAXES.
TIFs are simply Welfare For The Rich, a big gimme worth tens of millions to hundreds of millions to private developers,that is presented to us stooges out here as 'free money'. The money is NOT free.
The money to fund TIFs is taken from our future tax base, in that when property taxes rise along with the costs of running the city, the TIF developer will get the "increment" that the taxes rise by, on property in the TIF district.
This is one of my many grudges against Alderman Moore, that he has almost always, with only one, late exception, voted with Da Mare to plunder the taxpayers of Chicago by means of 150 TIF districts.
Worse, they would be bad enough if they worked as planned, but they never do. They are almost always a failure on their own terms, in that they usually result in a net loss of jobs and businesses, and usually entail overscaled, inappopriate 'suburban' type development, to the detriment not only of the many small businesses that are lost to make way for their massive development, but to the fabric of the neighborhood. A recent study, which I have a copy of, studied 5 recent TIFs in Chicago, and discovered that all 5 resulted in a net loss of jobs and businesses.
Worse, the TIF district is often extended beyond its legal 23-year life, after which the property in the district is suupposed to be taxed like other property- the tax increment should then go to the city. Ideally, you have better development and a larger tax base. However, this almost never happens, because TIFs are now extended infinately.
Worst of all, the Loyola TIF money is mostly going to develop property that will never be part of the tax base, namely Loyola buildings.
Why should we pay for this? Why should our essential services and civic amenities be starved to benefit a wealthy, private institution that costs $25K (at least) per year to attend?
And how on earth can this type of "welfare capitalism" be considered free market? By means of these types of programs, the wealth divide in this country grows greater, and more people are pushed into poverty, starting when they are blasted out of their houses by rapidly and steeply increasing taxes they will never get the benefit of, because they have been diverted into the back pockets of the rich and politically connected by means of these types of Corporate Welfare.
Joe Moore, O'Connor, Smith, and all the other AlderToadies have never , with rare exceptions, lifted a finger to stop the plunder. Moore is solidly behind this TIF, as he is almost every other, having voted against only one, and that very recently.
Think about it every time you pay your house taxes, or get a tax-driven rent hike.
Ryne, I see this every morning too. Then when I ask the 24th district for a crossing guard at Western & Jarvis (bad intersection) I am told that there isn't enough funding for one.
sacred heart pays for the officers. duh. also it would not be in loyola's interest to turn the neighborhood into shit. have a little faith. i dont like jomo like the rest of you but i would not compare jomo's incomptence with loyola's desire to help better the area.
Jarvis, We had a imposter posing as you yesterday then, sorry. I removed both comments.
That's the problem with all you anonymous commenters out there. Why can't you use your real names? It seems so cowardly to me.
Jarvis please duh??? When I have asked it was told to me that the school does not pay for the officer this was from a teacher at the school.
Thats why I brought up the question! 20 yrs working for the Federal Goverment I have seen many lies & cover ups , that what has kept me employed. In the times of cities and counties slashing budguts & yet wasteing monies on jobs for family & friends, I do not assume the school pays! Also I want Loyola to improve the area but jarvis you have to agree as both schools (sacred heart & loyola are both private schools) should not be recieveing tax dollars that should be spent on paying & improveing public employees & projects.
Do the local public schools have a patrolmen sitting in a squad car in front of the school.
Yes, Sulllivan has about 10 cars at dismissal, along with Gale, Jordan, Hayt, etc....
"it would not be in Loyola's interests to turn the neighborhood to shit"
Well, in fact, the neighborhood surrounding Loyola WAS shit for a good 20 years, the presence of Loyola notwithstanding.
In fact, I'm not the only one who has noticed, in many cities, that universities are often indirectly the cause of blighted neighborhoods. The other person who noticed this was the great urbanist, Jane Jacobs, who duly noted the fact in the greatest of her books, THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES, a book that I believe every urban politician or officeholder or planner should be required to read, along with the rest of her ouvre of outstanding books on the function of cities and city economies.
The fact is, monster-scaled one-piece urban planning has done more to destroy our cities than almost any other force except widespread auto use. These Great Plans all start with the best of intentions, but instead of enlivening the neighborhoods they are imposed upon, they kill them, usually be imposing development that does not respect the context of the area. Take a look at the results of one recent (within past 15 years) TIF, the Lincoln/Belmont/Ashland, and tell me that the monster strip mall there has anything to do with the surrounding neighborhood. It is glaringly out of context and is in opposition to the very idea of a city, which is fine-grained retail in a walkable neighborhood.
Worse, we NEVER get our money's worth from these things, whether measured by jobs created or taxes generated for the city. Take a look at the random jumble of frame and/or concrete strip malls at Berwyn and Broadway, with their motley collection of cheap retail. Does that look like $17 million? Only Pier One is a real store- all the rest are the kind of retail garbage. This development is NOT an asset to this Edgewater neighborhood, which was coming along just fine by the efforts of local property and business owners.
The fact that Loyola is an "asset to the community" does NOT justify subsidizing them. The businesses that pay taxes and the homeowners and landlords who fix up and maintain property that was blighted are far greater assets to the community. Most of all, you cease to be an asset when you become a welfare recipient, which Loyola now has become, and at the expense of our public schools, our infrastructures, and our necessary services.
Think about it the next time a broken water main floods the street and the street caves in and takes a car with it, or as the schools here continue to fail, or when you call the police to intercept a violent crime and they take 20 minutes to respond because they are so undermanned.
For more info on our mulitude of blood-sucking TIF districts, go to
http://www.ncbg.org/tifs/tiflist.aspx
Bill, I am ok with officers being in front of public schools, are taxs are to be used for this.
Both schools Loyola (30,000yr tutition &Sacred Heart 14,000yr tution) do not need tax dollars nor should they be given any, no matter if they make a neighborhood alittle better.
The misuse of our tax dollars does not help the big picture. This is the rich get richer & the poor get pooer theory!
Please forgive misspelling and dropped sentances in post above. This computer gets lamer every day-the keys don't always work and I'm going too fast for them to keep up with me.
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