Another property tax increase coming soon...

Chicago Board of Education

Remember during the 2015 municipal elections where I expressed support for an elected school board - though my idea was a hybrid with both appointed and elected members? Well we need to get to work on this idea especially if Gov. Bruce Rauner signs legislation that sets up another property tax increase here in Chicago that would be approved not by Chicago Aldermen, but by the appointed Chicago board of education.

Tapped-out Chicago property owners would face yet another tax hit for teacher pensions — but their aldermen would escape another difficult vote — under a historic new statewide school funding deal now headed to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk.

That “compromise” bill — approved by Illinois lawmakers this week — authorizes the Chicago Board of Education, comprised of mayoral appointees, to impose a property-tax hike worth $125 million without any involvement whatsoever from the Chicago City Council, whose members are elected.

The Board of Education does indeed plan to approve the increase, enabling the Chicago Public Schools to walk away with a total of $450 million in new state and local money for the 2017-18 school year once Rauner puts his signature on the bill, school officials said.

Rauner plans a bill-signing ceremony on Thursday, his office said.

It’s unclear when the city’s school board will take up the property-tax increase.

This hike would amount to a 2.5 percent increase in the tax bill for an average Chicago homeowner. The owner of a home worth $200,000 would pay an additional $83 in property taxes, records show.

It brings to mind a recent column written by John Ruberry of Marathon Pundit

In Chicago it’s great to be part of the ruling class. But Chicago’s roads are crumbling, barely one out of four of its students in its government schools read at grade level, its bond rating is the lowest among major cities, and businesses lack confidence in Chicago and Illinois as a whole. If you are part of Chicago’s ruling class you might view high taxes as a downpayment on your next paycheck or your retirement, but Chicagoans endure the nation’s highest sales tax rate and they were slugged with the highest property tax increase in the city’s history to fund public-worker pensions.

Yet Chicago’s public pensions are the worst-funded among America’s biggest cities--at a rate of just 25 percent of its obligations. But the cruel joke may be on these well-compensated public-servants. Despite the strong pension protection clause in the Illinois constitution, a pension “haircut” seems unavoidable for retirees. Michigan has similar wording it its constitution, yet Detroit municipal retirees saw their pension checks cut after the Motor City declared bankruptcy.

h/t Newsalert

BTW, what you see in that Newsalert post is a screencap of the Sun-Times front page which is what I share now.

 

West Chesterfield moves up on leader board State Farm neighborhood assist

From The Chicago Neighborhoods

We got an e-mail recently from West Chesterfield's Michael LaFargue

• THANK those who have voted! and ask PLEASE VOTE TODAY, TOMORROW, THURSDAY and FRIDAY!
  
  UPDATE!
  We have moved up on the Leader Board to #145. We need to be at #40.
  
  VOTE:
  GO TO: www.neighborhoodassist.com
  SIGN UP: name, personal email…
  SEARCH: type in West Chesterfield
  VOTE: Today *
  VOTE: Daily **
  
  Please help the West Chesterfield Community Association Inc. win a $25,000 State Farm "Safety" Surveillance Camera Grant!
  
  Only the "The forty (40) Causes earning the highest number of votes by 11:59:59 P.M. ET, Friday, August 25, 2017 will be designated the winners"

Also there was a press release attached to this e-mail which includes reference to Cook County Judge Raymond Myles who had been murdered this past spring. The private surveillance camera network of West Chesterfield was instrumental in capturing his killers.

2017 Neigborhood Assist Press Release Color Photo for WCCA by Levois on Scribd

Let's support West Chesterfield in their efforts!

Seaway Bank Farmer's Market Aug. 2nd to Sept. 20th, 2017

Seaway Bank as a division of Self-Help FCU is hosting a farmer's market every Wednesday from Aug. 2 to Sept. 20, 2017 from 9 AM to 2 PM. at the main branch located at 645 E. 87th Street. Refer to flyer below for more details or click this link for a printable flyer.

A post shared by The Sixth Ward (@thesixthward) on Aug 8, 2017 at 12:07pm PDT

HUFFPOST: Wake Up, Black Community

N'Digo's publisher Hermene Hartman writes about the changes taking place in Chicago and how these changes affect Black Chicago:

There are two Chicagos, one Black and one White. There are two districts in the city – the White one north and the Black one combining the South and West Sides.

By the time Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s term is up in 2019, the city will be revamped, the redesign of Chicago will be complete, and the divide will be greater than ever through economic maneuvers.

The Black community, the Black vote, as usual is being taken for granted by the Democrats and ignored by the Republicans. You can see it everywhere and the Black community is losing as the renaissance of the city goes forth before your very eyes.

Taxes are increasing, housing is changing, and the cranes in the south loop and downtown Chicago are erecting condos and hotels as fast as possible. Hyde Park is a new community with high-rise rentals and new stores as they prepare for the Obama library.

And then it goes on:

The Black community is asleep, a sleeping giant, the voting elephant in a room where Black lives don’t matter in reality. Wake up, if you please, and look at the surroundings.

The neighborhoods are changing rapidly and Black folk don’t matter and we don’t know the plan. Hopefully we will look through the political talk and hold the politicians accountable.

Crime is rampant in our neighborhoods that will change soon, bringing new land development and new populations. Displacement abounds. New schools are coming. New stores are coming. New restaurants are coming, but they are not for the Black community that is currently in those neighborhoods now. Economic development is not coming our way. The newest innovation is pianos in the park, where Blacks are afraid to play, ride bicycles or picnic for fear of being shot, while listening to the tinkling piano music, I suppose.

I excerpted a lot more than I should've but read the whole thing & let me know what you think. Whenever the subject of the decline of Black Chicago comes up on this blog, there is a recurring theme. Blacks are leaving the city of Chicago and going to the burbs or out of state - perhaps to the south. Also we're losing population, however, there is a construction boom near downtown Chicago or in Hyde Park.

So right now what do we do to stem the tide?

Armed & fabulous: In Chicago, women worried about violence join gun club.

GO FALCONS

Found this article over at Instapundit. They're talking about a local business that offers gun training classes.

Javondlynn Dunagan, came up with the idea of gun training classes geared toward women, and for the "Ladies of Steel" gun club -- after successful training, the women gather twice a month to practice their skills.

Dunagan served as a parole officer for 25 years before finishing her career in January, but had rarely held a gun when dealing with convicts.

She said she started carrying one after divorcing her police officer husband.

"I was at home by myself with my daughter, and I was used to having a firearm in a home with my ex-husband," she explained. "So, I wanted to make sure that we were safe."

But Dunagan noticed something curious when she visited gun ranges around Chicago to practice.

"I noticed that I never saw two women at the range together or a group of ladies," she recounted.

As for the answer to women who are scared of guns:

That answer prompted her to start JMD Defense & Investigations, offering gun training programs geared towards women. The "investigations" side of the business will debut next year.

Dunagan also offers classes such as the "Mommy & Me Self-Defense Class," where women can bring their daughters, ages 8-18 years, to learn hand-to-hand combat.

"That came about because my daughter was going to college four years ago and she couldn't find a self-defense class on the south side of Chicago," Dunagan said.

Her clients are from the predominantly African-American communities in Chicago's south side, in or near neighborhoods struggling with runaway gun violence.

If you'd like follow JMD (visit their website) on ig. Their offices are located in Beverly at 1447 W. 103rd Street

Our Ladies of Steel Gun Club is growing fast. We support one another, eat at our meetings, we learn together and most importantly we shoot together! We are hearing an awesome presentation about how to clean and maintain our firearms. We offer firearm cleaning classes too!

A post shared by JMD Defense & Investigations (@jmddefenseinvestigations) on Jul 18, 2017 at 4:41pm PDT

Capitol Fax: Austin is no longer the city’s largest neighborhood

I'm sharing a direct tweet to an article about Austin losing its designation as Chicago's most populous neighborhood - though remaining the largest community area geographically.

Austin's population has dropped dramatically as retaliatory gang violence persists https://t.co/fPIxIjoMeJ pic.twitter.com/b6bOfrT6uQ

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) July 17, 2017

According to the Tribune article shared over at the Capitol Fax it loses this designation to the north side Lakeview neighborhood:

Home to nearly 118,000 people in 2000, Austin has seen its population drop to 97,600, according to an average of census data collected between 2011 and 2015. It has been overtaken by the North Side's Lakeview neighborhood, whose population has remained steady since the 1980s and currently has about 98,200 residents.

Now the reasons Austin is losing population is not much different than a number of neighborhoods on the south side or even the west side. Better yet not much different than why many are leaving Chicago, period.

In a neighborhood as large as Austin, each block can be its own world.

The tree-lined ones, with restored Victorian homes or brick two-flats and kids playing in polished gardens, are what residents call good blocks. They're free of the shootings and drug deals that plague others. But those other blocks, dotted with boarded-up houses and vacant lots with overgrown weeds, are often down the street or around the corner.

Austin is the city's largest community area geographically, and was the most populated for 45 years. But as the West Side neighborhood's gun violence has increased, so too has families' realization that at any moment the shootings can creep into their blocks — even the good blocks. Austin's residents are leaving, with some saying goodbye to the place they've called home their entire lives.
...
Chicago's violence is at its highest since the drug wars of the 1990s, and Austin is center stage to many of the shootings and homicides: As of July 13, there were 258 shootings in the area in 2017 and 44 homicides, according to Tribune data. More than 1,900 people have been shot in Chicago so far this year.

The city as a whole is losing residents, and Chicago last year was the only city of the country's 10 largest to lose population. Residents who've packed up and left Chicago have cited a variety of reasons — high taxes, the state budget stalemate and the weather.

Those in Austin have a different list of concerns. More than 30 percent live in poverty. Storefronts are shuttered, and grocery stores are few and far between. The neighborhood high schools that remain open are under-resourced.

But in a neighborhood where retaliatory shootings mean unending violence, many residents say safety is the biggest issue.

Of course there is more to this story so I suggest you give this a read. And check out the video with the Trib article. If only many of us has signs like this to rep our neighborhoods. For example I <3 Chatham or I <3 Roseland or I <3 Englewood.

Trump and county sending help for violence in Chicago

President Trump

Lost in all the tweets of personal attacks on cable network media personalities and a video which portrays the President at a past WWF Wrestlemania attacking someone who represents CNN (whose logo you see in place of their face - probably WWF owner Vince McMahon) was a mention of federal help being sent to Chicago.

Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017

Bear in mind earlier this year he wrote this tweet

If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

It appears the President of the United States is actually fulfilling that initial promise:

Twenty federal gun agents have been assigned to Chicago to join a newly formed task force aimed at cutting the flow of illegal guns into the city and cracking down on people repeatedly arrested on gun charges.

Hours after the Chicago police department sent out a news release about the task force, President Donald Trump claimed credit for sending in the agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
...
The roughly 40-person strike force, which consists of Chicago police officers, ATF agents and Illinois State Police, will be working on unsolved shootings and gun-related homicides and combating illegal gun trafficking, officials said Friday.

In addition to the federal angle help from the Cook County Sheriff is coming to the south side also announced late last month:

The sheriff's office announced Wednesday that 55 to 60 sheriff's police and staff members would "supplement" the work already done by Chicago police in the Calumet and Gresham police districts.

Sheriff's officers and staff will help with patrol units, special operations, crime suppression tactical teams, evictions and other services.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) asked the sheriff's police to help "to create a safer, healthier environment," according to a news release.

Will additional law enforcement help from the federal government or the sheriff be enough to curb violent crime in the many low-income neighborhoods of Chicago?

BTW, yes the WWF is actually WWE now, however, as a wrestling fan old habits die hard. WWE will always be WWF or World Wrestling Federation to me. The usage of WWF was intentional.

West Chesterfield on the recent Walgreen's closure in the neighborhood

Crossposted from The Sixth Ward

347 E. 95th Street - June 2017

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to go to the recent meeting hosted by state Rep. Elgie Sims on the Walgreen's store that closed on Tuesday Jun. 27th at 95th/King Drive. However I'm glad that the West Chesterfield Community Association was able to share a quick report on their fb page. That report is embedded below

Against All Odds: The Fight for the Black Middle Class

Crossposted from The Sixth Ward

[VIDEO] One of the main reasons why I started The Sixth Ward was to in some way highlight the middle-class aspects of the 6th Ward as it was drawn between 2002 to roughly 2015. Chatham isn't the only community with a solidly Black middle-class population, but it has often been considered a bastion of the Black middle-class.

This documentary was mentioned on the ig profile for the new owners of the former Seaway National Bank - Self-Help FCU - doing a quick mention of this documentary Against All Odds: The Fight for the Black Middle Class. It's available for viewing either on pbs.org or you can watch it through the PBS app available on iPhones & iPads and likely Android also.


It's a great history Blacks came from sharecroppers and then reached some form of a middle-class through entrepreneurship, trades, manufacturing, even as government workers. Although as I've learned overtime with this blog having taken an interest in the issues of the middle-class being white middle-class is often different than being Black middle-class. One difference is certainly the wealth gap:

Nearly 40 percent of black children are poor, and for every dollar of wealth in the hands of the average white family, the typical black family has only a little more than a nickel.

Also mentions which is also part of this wealth gap is the great recession and how many Black families are still digging out of it. Just think as Barack Obama took the reigns as President of the United States many Black neighborhoods here in Chicago were feeling the crisis of foreclosure.

Also noted how if one bought a home in a solidly Black populated area the values of the home would be devalued compared to a home in a white populated area. If both areas are considered solidly middle-class where people generally take care of their property there would still be a difference as far as value based upon the majority race.

With that being said is the path different for those people who seek to join the ranks of America's middle-class? What held an earlier generation back at least 50-60 years ago may not be a major factor at the start of the 21st century.

Great staff screening today of Against All Odds, a powerful doc about history, racism and the struggle for a black middle class. Highly recommended! You can watch it for free on pbs.org. 🎬💪🏾

A post shared by Self-Help Credit Union (@selfhelpcreditunion) on Jun 22, 2017 at 12:45pm PDT

Wendy's coming to 95th/Michigan?

Worlee wrote this over at NextDoor recently

107 E. 95th Street - June 2017

• Where o Where Will Wendy's Go

  
  
  The plot thickens. There is an unverified report that Wendy's will take over the former KFC site at 95th Michigan. 
  
  
  Also, it has been reported that Wendy's will be opening a store at the 87th street retail corridor. 
  
  
  So will we have two stores opening? Will we have 4 stores in a 5mile radius with the existing stores at 86th Stony and 83rd Ashland? 
  
  
  What's your thoughts?

In addition there's also a Wendy's at 111th/State in Roseland. Also let's not forget that the former Wendy's at 95th/King Drive still hasn't found another tenant yet. Though it's great to finally have a new business in the former KFC space which closed permanently near the end of 2015. Here's one of our ig posts.

I don't know what is going on here but this KFC at 95th/Michigan is now closed. #kfc #kentuckyfriedchicken #southside #chicagogram #95thstreet #businessclosed

A post shared by The Sixth Ward (@thesixthward) on Dec 17, 2015 at 8:23am PST