Alderman wants new TIF for Olympic Village

One of the things discussed at the Aldermanic meeting on Thursday. The alderman said developers have been wanting to get at that lakefront for years. She mentioned that a friend from New York said that Chicago is the only place where poor people can get on the lakefront. I suppose we could pose the question should the lakefront become prime real estate only affordable to those with means (i.e. wealth)?

I'd rather hope not, but we can still look at an article from the Sun-Times about how Chicago will get an olympic village built.

A South Side alderman is urging Mayor Daley to create a new tax-increment financing district to generate the millions needed to turn the soon to be closed Michael Reese Hospital campus into a $1.1 billion Olympic Village.

"We're gonna need as many resources as we can possibly get to do this because of the expense of building new streets, water, sewers and whatever else we're gonna need," said Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th).

Her ward includes the Reese campus, which would be converted into a new residential neighborhood after the 2016 Summer Olympic Games are over. Her plan calls for creating the new district within the existing Bronzeville TIF.

TIFs don't raise taxes, they re-direct them away from schools, parks and other local government agencies bankrolled by property taxes.

Property taxes within a TIF district are frozen at existing levels for 23 years. Any increase over the starting tax base is funnelled into a pool used for specific purposes, primarily infrastructure improvements, business subsidies and environmental cleanup.

Preckwinkle acknowledged that the "TIF-within-a-TIF" concept would be a precedent-setting first for Chicago.