Officials from the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) sat on stage as people settled into their seats, and organizers from El Pueblo Manda prompted the crowd to continue their chants of “No TIF” with intermittent exclamations: “No one invited you here!” “We love our neighborhood the way it is!” They brought at least 250 cards-not enough for the large crowd. In front of the heavy auditorium doors, Sigcho Lopez’s office passed out voter cards asking attendees if they wanted the amendment to pass or not. Slowly everyone filtered into the high school: lifelong Pilsen residents, people who had lived in Pilsen for generations but had left or been pushed out of the neighborhood, and other Chicagoans interested in better understanding the new amendment. While some residents and groups like El Pueblo Manda or the CivicLab are calling for the abolition of TIF, other Chicagoans and 25th Ward Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez are more reform-minded, asking that the system change to empower neighborhood-led development. Critics view these districts as tools used by developers and the City to deliberately redistribute public funds to wealthy areas and expedite gentrification in historically Black and Brown working-class neighborhoods by attracting private developments that lead to increased property tax and rental costs. TIF has a long history of opposition throughout the city. Or their rent has skyrocketed, forcing them out of the neighborhood. Lifelong residents have had homes their families have owned for generations put on short-sale lists. With Pilsen property taxes increasing much more rapidly than the city’s as a whole, long-term property owners are unable to keep up with their tax payments (in addition to experiencing a general rise in the cost of living). While hundreds of residents waited in line, many people lamented that they had done something like this before, that this felt like déjà vu from when they organized against TIF decades earlier or when they were side-lined by a twelve-year extension of that same TIF last fall.Ĭhants of “No TIF” echoed in the large concrete courtyard as organizers from Coalición El Pueblo Manda, a group of community members and allies organizing against gentrification, particularly in Pilsen, walked up and down the line holding signs reading, “Developers Stay Out of Pilsen” and “TIF Equals Displacement.” Since the TIF district was first established in 1998 under former alderman Danny Solis, this was one of the few public forums ever offered to residents to discuss TIF and the implications it has for their community. Most consortia require applications to be submitted between October and January for courses starting the following academic year. Interested students should click on the url of the master and directly contact the consortium for information on courses, application procedures and scholarships availability.On a warm Thursday night in May, a long line of people trickled into Benito Juárez Community Academy for a meeting on a proposed amendment to the Pilsen tax increment financing (TIF) district-a designated area in the neighborhood where revenue from property taxes is diverted to fund development projects. Most offer Erasmus Mundus scholarships: some do not, being at the end of their funding period or having been temporarily allowed to use the Erasmus Mundus name after the end of their funding period. The Erasmus Mundus Catalogue is updated yearly and lists the Master's programmes that are currently supported by the European Union. Read more to find out if an EMJM is right for you. In addition, scholarships are available for the best students. Students at master's level from all over the world can apply. They are distinguished by their academic excellence and by their high level of integration. Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters are delivered by multiple higher education institutions and run across various countries.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |