Congratulations to Jonathan Bullington and Evanston's Trib Local to put " Citizen Participation At City Meetings Discussed " in both their online & April 12th, … Read more ›
Kevin O'Connor
@kevinoconnor
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OMS Evanston picked up the southeast corner of Main & Chicago for less than the cost out of foreclosure for I believe 1.6 million, less than the price of a greed era McMansion. With such a tremendous fire sale bargain for the owner why should the already overburdened Evanston taxpayers give their tax dollars away to a for profit private property owner. In fact Ald. Wynne & the EDC of COE have already suggested a “no cost to the taxpayer” way to receive “market feedback” about the property, have a meeting with their own citizens. As for Ald. Wynne stating: “we need to bring daytime life to that area & provide a business boom to all of south Evanston” it’s interesting that the Ald.Wynne & the Council with the help of Mayor Tisdahl’s political appointees to the Library Board closed the South Branch of the Evanston Library for the want of 57k, yet we have 40k to “invest” in a for profit private property owner, not Evanston’s own residents especially our youth.Shame on us! Also, the EPLF suggested the branch being moved to Main & Chicago as an “economic engine”, the idea and phrase came from this history making volunteer group. Ald. Wynne states confusingly: “to take a little convincing” & “easy sell”, to the former Ald. Wynne should due the convincing as part of her aldermanic duties, to the latter, if it’s such an easy sell why are we giving away 40k dollars? Next,why is Ald. Wynne “hearing from various developers, which is a one story drug store & that’s not the highest and best use for that property over the long term.” begs 2 questions: Why wouldn’t the property owner themselves be telling the City rather than various developers? What is Ald. Wynne’s expertise in commercial/residential real estate? Think about the failed “Sienna” project,the southwest corner of Asbury & Dodge using an attempted give away of our tax dollars in 1 million dollars in sales tax rebates (failed) and of course the give away of tax dollars in sales tax rebates to Joseph Freed (now bankrupt) @ the Dempster & Dodge Plaza. The COE has through Ald. Wynne’s tenure & previous Councils bankrupted the COE through use of TIFs in non-blighted areas, sales tax rebates, property tax rebates to the connected lawyers and developers while those businesses that don’t have their hand out or know “the right people” struggle to hang on or go out of business. Ald. Wynne states that: ” We need to spend money to convince developers ” it shows the heart of the problem facing our elected officials which is the inability to sell Evanston on it’s own without resorting to paying businesses to come to town and also, paying them to stay in town. This is a zero sum game for all concerned except,naturally,for the recipients of our scarce tax dollars. I don’t care that other towns are doing giveaways of their residents tax dollars, however I do care very deeply that Evanston does not. Developers/business owners are looking out for #1 (themselves) when they come begging. What is hard to understand and beyond shameful is when our own elected officials who are supposed to be good finacial stewards of our tax dollars lack any semblance of civic self esteem that we give away the store instead of just saying no. Can we afford economic development without giving away the store? Not when the store was given away over the last 20 years. Our current and previous elected officials need to take ownership for our bankruptcy, the residents (including myself ) for letting them get away with it and of course,for some in the 4th Estate media for not being watchdogs rather than lapdogs. We are beyond the tipping point in Evanston and it is vital to have the status quo changed.
Posted to Evanston pays developer $40,000 to spark interest in better project than a drug store - Evanston
One of the most continually frustrating realities about our elected officials in Evanston, is their inability to acknowledge their accountability for the bankrupt atate of the City of Evanston’s finances. Mayor Tisdahl & her senior aldermanic colleagues owe all Evanston citizens a honest & heartfelt apology for what has occured during their aldermanic tenures. The silence is deafening from the junior aldermen, who ran on platforms of improving Evanston’s fiscal disaster, yet have yet to point out to the Mayor & their senior aldermanic colleagues the need for them to take ownership & accountability for their poor actions or inaction regarding our fiscal spiral downward. It needs repeating, unfortunately ad nauseum, that nothing happens in a vacumn.
Was the LIbrary Board responsible for the 200 million plus in pension liabilities, the 40k spent in legal fees over a $635.00 alley pavement asessment resulting in the kiliing of a healthy tree in our alleged “Tree City for 25 years”, the spending of the remaining surplus in the Downtown II TIF for 150k sculpture on the City parking garage – approximately 800k to redo the streets & sidewalks from the parking garage to the theatre – 1 milion dollars remaining in the Parking
Fund to pay off a bond this coming December, the fact that all the TIF districts result in a BACK DOOR TAX INCREASE due to the frozen equalized assessed value (EAV) in the TIF districts for 23 years which means that the other taxing bodies on a citizen’s property tax bills (ie: D. 65, 202, Oakton Community College, Cook County, Evanston Township) whe revenue is needed, those districts can not access the tax dollars growing in the TIF’s (which are generally used for developer welfare, fat paydays for connected lawyers & wonderful commissions for G. O. Bond salespeople) resulting in A TAX INCREASE for all other residentail & business taxpayers in Evanston – finally, the ongoing giveaway from Evanston’s Economic Development Fund which was budgeted at approx. 1,8 million dollars for the last FY and gives our tax dollars away to ” privatize profit & socialize risk ” at taxpayer expense. Did Ald. Wilson ask any of the taxpayers if they could afford any of the above current & previous City Councils actions. While a taxpaying citizen can choose to go to Starbucks or not, the reality is that many citizens can not afford to live in Evanston due to years (decades of poor fiscal decisions from our elected officials). Please note that only 22% of our own COE employees live in Evanston ( FOIA-2010), some may do that by choice, others might do that because they can’t afford the taxes that have already existed here. Probably, not the LIbrary Board’s fault also.
Mayor Tisdahl states there has been ” a huge increase in poverty in Evanston”, however she does not apologize for her own role in it. Poverty & foreclosures exist in all wards in Evanston not in just some wards mentioned for political reasons. Another part of the accountability & ownership should go to Mayor Tisdahl’s vaunted “Evanston Machine”, Sen. Schoenberg (the disater in Springfield), Rep. Schakowsky & Sen. Durbin (the disaster in Washington). Of course, there is plenty of blame to go to all of us Evanston citizens & the pitiful minority that actually take voting seriously for shamefully allowing our 1 party sysyem in Evanston get away with such fiscal incompetence & disdain for the taxpayers. Last but not least let’s not forget our “lapdog media”, which should be much more strongly “watchdog media”. Without the “fourth estate” honestly, thoroughly doing hard investigative journalism without regard to: papering over everything is “beautiful” in Evanston, I want to be “friends” with our elected officials, keeping advertisers happy by doing “fluff” pieces (& other McNuggets of alleged journalism), buying the “spin” put out as fact from those with vested interests, the citizens will never be able to hold their elected officials & their surrogates accountable.
Hearing Ald. Wilson lecture the Library Board was “revisionist history” at it’s best. I don’t remember a very civil budget discussion with our current Council during the last budget. Gosh, I remember angry & divisive comments along the lines of arrogance, issues of power & control and outright anger that the “Residents” (who the Council allegedly works for) had the temerity to express their differences with the Council. Ald. Jean Baptiste said ” it’s about money, not about power” during the dialog. An honest citizen would respectfully disagree that in Evanston & elsewhere that it’s about both. Curiously, I did not hear a word from Ald. Jean Baptiste about how Evanston ended up in a bankrupt state on his aldermanic watch. “Denial” is just as dangerous as “revisionist history”. Perhaps that is why fiction books outsell non-fiction books. Ald. Wynne had her say also, however, her lecture also consisted of “revisionist history”. Some of her quotes: “We don’t have Old Orchard! If we had Old Orchard!” Well, Ald. Wynne where did all the tax dollars from the Downtown II TIF go? They certainly did not create a surplus for the taxpayers. Gosh, I hope you knew we didn’t have Old Orchard in Evanston during all the budgets you passed during your aldermanic tenure that showed no cuts & 1 time revenue fills. One deeply disturbing statistic from the approved budget for FY 10/11 was that on Page 51 it notes who the top 10 taxpayers are currently and were 9 years ago. Sadly, #2 on the current list is the ” Individual Taxpayer @ $9,083,061″! 9 years ago that was not the case. This catastrophic failure of our elected offiicals to not have solved the problem of businesses not locating here & the resultant job losses after the biggest developer welfare give away during the biggest real estate boom in my lifetime in Evanston is, sadly, undeniable. The fact that our elected officials did not succeed in having a vibrant & mixed tax base in Evanston during the “go-go years” after giving away the store is beyond shameful. Only now are we realizing, hopefully , that it can’t be business as usual and that the citizens who are active (unfortunately, a terribly small minority) will have to save us from the damage done irrevocably to Evanston. The Library is just a “starting point” to paraphrase Grant Farrar, however the “ending point” is far beyond our elected officials imagination or capabilities.
Posted to Library board, city council talk library fund - Evanston
How nice to see objective & balanced reporting on the Library Board’s funding forum. There is so much mean sprited writing, fear mongering & non-factual content that is being put on the Internet concerning this issue, that is a refreshing relief to have a real reporter that is actually reporting the story without subjective bias. Thank you, Mr. Bullington!
Posted to Library board hosts first funding forum - Evanston