Chicago’s Decades of Segregation Feed South and West Side Hardships

Authors Shruti Singh and Isis Almeida discuss issues caused by historical segregation in their Bloomberg article. Great Cities Institute’s Matt Wilson is interviewed and highlights the economic inequalities in Chicago.

Many of these same neighborhoods continue to face the highest levels of joblessness, poverty and inadequate housing, according to a study by the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois Chicago.

“These places of concentrated disadvantages are where unemployment is most concentrated and crime is most concentrated, and there is an interplay,” said Matthew Wilson, associate director for economic and workforce development at the institute. “They play off each other to create the inequities we see in the city.”

Read the Full Story at Bloomberg

 

Report Release: 2023 Chicago Budget Community Engagement Report

On October 3, 2022 Mayor Lori Lightfoot delivered her $16.4 billion budget for the City of Chicago to City Council. In July, the City conducted a community engagement process and partnered with UIC’s Neighborhoods Initiative (UICNI) at the Great Cities Institute to design and engagement activities around the City’s 2023 budget. The “2023 Chicago Budget Community Engagement Report” documents the 2023 Budget Engagement process and provides key results from the engagement activities.

2023 budget engagement activities were built upon community-identified investment needs derived from the 2022 budget engagement process and findings that the City of Chicago refers to as “Responsive Initiatives.” To create meaningful engagement, the 2023 budget engagement process focused on establishing and reinforcing a feedback loop between City leaders and residents that:

  • Provided residents with progress updates on the implementation of the City’s 2022 Responsive Initiatives and related programs and services.
  • Created space for dialogue and discussions between department leaders and residents to share information and priorities, and to ask and answer any questions.
  • Gathered feedback and input from residents on their priorities for programs and services, their definitions of success and progress for programs and services, and other comments and suggestions.

Data was collected across all engagement activities, from conversations with City leaders and from tabletop notes during roundtable discussions, written comment cards, surveys, filled-out forms about Responsive Initiatives, and verbal public comment from community members. The UIC team analyzed the data to report findings as reflected by participant responses to the survey, filled-out forms about Responsive Initiatives, written comment cards, and transcribed public comments are provided in the appendix.

This report includes engagement findings as related to the entire budget process, as well as across four budget topic areas: Affordable Housing and Services to People At Risk of or Experiencing Homelessness, Community Safety and Youth, Public Health and Services and Mental Health, and Neighborhood/Community Development and Arts and Culture. In terms of overall feedback, participants throughout the community engagement process and across all City programs and services raised the issue of needing:

  • Better communication and marketing of existing programs and services to help make more residents aware of what is available and to connect residents to the services they need.
  • Improved access, specifically language access and access for those with disabilities across all digital and in-person programs and services so that all City programs and services can be truly available to all residents.
  • Increased transparency on decision-making processes, explanations about program and service delivery (e.g., why a program has a backlog, why implementation is delayed), and publicly shared progress on the performance of programs and services.

For topic area–specific feedback, participants were asked to prioritize programs and services that they thought were most important to their community. Participant responses in areas of success and progress corresponded generally to three themes:

  • Investments, participant feedback involved statements and ideas on how to expand, improve, and/or enhance programs or services.
  • Specific changes that represent success/progress (performance metrics), participant feedback involved ideas about specific changes or impacts that demonstrated success or progress.
  • Policy recommendations, participant recommendations include requests for implementation of a specific policy or a change to existing policy.

The Office of Budget and Management (OBM) used participant feedback and the analysis of participant feedback provided in the 2023 Chicago Budget Community Engagement Report to create the 2023 Responsive Initiatives as part of the budget decision making process. The Responsive Initiatives are tied to specific departments and programs and services proposed for funding. As mentioned above, as part of the engagement activities participants identified performance metrics (specific changes that represent success or progress) against which the City’s progress and performance on the 2023 Responsive Initiatives can be measured. OBM has selected 16 of these performance metrics that are measurable and align well with one or several specific 2023 Responsive Initiatives to track progress. The City released the 2023 Budget Engagement Responsive Initiatives Report that includes both the 2023 Responsive Initiatives and corresponding engagement performance metrics on the 2023 Budget Engagement microsite.

View the Full Report Here.

 

Climates of Inequity

Join the UIC Latino Cultural Center for a series of online conversations with environmental and climate justice leaders from across the country this fall. Their work reveals frameworks and strategies to address the disproportionate impacts of climate change and environmental pollution on communities of color, indigenous, and low-income earners. Students in the Environmental & Climate Justice course* will facilitate the conversations.

RSVP: go.uic.edu/COI22

ClimatesOfInequlity_Fall2022

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During Second Consecutive Year of Significant Gap Reduction, City of Chicago Projects $127.9 Million Shortfall In 2023 Fiscal Year Budget

The City of Chicago Mayor’s Press Office discussed the 2023 Budget Forecast in its recent press release. The article highlights a budget gap and how the city’s Office of Budget and Management is working to find savings and efficiencies to reduce this gap. The budget, along with the 2023 Responsive Initiatives, will be published this fall.

Input received from residents and community stakeholders during the City’s three Budget Engagement Forums last month is vital to the annual budget planning process. Feedback from the forums will be incorporated into the 2023 Responsive Initiatives, developed from the public report published by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) Great Cities Institute detailing the data collected from public input. Once finalized, these inputs will be presented with the 2023 Budget Recommendations. This sequence ensures a clear and transparent process for how the City plans to incorporate the community engagement feedback into the budget and City operations.

Read the Full Story at Chicago.Gov

 

100th Street Calumet River Project would create new recreational trail on Southeast Side

In a Streetsblog Chicago article, Ruth Rosas interviews Jack Rocha (GCI) and Alex Perez (Active Transportation Alliance) on the history, opportunities, and next steps for this project. To stay up to date on the project, please visit this page or if you have any questions, please contact Jack Rocha at jrocha3@uic.edu.

Residents identified the site as an opportunity for restoration of the natural riverbank habitat, a trail, and a public viewing area for river activity. If completed, the site would become a part of the greater network of transportation and recreation infrastructure on the Southeast Side. Currently the project team, headed by Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is conducting outreach to develop a community stewardship and governance plan for the site. 

Read the Full Article at Streetsblog Chicago

 

Residents share priorities, needs at city budget forum in Austin

Image Source: AustinTalks

In an AustinTalks article, author Francia Garcia Hernandez discusses topics residents requested be focused on in the 2023 city spending plan. Great Cities Institute will be compiling results and comments from this forum and two others to create a public report that will be released in August.

“We want you to be our thought partner,” said Tina Hone, the city’s chief engagement officer.

Residents were asked to participate in four 15-minute roundtable discussions with city officials to share their recommendations for investments in four areas: affordable housing; community safety and youth programming; public health services and mental health; and community development and arts and culture.

After the discussions, city officials heard from residents and provided additional information about this year’s budget as well as city programs.

Full Story from AustinTalks »

Chicago Leaders to Kick Off Budget Season Weeks Before Officials Are Set to Detail Deficit

Skyscrapers in Chicago viewed from across the Chicago River

Image Source: Regina Shanklin, Pixabay6

In a WTTW News article, author Heather Cherone discusses the upcoming three “budget engagement forums” on July 21, July 23 and July 30. The city’s budget forecast for 2023 will not be released until August.

The feedback at those forums will be compiled into a public report to be published by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute, creating a “clear and transparent process for how the city plans to incorporate the community engagement feedback into the budget and city operations.”

The forums will be held earlier this year to “ensure that departments have ample time to incorporate feedback from the sessions in their 2023 budget after receiving the data from the UIC report which takes a few weeks to compile and publish,” Tibyan said.

Full Story from WTTW News »

The dubious value of ‘value capture’ financing

New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaking at a press conference announcing the expansion of Penn Station at the Moynihan Train Hall, Manhattan, New York, Thursday, June 9, 2022.

Image Source: Shawn Inglima, New York Daily News

In a co-authored New York Daily News op-ed, Rachel Weber, UIC professor of urban planning and policy and a faculty fellow with the UIC Great Cities Institute, writes about New York City’s proposed Penn Station redevelopment and the project’s financing structure that is similar to the one used for the nearby Hudson Yards project.

Gov. Hochul’s Penn Station Area Civic and Land Use Improvement Project is speeding toward a vote this summer. But on May 9, New York City’s nonpartisan Independent Budget Office confirmed that the state’s proposal to use “value capture financing” to pay for it contains too little information to evaluate its prospects for success. As researchers who studied a similar financing scheme in Hudson Yards, we found a surprising twist: Such deals not only create and capture new revenues, but can also destroy them.

Full Story from New York Daily News »

Illinois census data shows state undercounted by nearly 2%, gaining 250K residents, bureau admits

Census Image

Image Source: Paul Sancya, AP

Alex Linares, an economic development planner at the UIC Great Cities Institute, spoke to ABC 7 Chicago during a report on Illinois being undercounted in the 2020 census.

The U.S. Census Bureau suggests Illinois was undercounted by nearly 2%, and actually gained another 250,000 residents.

“We are not going to find out where the undercount was. We are not going to get a break down, but the folks that have been working on this can put two and two together and figure it out,” said Jay Young, Common Cause Illinois executive director.

Based on census surveys and previous undercounts, Young said the South and West sides of Chicago, as well as rural downstate areas, were likely undercounted. He said these are places where outreach organizations concentrated their efforts, but faced huge challenges.

“This work gets underway, then COVID-19 occurs and on the ground, outreach was then limited,” said Alex Linares with UIC Great Cities Institute.

The undercount means Illinois is getting fewer resources than it should.

Full Story from ABC 7 Chicago »

Boom, not bust? Illinois undercounted in 2020 census, actually grew to 13 million — largest population ever

Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks about the the census

Image Source: Anthony Vazquez, Chicago Sun-Times

A Chicago Sun-Times article on Illinois being undercounted in the 2020 census includes comments from Rob Paral, a senior researcher with the Great Cities Institute at UIC, who says the state’s outreach program and the pandemic helped keep the undercount from being even worse.

The coronavirus might have indirectly helped keep the undercount from being even worse, said Rob Paral, a senior researcher with the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois Chicago.

He credited community groups knocking on doors and thinking of creative ways to inform people of the 2020 census in the midst of a pandemic with ensuring that many people were counted.