Thea Crum joins Global Participatory Budgeting Board

Participatory Budgeting (PB) Chicago is a project of the UIC Great Cities Institute. PB is a democractic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. PB originated in Puerto Alegre, Brazil in 1988 and first began in the US in Chicago in 2009. PB Chicago works to expand PB processes throughout the city of Chicago and has successfully allocated 35 million in public dollars to over 170 community projects through the voting power of over 32,000 residents.

Over the past 30 years, Participatory budgeting (PB) has expanded to over 7,000 cities across the globe and has become one of the most prevalent models of participatory democracy in the world. Over this time, PB leaders have accumulated rich knowledge and expertise, as well as an array of resources, tools, and evaluation findings. To share this expertise and make it more accessible to PB implementers and advocates around the world, a new Global PB Support Board has been established and incubated by the Participatory Budgeting Project.

This new Global Board is tasked with pulling from this wealth of experience to establish new communications systems; create an online library of PB resources and research, to consolidate, organize, and disseminate the most useful PB research, data, tools, and resources in an accessible format; and identify and develop new tools, and resources for PB practitioners across the globe. Thea Crum, GCI’s Associate Director of Neighborhoods Initiative, was selected to be apart of this board out of over 80 applications from over 34 countries. She is one of two people representing the USA on the board and is honored to serve.

PB Chicago is currently in midst of its’ eighth cycle of PB and has expanded to several new wards and new schools this year. We are excited to welcome newly elected Ald. La Spata (1st), Ald. Rodriguez (33rd), Ald. Nugent (39th), Ald. Vasquez (40th), and Ald. Hadden (49th) to PB this year. We are also pleased to continue partnering with Ald. Taliaferro (29th), Ald. Rosa (35th), and Ald. Villegas (36th).

Chicago’s economy: A look ahead

Teresa Córdova, director of the UIC Great Cities Institute and professor of urban planning and policy, is one of three featured experts that Crain’s Chicago Business talked to about Chicago’s economy and the city’s fiscal health. Cordova says the city’s growing logistics sector is a positive highlight in the local economy, employment inequality affects economic growth and must be addressed, and proper investment in education at all levels is needed to jump-start the local economy.

Full Story from Crain’s Chicago Business »

Happy Holidays from Great Cities Institute!

We wish you a happy New Years as we move in to 2020.

We wish you a very peaceful and joyous holiday season – with lots of good food and laughter!

At Great Cities Institute, we look forward to another productive year in 2020.  Be on the lookout for more interesting events and what we hope will be useful reports.

In the meantime, we have added a couple more of our Fact Sheets for your use.  Here is a short list (with links) to a handful of our more recent Fact Sheets.

Chicago Community Area Economic Hardship Index (2017) »

2013-2017 Out of School and Out of Work 16-19 and 20-24 Year Olds in Chicago and Illinois Counties »

Population Change in Illinois »

Black Population Loss in Chicago »

Out of School and Out of Work 16 to 19 and 20 to 24 Year Olds in Chicago and Cook County in 2017 »

Chicago and Cook County Employment »

Again, we wish the very best that the season has to offer.

Fact Sheet: Chicago Community Area Economic Hardship Index (2017)

Authors
Matt Wilson
Anish Tailor
Alex Linares

If you have any questions, please contact Alex Linares, alinares@uic.edu.

Abstract
The aim of this index is to examine the conditions of economic hardship within Chicago community areas. Economic hardship is the difficulty resulting from not having enough collective economic resources available to families in a specified area.

Indicators of economic hardship have been developed into an index to measure the economic conditions of Chicago Community Areas. This economic hardship index utilizes multiple indicators to provide a more comprehensive view of economic hardship than single indicators. Utilizing American Community Survey data, this fact sheet contains economic hardship index values for Chicago Community Areas

Full Text (PDF) »

The Release of a New Report on Innovation Districts

We are pleased to announce the release of a report on Innovation Districts by Joshua Drucker, a Great Cities Institute Fellow and Associate Professor of UIC’s Urban Planning and Policy; Carla Maria Kayanan, Post-Doctoral Researcher, School of Geography, University of Dublin; and Henry Renski, Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Massachusetts Amherst.  The report is titled, Innovation Districts as a Strategy for Urban Economic Development:  A Comparison of Four Cases.

Innovation districts are a relatively new strategy in urban economic development. They have been fast gaining attention and popularity, due in part to energetic third-party promotion and the apparent successes of two early adopters:  Barcelona and Boston. As additional cities establish and promote innovation districts, it benefits policymakers to possess information regarding their characteristics and suitability as an economic development approach.

In this report, the authors conduct in-depth case studies of four innovation districts in the United States—located in Boston, Detroit, Saint Louis, and San Diego—that present contrasting settings, policies, and outcomes. The empirical information is drawn primarily from interviews with the innovation district creators and implementers and the entrepreneurs embedded within them. The authors assess the expectations, design, implementation, and operation of these innovation districts, with reference to stated and normative policy goals along with theories of regional economic development. Their purpose is to provide scholars and policymakers with guidance as to how and how well innovation districts may achieve the aim of urban economic development to generate economic dynamism and prosperity.

Here is a link to the report.

Innovation Districts as a Strategy for Urban Economic Development: A Comparison of Four Cases

Authors
Joshua Drucker, Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago
Carla Maria Kayanan, Post-Doctoral Researcher, School of Geography, University College Dublin
Henry Renski, Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Abstract
Innovation districts are a relatively new strategy in urban economic development. They have been fast gaining attention and popularity, due in part to energetic third-party promotion and the apparent successes of two early adopters:  Barcelona and Boston. As additional cities establish and promote innovation districts, it benefits policymakers to possess information regarding their characteristics and suitability as an economic development approach.

We conduct in-depth case studies of four innovation districts in the United States—located in Boston, Detroit, Saint Louis, and San Diego—that present contrasting settings, policies, and outcomes. The empirical information is drawn primarily from interviews with the innovation district creators and implementers and the entrepreneurs embedded within them. We assess the expectations, design, implementation, and operation of these innovation districts, with reference to stated and normative policy goals along with theories of regional economic development. Our purpose is to provide scholars and policymakers with guidance as to how and how well innovation districts may achieve the aim of urban economic development to generate economic dynamism and prosperity.

Full Text (PDF) »

The future of work is an open question

Beth Gutelius | Julia Goldberg, Santa Fe Reporter

The Santa Fe Reporter newspaper conducted a Q&A with Beth Gutelius, associate director of the Center for Urban Economic Development and senior researcher at the Great Cities Institute at UIC, about her recent co-authored report that examines technology’s impact on the current and future warehouse industry and workforce.

The Oct. 21 installment of the New York Times’ “Op-Eds From the Future” series envisions Amazon founder Jeff Bezos unveiling to the media an alleged state-of-the-art, human-free robot-run fulfillment center in Phoenix, circa 2034. Except it still needs people, and relies on independent contractors that don’t receive benefits.

That piece was plausible fiction. The actual impact of technology on warehouse workers remains to be seen.

An extensive Oct. 22 academic report on the future of warehouse work examines the issue. Santa Fe resident Beth Gutelius, an associate director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, co-authored the report and spoke with SFR about her findings. The interview has been edited for space and clarity. The full report can be read online at: http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/pdf/2019/Future-of-Warehouse-Work.pdf

Full Interview from The Santa Fe Reporter

 

Little Village pastor works to reduce gang violence

Teresa Córdova, director of the UIC Great Cities Institute and professor of urban planning and policy, was interviewed in an ABC 7 segment about Chicago gang violence in the wake of a 7-year-old girl being shot while trick-or-treating in Little Village.

“It’s the age-old phenomenon where people feel the need to defend their territory,” said Teresa Cordova, director of the University of Illinois – Chicago’s Great Cities Institute.

Cordova recently co-authored a report about gangs in Chicago. She said Little Village has the youngest population of all Chicago neighborhoods, and the two gangs there, like other gangs in the city, recruit young. She emphasized alternatives for kids to reduce gang activity.

“You have to provide more opportunity so that the choices that they make are better choices,” Cordova said.

Full Story from ABC 7 Chicago »