Thursday, December 4, 2014
UTC Diversity Lunch Series
Speaker: James Hammerschmidt,
UIC Office of International Studies
Topic: Transportation & the International Student
Noon to 1 p.m.
GCI Conference Room
CUPPA Hall Suite 400
CAN TV Cablecast: City on the Make: Race and Inequality in Chicago
View on cable channel CAN TV19 in Chicago.
Andrew J. Diamond is Professor of American history and civilization at Paris-Sorbonne University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on race and politics in the metropolitan United States, including Mean Streets; Chicago Youths and the Everyday Struggle for Empowerment in the Multiracial City, 1908-1969 and the forthcoming City on the Make: Race and Inequality in Chicago. He has appeared frequently in the mainstream French media as an expert on American affairs.
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is currently a Cook County Commissioner, he has long been involved in the politics of Chicago starting as an alderman under Mayor Harold Washington, and then serving for several years as an Illinois State Senator after which he became Executive Director at ENLACE, one of the city’s leading community development agencies. Commissioner Garcia received his Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy from UIC. He recently announced his candidacy for Mayor of the City of Chicago.
Don Rose is a political consultant heading Don Rose Communications and The Urban Political Group, and writes a weekly online column for the Chicago Daily Observer (CDOBS.com). The column won the Chicago Journalists Association award for commentary in 2010. Based in Chicago, his consulting firms have operated in 13 states. Clientele has included Supreme Court justices, U.S. senators, governors, mayors and state and municipal legislators.
Pauline Lipman is Professor of Education Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her newest book is entitled, The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race and the Right to the City. Her teaching, research, and activism grow out of her commitment to social justice and liberation. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on race and class inequality in education, globalization, and political economy of urban education, particularly the inter-relationship of education policy, urban restructuring, and the politics of race.
Victor B. Dickson is the new Executive Director of Safer Foundation, which is an organization that works on issues of re-entry and helping people with criminal records to find employment. Mr. Dickson has over 20 years’ experience in leadership roles in both corporate and not-for-profit arenas. His corporate experience includes more than 20 years in telecommunications with AT&T and Sprint. In addition, Victor served as Chief Operating Officer for a non-denominational mega church, where he directed a variety of entities providing social services, education and relief efforts locally and abroad.
Teresa Córdova is Director of UIC’s Great Cities Institute and is Professor of Urban Planning and Policy in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA). Dr. Córdova is a former elected and appointed member and/or chair of numerous national and local boards, commissions and steering committees of county government, community development corporations, grassroots organizations, editorial boards, research centers, planning organizations, policy groups, and campus committees. She publishes in the area of Latino Studies and Community Development.
This video is now available here.
IPCE Event: Collaborative Action and Impact: Creating Community Impact through Partnerships and Public Engagement
Join us on Wednesday, December 3rd for the third annual convening of the Greater Chicago Dialogue and Deliberation Community of Practice. This year the event will report out on the findings of the recent study conducted on the community of practice and focus on how to use both partnerships and a variety of dialogue and deliberation methods to create impact in communities.
The event will include a panel of experts who will discuss the ways that they have used both partnerships and dialogue and deliberation methods in Chicago to create community change. The panel will be followed by a presentation by Thomas Lenz on how to use individual relational meetings for vibrant public and professional life. To build our community, we will then practice what we have been learning by mapping our network and networking with others in the community to begin forming our partnerships for collaborative impact.
A full description of the event is included below. To attend, please RSVP by December 1st to Kathryn James via email at kjames21@uic.edu. This event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be served.
Agenda
11:00 a.m. Registration, Lunch and Networking
12:00 p.m. Welcome
12:15 p.m. Report on Findings from the Community of Practice Study
12:30 p.m. Creating Community Impact through Partnerships and Public Engagement
Panelists:
Cecile Carroll, Co-Director, Blocks Together
Adrian Esquivel, Economic Development Director, Enlace Chicago
Simone Alexander, Community Development Director, Enlace Chicago
Panelist will each spend 15 minutes describing the ways that they have used both partnerships and dialogue and deliberation methods in Chicago to create community change. Panelists will then engage with participants and respond in an interactive Q & A session.
Enlace Chicago is dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of the residents of the Little Village Community by fostering a physically safe and healthy environment in which to live and by championing opportunities for educational advancement and economic development. Through their four program areas: Community Education, Community & Economic Development, Organizing & Advocacy and Violence Prevention, Enlace Chicago directly serves more than 8,000 youth and adults annually. The organization’s impact reaches well beyond this number and benefits our entire community of nearly 100,000 residents by creating opportunities and resources. They have served as the lead agency on the Little Village New Communities Program for over ten years and, in partnership with Alderman Munoz, launched their second cycle of participatory budgeting this fall.
Blocks Together (BT) is a membership-based community organizing group in the West Humboldt Park (WHP) neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. Since 1995, BT has empowered residents to work together for systematic changes that bring concrete improvement to their lives. They tackle social justice issues relating to education, housing, economic justice and the criminalization of youth. They frame their work through the lens of racial justice and human rights and emphasize ongoing political education and the connection of our campaigns to broader social justice movements. Blocks Together successfully won a new public library using tax increment financing (TIF) funds and lead the first PB process with $2 million in TIF money in West Humboldt Park.
2:00 p.m. The Habit of Relating: Individual relational meetings for vibrant public and professional life
Speaker:
Thomas Lenz, Senior Associate, Great Cities Institute and
Senior Consultant, Millennia Consulting, LLC
Effective civic engagement depends on trust – between individuals and among institutions. Individual relational meetings, a building block of many community organizing strategies, are one way to create and strengthen the public relationships necessary for action. This workshop will introduce individual meetings and how participants can use them in their work.
3:30 p.m. Mapping Café
The Core Group of the Greater Chicago Dialogue and Deliberation Community of Practice (CoP) will lead us in a collaborative network mapping exercise at our tables inspired by the World Cafe process and recently used at the NCDD conference. This activity will serve as a fun way to network with the amazing people in the room, and to begin to get a sense of the whole Greater Chicago area network, our existing connections, and potential new connections that can be made.
4:00 p.m. Creating New Relationships through Speed Networking
Through speed networking, participants will be able to practice relational meetings and make new connections for future partnerships in a highly interactive and fun activity.
5:00 p.m. Adjourn
Director’s Blog: Gratefully Acknowledging Mother Earth
Dear GCI followers,
We hope that everyone had a relaxing and fulfilling Thanksgiving holiday. We at Great Cities Institute are very thankful that we are able to do the work that we are doing. We are also thankful for your support and interest.
We also recognize that for many, the holiday season brings forth the heartache of losing a loved one, especially parents who have lost a precious child. We send special greetings of love to those remembering their loved ones.
While we enjoyed the break in the action, reflection to give thanks, the good food, and time with family and friends, we also take a moment to reminder ourselves that the image of the Pilgrims holding the first Thanksgiving with Native Americans perpetuates mythic notions of how and why the first Thanksgiving came about.
As we remember this history, we can also take note that many of the contemporary debates over energy extraction policies directly affect indigenous communities throughout the Americas. This includes the Keystone Pipeline, hydraulic fracturing, uranium mining, and an array of other environmental justice issues. Throughout the Americas, indigenous peoples continue to struggle for their survival, even as they celebrate their traditions and plan for their children’s futures. Declarations of the Rights of Mother Earth from Bolivia have made their way to the U.N. reminding us of how much we can learn by refusing to ignore the history of indigenous people throughout the Americas and the world. At a time when global climate change threatens our ability as humans to survive on this planet, it may indeed be a good time to embrace the values that embrace human life and the life of the surrounding ecologies.
Sincerely,
Teresa Córdova
Director
Are Chicago’s manufacturing districts vulnerable?
Crain’s quotes Howard Wial, executive director of the Center for Economic Development, on the relaxing of rules affecting inlying protected manufacturing districts. Wial says job statistics can be deceiving and the rules must be considered carefully to encourage high-tech manufacturing.
“It’s something to be concerned about, but it doesn’t by itself open the floodgates,” says Howard Wial, executive director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “I would expect that, especially on the North Side where there is market pressure, we’ll see more attempts to override the PMD zoning.”
…
UIC’s Wial says the job statistics can be deceiving because it’s unknown how many jobs might have been lost without PMDs. “If we don’t look carefully at the possibilities for these sites, we could be missing out on opportunities to preserve high-tech manufacturing not only in the city but in the region as a whole,” he says.
Governing Magazine: Detroit’s 50-Year Plan
Among other things, the plan includes create job growth and economic prosperity. David Kidd
Governing Magazine quoted Michael Pagano, GCI fellow and dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, on Detroit’s new 50-year plan, which was developed by a nonprofit think tank and incorporates public-private partnerships. Pagano says the public private effort saves government funds and gives the project more credibility.
Detroit’s undertaking may be unprecedented but it is representative of an ongoing trend in cities: More and more, they are looking to partner with nonprofit agencies on common goals. Taking these ideas outside of city hall doesn’t just save city resources, says the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Michael Pagano, it also gives a project instant “do-gooder” credibility. What sets Detroit’s work apart is that the DFC will act as a clearinghouse for dozens of these public-private partnerships. That kind of convener role is an important one, because it provides balance between the thinkers and the doers.
CAN TV Cablecast: City on the Make: Race and Inequality in Chicago
View on cable channel CAN TV21 in Chicago.
Andrew J. Diamond is Professor of American history and civilization at Paris-Sorbonne University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on race and politics in the metropolitan United States, including Mean Streets; Chicago Youths and the Everyday Struggle for Empowerment in the Multiracial City, 1908-1969 and the forthcoming City on the Make: Race and Inequality in Chicago. He has appeared frequently in the mainstream French media as an expert on American affairs.
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is currently a Cook County Commissioner, he has long been involved in the politics of Chicago starting as an alderman under Mayor Harold Washington, and then serving for several years as an Illinois State Senator after which he became Executive Director at ENLACE, one of the city’s leading community development agencies. Commissioner Garcia received his Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy from UIC. He recently announced his candidacy for Mayor of the City of Chicago.
Don Rose is a political consultant heading Don Rose Communications and The Urban Political Group, and writes a weekly online column for the Chicago Daily Observer (CDOBS.com). The column won the Chicago Journalists Association award for commentary in 2010. Based in Chicago, his consulting firms have operated in 13 states. Clientele has included Supreme Court justices, U.S. senators, governors, mayors and state and municipal legislators.
Pauline Lipman is Professor of Education Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her newest book is entitled, The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race and the Right to the City. Her teaching, research, and activism grow out of her commitment to social justice and liberation. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on race and class inequality in education, globalization, and political economy of urban education, particularly the inter-relationship of education policy, urban restructuring, and the politics of race.
Victor B. Dickson is the new Executive Director of Safer Foundation, which is an organization that works on issues of re-entry and helping people with criminal records to find employment. Mr. Dickson has over 20 years’ experience in leadership roles in both corporate and not-for-profit arenas. His corporate experience includes more than 20 years in telecommunications with AT&T and Sprint. In addition, Victor served as Chief Operating Officer for a non-denominational mega church, where he directed a variety of entities providing social services, education and relief efforts locally and abroad.
Teresa Córdova is Director of UIC’s Great Cities Institute and is Professor of Urban Planning and Policy in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA). Dr. Córdova is a former elected and appointed member and/or chair of numerous national and local boards, commissions and steering committees of county government, community development corporations, grassroots organizations, editorial boards, research centers, planning organizations, policy groups, and campus committees. She publishes in the area of Latino Studies and Community Development.
This video is now available here.
Innovation Districts
Laura Williams, Strategy Manager for the Plan for Economic Growth & Jobs at World Business Chicago, and Josh Drucker, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Policy, UIC, speak about the use of innovation districts to attract economic development.
The Art of Participatory Budgeting
If you say “viaduct” to most people, it brings to mind graceful arched bridges carrying trains across green valleys. Say it to a Chicagoan, and it evokes an image that is quite different. We know that a viaduct is one of our city’s many grey, dingy underpasses, with Metra or CTA trains rumbling overhead, shaking loose chunks of disintegrating concrete onto our heads. In the city’s 49th Ward, however, residents are forming a different image of what a viaduct can be in this city. Thanks to the Participatory Budgeting process in that ward, some viaducts have been transformed into grand canvasses where art thrives.
The project to paint murals on 20 of the ward’s viaducts came about as part of the 2012 Participatory Budgeting cycle. The initiative, proposed and refined by community residents, appeared on the ballot as “Art = Rogers Park.” The initiative proposed that $120,000 of the ward’s discretionary capital funds (“menu” money) be used to paint murals on twenty Metra and CTA underpasses around the ward. After being chosen through the Participatory Budgeting Vote by residents as one of four winning projects that year, the Alderman Joe Moore then issued a call for artists to submit possible designs for the project. This garnered 150 submissions, with the winners chosen by a panel that included local artists and educators from the School of the Art Institute, and Rogers Park’s own Greenleaf Art Center.
Painting of the murals was recently completed and you can click through the gallery below to see how beautiful and varied the winning murals are.
The results are even more impressive to see in person, so consider taking your own Rogers Park Art Tour. Locations for all 20 projects are listed below, and visiting them makes a great outing for some sunny fall afternoon. On a recent Saturday when I took a self-guided “bike tour” of the murals, several residents nodded approvingly as they drove or walked by me taking pictures, and one or two stopped to talk about how cool the paintings are, telling me to make sure I saw their favorite, and describing where to find it. They mentioned what an improvement the murals are, making both the viaducts and their community more beautiful.
With these murals in the 49th ward, the Participatory Budgeting project has provided a way for residents to designate a modest amount of money for a civic improvement project that produces very big results. Not only did “Art = Rogers Park” bring employment to 20 local artists and provide very public exposure for their work, every day it also brings a little more color and enjoyment to the numerous community members and visitors who pass beneath these renewed arches.
Mural locations
CTA Underpasses
Chase (north and south walls)
Estes (north wall)
Greenview/Sherwin (all walls)
North Shore (north and south walls)
Rogers (north and south walls)
Metra Underpasses
Birchwood (north and south walls)
Estes (north and south walls)
Farwell (south wall)
Morse (north wall)
Rogers (south wall)
Touhy (north and south walls)
For more information on Participatory Budgeting in the 49th Ward, visit Alderman Joe Moore’s PB page.
For general information on the Participatory Budgeting project in the city of Chicago, visit PBChicago.org.
Residents of wards 22, 45 and 49: the next cycle of PB starts soon! Get involved to make a positive change in your community!
About the Author:
Jenny Baker, GCI Research Assistant: As a second year MUPP student, Jenny works primarily with PB Chicago, assisting with organizing and evaluation of the yearly participatory budgeting processes in many wards throughout Chicago.