Elected Officials, Chicago Department of Community Development, And

Nonprofits Stage Boycott of Local Taxpayers

Dear Friend of North Lawndale,

The Lawndale Alliance is a group of North Lawndale residents who have come together to address
issues of concern to local residents. To that end, we recently developed a series of 3 community
awareness workshops. The topics included the Pros and Cons of the Olympics; an overview of the
Neighborhood Stabilization Program and a TIF Town Hall meeting to provide a status report on the
7 TIFs that impact North Lawndale. We invited representatives from the City of Chicago and a
number of organizations as follows:

Olympics-Chicago 2016, No Games Chicago, Lawndale-Austin Olympic Committee,

Communities for an Equitable Olympics.

Neighborhood Stabilization Program-City of Chicago Department of Community

Development, Chicago Rehab Network, Neighborhood Housing Services, Mercy Housing,
Woodstock Institute.

TIF Town Hall-Alderman Dixon (24), Alderman Munoz (22), Alderman Smith (28),
Alderman Burnett (27), Alderman Carothers (29), Alderman Fioretti (2) City of Chicago
Department of Community Development, Lawndale Christian Development Corporation,
Neighborhood Housing Services, Lawndale Business and Local Development Corporation.

The Lawndale Business and Local Development Corporation gave a verbal commitment to
participate in the TIF Town Hall meeting on April 26, 2009.

The Lawndale Christian Development Corporation confirmed their participation in the TIF Town
Hall meeting on May 1, 2009. In so doing, the organizational representative complimented us on
developing a great program and told us to list them as a partner for the meeting series, and add
them to the agenda for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program meeting. We indicated that the
planning for the series was done, the agenda was set, the budget expended, and that the
advertisements and postcards announcing the event had gone out. As a result, we would keep the
program intact.

We had verbal commitments from Alderman Dixon, Alderman Burnett and Alderman Fioretti to
participate. We did not get responses from Alderman Carothers, Alderman Smith, or Alderman
Munoz. On May 4, 2009, we sent each of elected officials and Department of Community
Development details about all three of the meetings, including the agenda, issues to be addressed
and the status of our planning. None of the Aldermen showed up for any of the meetings or sent
anyone who identified themselves as representatives.

On May 5, 2009, the City abruptly withdrew their support, reneged on their promise to assist with
coordinating the meetings, and canceled their appearances for all three meetings. We had been
working with the City on the TIF Town Hall meeting since August, 2008 and the Neighborhood
Stabilization Program meeting since November, 2008. Mercy Housing, the City’s delegate agency for
the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, declined to participate in the meeting series because the
City canceled. NHS, who administers programs for mortgage foreclosure, had given a verbal
commitment to send a housing counselor to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program meeting. They
later sent word that no one from the agency would be available to attend the meeting. The Chicago
Rehab Network representative did not respond to our invitation.

The City is aware that our group had already spent over $1,000 promoting the meeting and
arranging for security and other supplies. While no reason was given initially for the cancellation,
the Acting Commissioner of the Department of Community Development told us to coordinate with
our alderman. We didn’t understand this, because the alderman had initially insisted being on the
agenda for all three meetings, and had confirmed her participation.

After filing a complaint for lack of service with Chicago 311, and writing letters to the Mayor, we got
a call from the Acting Commissioner. She explained she was new in her job, and wasn’t aware that
her predecessor had made this commitment to our group. She also indicated that the meeting was
not on the Department of Community Development’s master schedule. The Acting Commissioner
admonished us to work with the Alderman (Sharon D. Dixon, 24th Ward). She also mentioned that
the City would be holding a meeting on the Neighborhood Stabilization Program at the Kipp-Ascend
Charter School on May 20, 2009, the day after our meeting, which was planned for May 19th, 2009.
We indicated to the Acting Commissioner that the Kipp-Ascend meeting shouldn’t preclude the City
from participating in our meeting, as the agenda for our 2-hour meeting would be much broader,
and would include policy discussions in addition to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The
Acting Commissioner followed up with a letter to me, and I responded. As I later learned, Alderman
Dixon was the chief sponsor of the May 20th meeting. It’s worthy of noting that the representatives
from the City attended the Alderman’s meeting and provided a 3-minute presentation on the
Neighborhood Stabilization program and referred the audience to a public website for further
information.

The following day, the representative from the Communities for an Equitable Olympics, who was
scheduled to appear on our Olympic panel discussion on May 12, 2009, canceled, due to
“extenuating circumstances”. On May 11, 2009, the Director of Neighborhood Legacy for Chicago
2016, e-mailed us to cancel his appearance on the panel. He indicated that the decision was based
on Chicago 2016’s decision not to hold any meetings in North Lawndale unless they were
sponsored by the Douglas Park Advisory Council, in Douglas Park. We found this very peculiar, as
Chicago 2016 never even invited this group to be a part of the Chicago 2016 Outreach Advisory
Council—in spite of the fact that an Olympic venue is planned for Douglas Park. To the best of our
knowledge, none of the members of the Douglas Park Advisory Council participated in the Chicago
2016 Legacy Planning meeting for Douglas Park, held on May 2, 2009. A subsequent conversation
with a member of the Douglas Park Advisory Council revealed that the organization has nothing to
do with the Olympics. Their primary concern is hosting events in the Park such as the Easter Egg
Hunt and making sure there are sufficient after school activities for neighborhood youth.

On May 12, 2009, the Executive Director of the Lawndale Christian Development Corporation
(LCDC) attended the meeting on the Olympics, and provided a letter indicating that she would not
be able to attend the TIF Town Hall meeting because she had a board meeting that night. She
committed to providing a written report for the TIF Town Hall meeting. While we have not received
the report as of this writing, the Executive Director did send an e-mail on May 29, 2009, indicating
that she didn’t send the report before the meeting because she had death in her family. She also
indicated that a report would be forthcoming. As an aside, LCDC is one of the major developers
within the Ogden Pulaski TIF and the Midwest TIF, and has received over $40 million in TIF funding
to date. (Figures from 2007 TIF annual reports, Ogden-Pulaski TIF Redevelopment Plan and
information presented by LCDC’s board chairman during the organization’s annual meeting last
year).
We followed up with representatives from NHS and LBLDC to confirm their participation in the TIF
Town Hall meeting. We received responses the day of the meeting (May 19, 2009), indicating that
the gentlemen were extremely busy with paper work and they did not feel comfortable
participating in meetings that could be perceived by some as being political. It should be noted that
NHS is the administrator of the Greystone Initiative ($1 million appropriation) and Neighborhood
Improvement Fund for the Midwest TIF ($9.75 million appropriation) and Roosevelt- Homan TIF
($1million appropriation). LBLDC is the administrator of the Small Business Improvement Fund for
the Midwest TIF ($2.25 million appropriation). The organizations will probably administer similar
programs for the Ogden-Pulaski TIF. (Figures from 2007 TIF annual reports and include TIF
funding and private investment).

We want to be clear that the Lawndale Alliance respects elected officials, City department heads
and the City’s delegate agencies. We believe in going through appropriate approval channels, and
we did. In fact, we did everything that was asked of us, and most of the invited guests still backed
out of participating in our meetings. As a result, the community missed a great opportunity to learn
how to access programs that are funded through our own tax dollars. Unfortunately, this is more of
the rule in North Lawndale, rather than the exception.

While we do not believe any crime has been committed, we can say that citizens of North Lawndale
deserve better. Going through elected officials should not be the only means of gaining access to
education about City programs and services that are funded by federal and local taxes. We should
be able to call City departments or Chicago 311 and make arrangements for Department heads to
come out to the community. Moreover, the City should not be in a position to compel their delegate
agencies not make public appearances in the communities they serve. Nonprofit organizations are
independent agencies, unless they are chartered affiliates of other nonprofits, the City, State or
Federal government. In exchange for their tax exempt status they must provide charitable services,
education and outreach to the community. Municipal governments, elected officials and nonprofit
organizations are accountable to the public and should not allow either partisan or petty politics to
hinder their ability to provide services to local citizens. After all, Chicago’s motto is “the City that
works together”.

The silver lining in this dark cloud is that the Lawndale Alliance successfully hosted these meetings
utilizing the resources available to us—including people from No Games Chicago, representatives
from the Lawndale Austin Olympic Committee, Patricia Hill, representatives from the State of
Illinois and the Woodstock Institute, and public documents. This boycott forced us to be
resourceful, and conduct research and prepare presentations on the Olympics, Neighborhood
Stabilization Program and the status of every TIF that impacts North Lawndale. We are eternally
grateful to DePaul University for their co-sponsorship and providing the gentle nudge we needed to
go through with the meeting series; Dvorak School and WACA for making their facilities available to
us; Jeanifer Kimbrough for her financial support; and to CAN-TV for filming all three meetings. The
meetings will be aired on public access cable television within 4-6 weeks. We will now be able to
share lessons learned with other communities for years to come. “Howbeit God turned a curse into
a blessing.”

In closing, we respectfully request that, you, the local tax payers and citizens, advocate for policies
that make City services accessible to people regardless of political affiliation. You can do this by
calling, writing or e-mailing the Mayor or your Alderman.

Sincerely,

THE LAWNDALE ALLIANCE