Report on the Town Hall meeting by Rep. Currie, Sen. Raoul September 23, 2006 A service of Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference and its website hydepark.org. Join the Conference and its committees and support our work.

By Gary Ossewaarde

September 23 State Representative Barbara Flynn Currie and State Senator Kwame Raoul held a town meeting at the Neighborhood Club. (They apologized for holding it on the religious holiday and will schedule another town hall meeting. Attendance was also small due to scant advertisement and short notice.)

Harper Court.
SharonJoy Jackson, Gary Ossewaarde and others explained the Harper Court facts and concerns, including the three Conference bottom lines (original purpose, tenants able to continue in business, public process beyond just vetting at the TIF) and concerns over the secret, non-answerable and uncommunicative arts council board. The diverse audience was very supportive of Harper Court (the space). Rep. Currie replied that she has talked with the Attorney General and that the arts council, as a charitable nonprofit, WILL NOT be allowed to do what it wants—take a price for the shopping center and do what it wants with the money, different from the original purpose. She said it is illegal. She supports maintaining the original purpose and will work with the community to see that the purpose is maintained and HCt continues doing what it has and that the development part be in accord with what fits with and is wanted by the neighborhood. She seemed to side with keeping the structures and was enthusiastic about providing even more incubator space, especially projects that can provide entrepreneurship training for youth and young people and help them start up businesses. (A concept was presented by a young man from Positive Vision who works with youth including on 53rd Street.) Currie asked how the city got control of the development process and sale and how this became a joint property (private and city) project and was told that Toni asked the city to do it. She said she will talk with Ald. Preckwinkle and reiterated she will work with the community to keep the purpose and what the community wants.

Washington Park as Olympic venue.
Both Currie and Raoul expressed deep skepticism about the project—wrecks the park, creates great disruption an inconvenience to neighbors, will displace lower income people, that the residual features may not be appropriate to or fit the need of this park (which Currie called the jewel in Olmsted’s design) and its quiet character, will provide little spark for development (commercial areas are too far away), and will cost an awful lot, much of which the taxpayers will be asked to pick up. They suspect that at some point the legislature would be asked to pass a bill creating an authority, but this was not certain. They also said that Chicago’s Olympic bid is a very long shot and what the disadvantages are.

Audience members stated some of the major concerns in the neighborhood—affordable housing, problems of persons with disabilities, tax issues, infrastructure, ComEd rates, healthcare, and education. Currie indicated that the majority of what can be done by the state on affordability and disabilities has already been done—strong laws, tax breaks, and subsidies and incentives including to owners and developers. Educating on the problems and the laws on equal access are and can be revved up. She explained some of the intricacies of the ComEd rate situation and balancing who gains and loses from property assessment caps and said the legislature is wrestling with both of these issues. Consensus and action are uncertain. Also, shifting some of the cost load, especially for education, from property to income tax would be difficult to achieve—and they gave some of the reasons why. They also said that the lottery only brings in 500 million out of a total education cost of nearly 4 billion in Illinois. (Some in the audience questioned whether we are getting our money’s worth from public schools and the CPS bureaucracy.) Infrastructure such as streets and sidewalks are not state issues, Currie and Raoul said, but they will talk to the aldermen about issues and specifics raised, especially those that affect accessibility.

Asked about proliferation of bank branches and problems of condo owners, Currie said the banking and condominium laws are in continual-review process. Raoul said the condo law was changed this year to give associations a 6-month window to handle delinquent assessments and vacancies before the mortgage holders can rush in to get control.

Among achievements they are most proud of this year (presented at the start of the meeting) are the All-Kids health insurance program and the universal pre-school opportunity.