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By AustinTalks Chicago’s tax-increment financing program is designed to eradicate blight, create jobs and promote economic development in neighborhoods that need it most. But TIF - which diverts property tax dollars to private developers in an effort to spur growth – appears to be doing little to help the residents of Austin. Of the 184...
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By Kelsey Duckett, AustinTalks.org Two years ago it was a foreclosed home with weekly drug deals and constant gang violence. It was boarded up, overgrown with tall grass and weeds, its siding falling off around broken windows. The house was a danger and an eyesore for Austin residents. Now, the former site of drug...
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A news report from Sarah Ostman, AustinTalks.org Rosemary Marsh was sure her home would withstand the heavy rains of July 23. The brick Keystone Avenue home she shares with her sister had never leaked before – and it had weathered many a storm over the past two decades. But when the 73-year-old peered down...
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A news report from Ed Finkel, LISC Chicago’s New Communities Program. About a dozen staff from community, environmental and architecture-related nonprofits toured and learned about West Side “Parks & Boulevards” on Aug. 6 to kick off “Round Two” of LISC/Chicago’s Community Showcase Tours. Funded through a partnership with the City of Chicago Office of...
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A news report from Sarah Ostman, AustinTalks.org Elias Valencia didn’t know it when the rain started, but the storm that hit Chicago July 23 would cost him dearly. It would be so expensive in fact, that he, like thousands of other residents, are looking to the federal government for help. At some point during...
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A news report from Bill Healy, Chicago Neighborhood Stabilization Program “When you gonna come work for me?” Melvin Bailey shouts at a young man walking down Homan Avenue on the city’s West Side. “We got orientation coming up next week.” The young man’s pants are sagging, a look Bailey says is unacceptable in the...
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A news report from Kelsey Duckett, AustinTalks.org On Monday, Local 881UFCW will host a free training session for those working or looking to find employment in the retail industry. The OSHA Health and Safety training will be held at the South Austin Coalition office, 5660 W. Madison St., at 6 p.m. and is open to all...
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A news report from Kelsey Duckett, AustinTalks.org Throughout the summer, the Austin community has taken steps to clean up the streets, fight violence and provide services to neighbors in need. So far, programs like 100 blocks, 100 churches, organized by the 15th District CAPS office, and the Fight Against Foreclosure and US Bank, organized by theCoalition to...
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A news report from AustinTalks.org Dorothy Daniel, 78, never asked the government for a bailout like Bank of America did. But after making payments on time every month for her home of 40 years, she asked for help before she needed it, and now, Daniels, an amputee, is not only fighting for her life but...
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A news report from AustinTalks.org Cigarette butts, beer bottles and cans, fast-food wrappers and trash line many of the baseball fields in Austin, and some residents say the Chicago Parks District is striking out in maintaining fields at Levin Park, Amundsen Park, La Follette Park and Columbus Park. Thomas Bowling, president of the Westside Youth League, said the bleachers are...
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