Shift in Emphasis and Priorities

As the end of the school year approaches Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has announced that he plans to shut down 54 CPS schools due to the lacking quality in education (as measured by public standardized testing results) and the depleted amount of funding for the schools' budgets. Unfortunately, news of potential CPS school closings and 'turnaround schools' is nothing new for Chicagoans. However, just this week Mayor Emanuel announced what he planned to do with the $55 million in tax money saved from the school's closings: build a hotel and a basketball arena on the near-south side for a private university.

Mayor Emanuel at the Proposed Site
via the Chicago Reader

This private university, DePaul, is a Catholic institution with tuition costing more than $30,000 a year for undergraduates: a long shot for the average Chicagoan. Mayor Emanuel plans to purchase land at the intersection of Cermak and Prairie through a program called TIF--Tax Increment Financing-- which according to the City of Chicago's website is a "special funding tool used to promote public and private investment across the city" by focusing on infrastructure and "putting vacant properties back to productive use, usually in conjunction with private development projects". Clearly, this is used by Chicago politicals because it is 'special' (not just your ordinary magic money making machine) and gives them the power to intervene in projects that look the most advantageous and profitable on the surface.

The construction of the DePaul complex is one example of turning vacant property into a place for productive use. According to Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader, the TIF program actually "lets the mayor take property tax dollars from the schools, parks, and county in order to invest the money in projects that he hopes will someday generate even more property tax dollars" despite the real truth that this land is publicly held and exempt from taxes (Rahm's latest plan: Close the schools, build an arena). Although this article had the biased tone from an outraged Chicagoan, I think Joravsky is correct in his take on the Mayor being able to 'take property tax dollars' at his choosing from projects that would seem to be more beneficial than a private sports arena  for a team that unlike a public park, most residents do not have access to.

This brings up the point, as Joravsky puts it, "Of course, as broke as we are, there's still $55 million lying around to buy up some land and hand it over to private entities that don't need it". How can this be representative of the larger theme of the increasing gap between the rich and poor? The private rich corporations are getting monetary perks and loopholes while the poor residents get their public schools and parks taken away. To what extent has politics become a means of achieving favorable conditions for investors, lobbyists and privately-owned companies? How does this demonstrate a shift in the priorities of a city with educational needs to a place with corporate interests?