Did you know that Chicago is STILL not broke? That’s right, eight years after I published the groundbreaking “Chicago Is Not Broke. Funding the City We Deserve,” it is time for an UPDATE!
To celebrate my upcoming 72nd birthday in July, I have compiled an update to “Chicago Is Not Broke” and have revisited all the original revenue solutions and tracked the progress or lack of progress for each of the ideas described in the book. PLUS I have added a few new solutions. The price is just $7.20 😊. You can get the update at Issuu -> www.tinyurl.com/CINB-Update-Issuu. You can get the original book plus the update for just $12.00 -> www.tinyurl.com/CINB-Issuu-2024.
I am thrilled to announce that Routledge Press will be publishing my account of the Battle for the Bid – the No Games Chicago story (www.nogameschicago.com) this September. The book has a wordy title – No Games Chicago – How a Small Group of Citizens Derailed the City’s 2016 Olympic Bid – but it’s an exciting read. This story has never been told before and it has international intrigue, daring tactics, civic thuggery, attempted bribes, and even a real-life spy! Although the events in the book unfolded in 2009, the story has striking relevance today as billionaires are seeking tens of billions of public dollars to subsidize sports stadiums in cities across America. Why, right here in Chicago we have three billionaire families who own sport stadiums, and they all want at least ONE BILLION DOLLARS EACH from us to subsidize new stadiums for their teams. Where is the outrage? My book contains a Strategic Play Book so you too can organize to stop bogus mega-projects that threaten to steal public land and hundreds of millions of public dollars! You can get a preview plus all sorts of supplementary materials at www.nogameschicagobook.com.
You can order the book starting on August 20 for delivery starting on September 10-> www.tinyurl.com/Get-NGC-book. If you use the promo code of “NGC25” you will get 25% off PLUS free shipping! (The publisher’s web site will start accepting orders on August 20)
As I dip into my eighth decade on this planet, I am honored to be named a Take A Breath Fellow at The ActionLab in New York. “The Action Lab’s Take A Breath Fellowship program is the flagship program of our Gathering Strength Initiative. In just over two years, The Action Lab’s Take A Breath Fellowship program has served over 100 organizers, artists, and other social justice and cultural workers. Throughout the course of week-long residencies on our beautiful 16-acre center in Westchester, small cohorts of individuals from all over the country, and beyond, spend rejuvenating, restful, and generative time with self-directed access to coaches and wellness practitioners, healthy and delicious meals, and unmatched natural surroundings. Without exception, our TAB Fellows report returning to their work and community better grounded and ready for the work ahead. The Action Lab is a strategy center for social movements that sparks political and personal liberation. We provide rigorous and joyful spaces for organizers, leaders and artists to learn, to create, and to strengthen our capacity to win. We strive to build a powerful culture that lifts us out of the immediate and enables us to envision and realize our way to a just future.” Harry Belafonte was a founding board member!
The ActionLab operates a retreat center in Ossining, about 90 minutes north of Manhattan. Physical space is a critical part of the ActionLab’s work and method. Sounds a lot like another lab I used to know. I’ll be in residence there with six other organizers, activists, and artists in late July for six days. I have never done anything like this, and I am so looking forward to this time to reflect and recharge. I will report on what happens there via the “CivicNotes” newsletter.
LATER THIS SUMMER – MANUAL ON FIGHTING TIFS!
Hey, all you TIF-fighters out there – I am hard at work on a slim, yet powerful book tentatively titled “Stop Stealing Our Property Taxes! Why Tax Increment Financing Districts are Corrupt (and Why We Should Abolish Them).” This book will contain a distillation of everything I have learned about TIFs after 11 years in the field. I have researched all of Chicago’s TIFs annually over the years and looked at TIFs in many cities across the USA. It will be a “TIF 101” primer plus a play book on how to start organizing around TIFs as part of an economic justice campaign and grassroots leadership development pipeline. I will also launch a companion site with all the data, training videos, reports, and organizing resources around this work. The site will require an annual membership fee. Remember, TIFs are found in 49 states and I estimate that over 40,000 TIF districts annually remove over $40 BILLION in property taxes from public service and send those precious public dollars into secretive slush funds that then are doled out to mostly) white developers to subsidize private projects of no public merit.
I have done over 225 public meetings and workshops and answered calls for help from activists in 20 cities (see https://tifreports.com/tif-organizing-services). Over 15,000 people have attended these live events and 284,000 people have viewed my presentations online (see https://www.slideshare.net/tomtee). Despite the incredible interest and energy from people at the grassroots, I have been unable to secure any coalition partner and take on this work on a long term basis. It is not for the lack of trying. I have connected with dozens of civic and investigative organizations, in Chicago and beyond to pitch them on this powerful form of engagement and organizing. There is no interest out there to institutionalize this research and engagement programming, and so I will publish this material and hope a new champion of hosting organization steps forward to continue and deepen this economic justice organizing work.
Enjoy the summer!
Tom Tresser
Civic educator. Public defender.