Not long ago, I got a call from my old friend Gaylon, whose grandparents live on the far south side.
Written in virtually incomprehensible legal jargon, the packet began: “Notice is hereby given, pursuant to Section 5/11-74.4-5(a) of the Illinois Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act, as amended (65 ILCS 5/11-74.4-1 et seq.) (the ‘Act’), that a proposed redevelopment plan of the City of Chicago (the ‘City’) has been prepared for the proposed North Pullman TIF Redevelopment Project Area.”
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With the help of a map, it seemed to indicate that the proposed district would cover a large swath of land around 103rd and Cottage Grove. But the packet also included some things that aren’t part of typical TIF proposals—like printouts from the real estate Web site cyberhomes.com that included a satellite photo and description of Gaylon’s grandparents’ house, a single-family bungalow near 103rd and King Drive.
TIF districts do indeed give the city eminent domain authority over the property within the district, making it easier to force people to sell their homes. Last year I saw a group of North Lawndale residents—many of them seniors—show up at City Hall to protest a proposal that would compel them to sell their homes to make way for an unspecified new development. So far that plan hasn’t come to fruition.
Sullivan called me back the day after we first spoke to confirm that the packet Gaylon’s grandparents had received was bogus. “I have talked to people here and this is not from the City of Chicago,” she said. “If people are sending this to people representing that they’re with the city it’s a fraudulent document.” She said that the city had already sent official notification of the proposed TIF district to residents who live within or adjacent to it, as required by law, and that it would investigate the origins of the fraudulent mailing. Neither Gaylon’s grandparents nor others I spoke to who live in the area could remember getting the official notice from the city.
“What’s a TIF?” she asked.
In this instance, I continued, Daley and alderman Beale want to use the money to redevelop the old Ryerson site—perhaps to put a Wal-Mart there.
