Black Blue Dog – On Monday Chicago teachers ended a three day march throughout the city to protest the closure of over 50 public schools Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the city can’t afford.
But while Emanuel says there’s no money in the budget for schools, he does expect residents to foot the bill for a new stadium.
Even though Mayor Emanuel won’t allot more public funds for public schools, he has a plan to use public dollars to help fund a stadium at DePaul University, a private, Catholic university.
Emanuel’s plan entails having the university pay 0 million towards development of a new DePaul Blue Devils arena, while the city would add an additional million.
The city would pay its portion of the bill through the general tax fund and tax incremented financing, which assumes that new construction projects will increase real estate values, and raises property taxes to the levels of projected future values.
As one might imagine, not everyone is on board with Emanuel’s plan.
“Our biggest concern is killing the neighborhood with a venue that sits vacant for most of its useful life and, the only time it is used, it’ll be largely an alcohol-focussed sporting venue that will bring unwanted rowdiness, security and parking issues,” said Tina Feldstein, president of the Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance.
An independent board issued a report opposing the closing of 13 of Chicago’s schools, but Mayor Rahm Emanuel has expressed that he will not follow the report’s recommendation.
“The board will take what they’ve said [and] work through it, but do what we need to do as a city because this…has been deferred through the years…We haven’t addressed it in the past — both on the academic side and on the financial side,” Emanuel said last week.
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