Creating livable communities in times of fiscal constraint requires innovation. Central to creating these communities is building schools that serve as community anchors. In recent years Chicago has been at the forefront of general school reform and the community school movement. TPR is please to provide excerpts of Chicago Mayor Daley's address to the Sustainable Communities Summit on February 1, 2005, in which he talks about community schools and other strategies to enhance neighborhoods in Chicago.
. . . So how does government help build stronger neighbourhoods? You don't tear down the old neighbourhood and build something new on top of it. That's been tried, and it generally hasn't worked.
You start by building what I call community anchors: schools, libraries, parks and police and fire stations.
The most important anchor, by far, is the school.
When I became mayor, I inherited a public school system that had been run by a separate branch of government, over which the mayor had relatively little control.
The school system was underperforming and school buildings were literally falling apart, with broken windows, leaky roofs, peeling paint, inadequate heating systems and crowded classrooms.
Those schools sent some very clear messages to the community. They told the children that we didn't take education seriously. They told neighbourhood residents: The schools don't maintain their property. Why should you maintain yours?
So I got the law changed to give the Mayor personal responsibility for the Chicago Public Schools in 1995. We persuaded Chicagoans to raise their taxes to finance over $4 billion dollars of school construction and repair.
In addition to building 118 new schools, additions and annexes, we have torn out 100 asphalt playgrounds and turned them into campus parks for students and neighbourhood residents. This has brought the residents closer to the schools, both literally and figuratively.
Of course capital improvements were only one part of our school reform program. The public schools are central to my vision for Chicago, because I believe almost all the problems of big cities - crime, poverty, unemployment, economic decline and middle-class flight - have their roots in the failure of our educational system.
Chicago has been a pioneer in the school reform movement that is sweeping the United States. We have been emphasizing the basics, especially reading; holding teachers and principals accountable; and expanding early education and after-school and summer programs.
This has resulted in higher graduation rates and higher test scores - to the point where our students are outperforming the nation as a whole in some grades.
I should add that 85 percent of our public school students are below the official poverty level and 15 percent are not proficient in English. So it's an accomplishment to reach the national average - though we intend to go much higher.
Unfortunately, some schools are still underperforming. So we are encouraging the development of charter and contract schools run by universities, businesses, labour unions and not-for-profit organizations. Our local business community is raising $50 million dollars toward this program.
Schools aren't the only community anchors, of course. We've also built or fully remodelled 44 neighbourhood libraries - with eight more opening this year.
We've upgraded the facilities in our parks and replaced or remodelled most of our police stations and many of our fire stations. And, of course, we repair and replace the infrastructure: streets, sidewalks, sewers and water mains. These are the lifelines of a city, and the city that neglects them does so at its peril.
Most of the improvements I've been talking about are the result of direct government spending. They, in turn, attract new housing and commercial development - with some indirect government help. And pretty soon, you have a self-sustaining cycle of neighbourhood renewal.
Our housing programs have helped build, preserve or restore more than 100,000 homes and apartments or another since 1989.
The city doesn't build the housing, itself. But we do make use of federal programs that provide subsidies to developers and home buyers.
. . . We also have programs to subsidize mortgage costs for first-time home buyers with moderate incomes.
We provide subsidies to police officers to buy homes in low and moderate-income neighbourhoods - because we believe their presence will attract other families who might otherwise be concerned about safety.
We are midway through a 10-year program to remove our high-rise public housing buildings and replace them with mixed-income communities of low-rise rental apartments, condominiums and town homes.
These homes are being built by private developers, with the help of the government subsidies and financial incentives I've already discussed. Affluent families and welfare recipients are living literally next door to one another, in identical homes. The only difference is that the welfare recipient's home will be subsidized.
. . . Our long-range goal is to create more homeowners. When people have a financial investment in their neighbourhood, they work harder to keep it clean and safe.
And they're more inclined to work with our community policing program, which brings residents together with police and representatives of other City agencies to eliminate the breeding grounds of crime.
To attract industry and commercial development, we make use of tax increment financing, which reduces their property taxes for 23 years. We pay for neighbourhood improvements through the future property tax revenue generated by the company we attract to the site.
We've used tax increment financing, or TIF, as we call it, to attract businesses as large as Ford Motor Company, which created 1,400 jobs by expanding its operations in Chicago, and as small as a single Starbucks outlet, which we hope will attract new retail stores to a low-income neighbourhood.
We even provide small TIF grants to homeowners in certain neighbourhoods, to help them make exterior improvements to their homes. We believe this will make property values rise, providing the city with increased property taxes down the road.
Do TIFs work? We did a study a few years ago that concluded that TIFs helped create and retain 28,000 permanent jobs and generated six dollars of private investment for every dollar of public investment. That's a pretty good return on our money.
. . . Chicago has become a national leader in areas such as brownfield remediation; home energy conservation; use of alternate fuels in city vehicles; and protection of the Great Lakes.
We were a pioneer in the use of rooftop gardens when we installed one on top of City Hall five years ago. Now, more than 100 gardens and green roofs have been constructed or are planned on top of public and private buildings around the city.
These projects are socially responsible and have a good psychological effect. People feel safer, more comfortable and more positive when their city is clean, attractive and well-maintained.
They gravitate toward attractive public spaces, with fountains, trees, benches and other amenities that calm their nerves and smooth the rough edges of the city.
There's an economic benefit as well. People are more likely to shop on attractive streets. They'll pay more for a house if it's in an attractive neighbourhood - and that doesn't necessarily mean an affluent neighbourhood.
. . . As Mayor, I have to provide a long-range vision, pay attention to detail and engage in constant persuasion.
A lot of my leadership consists of harnessing the energy and creativity of block clubs, community organizations, labor unions, interest groups and everyone else who has a stake in a better Chicago - especially the business community.
We could not have accomplished a fraction of what we have in Chicago without the wholehearted support of the private sector.
Business support does not come automatically. It has to be nurtured, not by making city government subordinate to business interests, but by making it a partner.
Business doesn't want an enemy in City Hall, and it shouldn't have a puppet there, either. What it wants, and needs, is an administration that's willing to work together with the business community for the good of all the people of the city.
So we've kept business taxes as low as possible; cut down on red tape; and offered the financial incentives I discussed earlier.
Business people have confidence in a government that uses good business practices.
So we've privatized more than 40 city functions; cut a total of $2.3 billion dollars in spending since 1989; reduced the City payroll by 7 percent; and invested in the infrastructure that businesses need, especially roads and airports.
But equally, or even more important in winning business support, is the quality of life.
If you want people to promote their city, to go out of their way to improve their city, then they have to be proud of their city. It has to be a place where they really enjoy living, working and raising their families.
. . . Chicago is a very diverse city - both ethnically and economically. We don't agree on everything, but we agree on a surprising number of things. And we're getting results.
. . . Like every city, we face great challenges. But as long as government and the private and not-for-profit sectors continue to work together to improve the quality of life for everyone, I'm confident we will meet them.
- Log in to post comments
