By Ben Joravsky
Well, 12 years have passed, and guess what? Wolke was right. The miracle tool has become some forever-spreading virus that threatens to turn much of Clark Street, from Montrose to Howard, into one continuous strip mall.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The city’s official line has not changed since the Organization of the North East (ONE), the group Wolke then worked for, waged its unsuccessful campaign against the Berwyn- Broadway TIF. Mayor Daley and his allies insist that a TIF (for tax increment financing district) is a subsidy miracle that spurs development, creates jobs, rejuvenates neighborhoods, and brings in classy chains without costing taxpayers a dime. In short, the city borrows money to finance a development project in a TIF district and repays the loan with the extra property taxes generated by the development itself.
“This is a great instrument for our area,” says 47th Ward alderman Eugene Schulter.
“At Berwyn and Broadway there used to be an empty Treasure Island alongside a string of undercapitalized small businesses,” says Wolke. “It truly was a United Nations of business owners. There was a white Irish family that owned a bar, a Latino woman who ran a video store, an African woman who was a hairstylist, and a Korean man who ran a dry cleaners. These were hardworking people who put in 70-hour weeks and could have benefited from a subsidy.” The dry cleaner got to stay on the site. As for the others–“Who knows what happened to them?” says Wolke. “The city just moved them out and they’re gone.”
The TIF would also hit hard at many of the garages on Clark. “Suddenly Clark Street is too good for auto repair shops,” says Sharafi. “I don’t get it. Where are people supposed to go to fix their cars?”
“What happens to the Specialty Video store when Blockbuster comes in? Or what happens to the little clothing store when we get the Gap?” says Wolke. “Let’s say they were to put a Barnes & Noble on Clark Street in Andersonville. What would that do for Andersonville? What happens to Women & Children First [a local bookstore]? Would you be forcing them out of business? The city could say, ‘Well, who cares what happens to them? That’s just life–businesses are always going in and out of business.’ I don’t agree with that attitude, but you have to ask the city, ‘Well, even if you couldn’t care less about the loyal businesspeople in your community, what’s the benefit of creating an empty storefront at one end of Andersonville just to bring in a chain at the other?’”
