CCIC Update
Continuing from the 2003 Budget Hearing process,
NCBG has combined its research and organizing
work to prepare the public for action. In late
2002, we received the 2002 Aldermanic Menu requests
for all 50 wards. This information will serve
as a helpful tool for community’s to advocate
and survey more effectively within their neighborhood.
The CCIC intends on hosting a public information
session, prior to the election to release our
findings and recommend public policy reforms.
The City Budget office is scheduling its Annual
Capital Improvement Public hearings earlier
this year. The first hearing will be held in
Late April. The CCIC will meet soon to develop
a community outreach campaign that will include
community surveying and media training. In addition,
NCBG is finalizing our “Paving the Way
for Community Change” handbook to train
community leaders on ways to increase public
reinvestment in their neighborhood. We expect
to host our first Training class in early April
2003.
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In 1988, the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group was formed
to advocate for the renewal of our neighborhoods’
physical infrastructure – the basic “brick
and mortar” repairs and public works projects
that allow our communities to have viable local economies,
vibrant residential areas, and a decent quality of life.
Fifteen years and $8 BILLION of public investment later,
many of our communities are showing new signs of life
as City Hall has gradually renewed the neighborhoods’
infrastructure.
NCBG’s “Community Capital Improvement
Campaign” is our citywide task force of grassroots
community leaders and representatives of local economic
development groups who realize that such investment
must be sustained over time in an equitable and strategic
manner. In spite of the progress we made in the 1990s,
many neighborhoods are still falling between the cracks
of the City’s public works program. Other communities
have been promised capital improvements that have
yet to happen. In others, capital dollars are being
spent on unnecessary or repetitive projects. So the
Capital Improvement Campaign Task Force is hard at
work!
NCBG’s Community Capital Improvement Campaign
Task Force monitors the City of Chicago’s “Capital
Improvement Program” (referred to as the “CIP”),
through which City Hall decides how to spend over
Half a BILLION DOLLARS (on average!) each year on
public works improvement projects. It also identifies
and advocates for needed reforms of the City’s
capital spending program – from better information
disclosure, stronger public participation, to changing
City hall’s system for priority setting and
distribution of capital improvement dollars. The Task
Force is also a valuable forum for neighborhood leaders
to exchange information, compare organizing strategies,
and support one another’s local organizing efforts
to capture the dollars needed to help rebuild our
neighborhoods from the ground up.
The City of Chicago’s “Capital Improvement
Program” allocates public funds for the following
kinds of capital improvements:
- Sidewalk repairs
- Vaulted sidewalk reconstruction
- Residential street resurfacing and reconstruction
(including “WPA” streets – the
streets initially built in the 1930s by the old
federal agency, the “Works Progress Administration”)
- Alley resurfacing
- Street and alley lighting to promote neighborhood
safety
- Renovated or new public facilities such as Health
Centers, neighborhood branches of the Chicago Public
Library system, Fire and Police stations
- Repair of major (“arterial”) streets
- Physical improvements to neighborhood shopping
districts
- Repair of vital industrial infrastructure (viaducts
and industrial streets)
- Sewer repairs to alleviate chronic flooding
If YOUR neighborhood needs any or all of these kinds
of public improvement investments, then your organization
needs to join this important NCBG Task Force! The
Community Capital Improvement Campaign Task Force
is setting its schedule of meetings for 2003 NOW.
Contact NCBG’s Director of Community Outreach,
John Paul Jones, at
jpjones@ncbg.org or by calling (312) 939-7198
to join the Task Force and get the 2003 Calendar.
NCBG is also updating its community organizing guide,
Paving the Way for Community Change. Stay tuned!
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