HOUSINGBRONZEVILLE NEWS SERVING THE NEIGHBORHOODS OF DOUGLAS, NEAR SOUTH SIDE, GRAND BOULEVARD, OAKLAND, KENWOOD, FULLER PARK & WASHINGTON PARK VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1 FEBRUARY 2011 VOTE FEB 22nd! VOTE FEB 22nd! VOTE FEB 22nd! BRONZEVILLE COMMUNITY'S FIGHT CONTINUES MAYORAL CANDIDATES RESPOND TO BRONZEVILLE RESIDENTS’ DEMANDS FOR AFFORDABLE HOMEOWNERSHIP On Thursday, February 10th at St. Elizabeth Church Hall, 50 East 41st Street, four candidates for Mayor were represented and presented their posi- tions on Housing Bronzeville’s Plan for Affordable Homeownership in Bron- zeville. Each candidate had been asked to respond to specific demands from Bronzeville residents contained in a White Paper hand-delivered by Hous- ing Bronzeville representatives to his or her office on January 13th and again on February 1st. Candidates and their representatives listen intently at Housing Bronzeville briefing at St. Eliza- Candidate Miguel Del Valle ap- beth Church (left to right: Nicholas Kowalski [representative of Rahm Emanuel]; Miguel del Valle; peared in person at the briefing and Jeff Orcutt [Del Valle staff]; Kimberly Egonmwan [representative of Carol Moseley Braun]; Travis powerfully and enthusiastically en- Brooks [Braun staff]; Leslie Fields [representative of Gery Chico]; Trina Fresco [Chico staff]). dorsed Housing Bronzeville’s plan for building affordable homes for prospec- to bring the greatest benefit to the resi- Meeting co-chair Tanger Fielder tive homeowners with demonstrated dents of our City.” added: “Our briefing marked yet an- roots in Bronzeville on 26% of the Nicholas Kowalski represented can- other momentous step in making our community’s 2,000 city-owned vacant didate Rahm Emanuel. In a follow-up political leaders pay attention to the lots. He stated that “500 vacant lots letter of February 12th, Emanuel wrote: voices and wishes of local community over a 4-year period is reasonable, very "If I am fortunate enough to become the residents.” reasonable” and that he would “like to next mayor of our city, I look forward to do more than that.” (For Del Valle’s working with your group." full comments, see page 2.) Mayoral candidates William Walls Kimberley Egonmwan and Travis and Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins were in- Brooks represented candidate Carol vited but did not attend the briefing. Moseley Braun. In an e-mail to Hous- Housing Bronzeville’s Sheila Carter ing Bronzeville dated February 15th, commented after the briefing: “The can- Braun stated: "I pledge to work with didates and media have had little to say Housing Bronzeville regularly to dis- about affordable homes for Chicago resi- cuss and plan how we will achieve the dents. People have to be able to afford goal of substantial affordable hous- to live in Chicago first, then public ing in Chicago." safety and education will benefit from Lesley Fields and Trina Fresco rep- such a backbone of strong local home- resented candidate Gery Chico. Ms. owners. That’s always been the story of Fields explained that Chico wants to every successful Chicago community— “lead a neighborhood renaissance” in we are looking for the new Mayor to Chicago. In a letter to Housing Bron- recognize this fact and help develop the th zeville on January 26 , Chico stated programs and partnerships to make such that he was “committed to using city affordable communities possible.” Housing Bronzeville's Yolanda Williams sum- owned land strategically and creatively marizes group's next steps for mayoral candi- dates. ALDERMAN PAT DOWELL WORKS TO HELP IMPLEMENT BRONZEVILLE AFFORDABLE HOMES In meetings on October 23, 2009 and August 5, 2010, Alderman Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) made clear by her actions her commitment to making the first phase of Bron- zeville Affordable Homes a reality. “I am 100% in support of Housing Bron- zeville’s initiative,” Alderman Dowell recently told Housing Bronzeville’s Co-Chair Arthur Brown. Mr. Brown added, “We are pleased with the Alderman’s input, in- sights, and support for this program and look forward to a continued partnership working together to bring this project to fruition.” PAGE 2 opment yourselves but you are going to be in the leadership DEL VALLE RESPONDS TO HOUSING role managing overall community development prospects. And that’s the way it should be. We want to proceed care- BRONZEVILLE’S DEMANDS fully because we don’t want failure and we don’t want to ex- perience more difficulties in dealing with our neighborhoods. I appreciate the invitation. The reason I We believe we have the talent, we have the skills, we have the am here is when I received your mate- ability to be able to put this together and to do it in a highly rial (I received it at my office and at sophisticated manner. And you’ve already proven that. home—very good, very good!), I read So it’s time to act. I want to see Bronzeville held up as through the entire packet and I was an example for other neighborhoods in the city of Chi- impressed and I said this is exactly cago. Because if we can do it in Bronzeville—we can do it what I want to see happening in every on the West Side and we can do it on the South Side of the neighborhood in the City of Chicago as City of Chicago. Mayor. And this is exactly what the Let me tell you—I stood by a house at Cicero and Jack- Mayor of the City of Chicago needs to son the other day to make the point that we have banks that support—aggressively and with a hands are foreclosing on properties and then walking away from -on approach. those properties and leaving them abandoned and unsecured Because it’s time—it’s time for us to and allowing them to deteriorate and turning them into vacant put the neighborhoods first in the City of Chicago. We’ve done lots. As a matter of fact, a couple of days after I stood at that that with the downtown for a long, long time and downtown is house the City tore the property down—another empty lot. just fine. Now it’s the neighborhoods’ turn. And it goes beyond We need this plan. We need you to be an example for just being the neighborhoods’ turn. It’s also about fairness, it’s the rest of the City and to inspire neighborhood develop- about equity, and it’s about balanced growth, balanced develop- ment throughout the City of Chicago. That’s why I want to ment in the City of Chicago. So that we can finally reach the work with you. point where we can really own up to the title that some have given us as a “world-class city.” We can’t be a world-class city if we don’t have world-class neighborhoods. So we’re HOUSING BRONZEVILLE'S not there yet. We’re far from it. DEMANDS OF THE NEW MAYOR What we have here in Bronzeville is probably the best ex- ample of how people in neighborhoods collaborate— Housing Bronzeville seeks a public, written commitment individuals, churches, institutions coming together and coming from each candidate who seeks to become Mayor of Chicago up with a plan that is generated by the neighborhood and pre- stating his or her support in each of the following areas: sented to the City. And then the City needs of course to re- 1. To make 500 city-owned vacant lots available at $1 spond. each for the development of Bronzeville Affordable Homes, What you’re proposing here is modest—it’s reasonable— in five or more phases of up to 100 lots each during the next it’s very reasonable. And it’s well-crafted. It’s beautifully- four years. This will represent approximately 26% of the crafted. Because you’ve been working for seven years and so City’s current stockpile of city-owned vacant lots in Bron- you know what to do. The question is—what will the City do? zeville and respond to 20,728 residents’ stated wishes on the What is the City’s role in responding to a modest well-crafted November 4, 2008 referendum. In each phase, the homes plan that makes all the sense in the world. will be constructed as integrated communities of largely con- I’ve lived in many neighborhoods in the City of Chicago. tiguous buildings made possible in Bronzeville due to its vast I’ve been here since I was four years old. I lived in Lincoln inventory of city-owned vacant land. Economies of scale and Park, I lived in West Town, I lived in Rogers Park—I’ve lived significant cost savings are projected. Housing Bronzeville in a number of communities. And what most of them have in will assist the City in engaging developers to complete dis- common is that when you go to these neighborhoods now there tinct clusters of development at the specified price points aren’t very many people who look like me and look like you within each phase. living in those neighborhoods. They aren’t there. Development 2. To provide up to $30,000 in funding per Bron- took place. But it was development for other folks who were zeville Affordable Home to ensure that the city-owned lots not living in the neighborhoods at the time the development are “developer-ready” for home construction purposes. started. And we see this played out time and time again in the 3. To initiate and maintain a policy of complete trans- City of Chicago. parency regarding the status of all city-owned lots in Bron- What I find most exciting about [your plan] is this could be zeville for all interested persons in the Bronzeville commu- the moment when we finally say in the City of Chicago that nity.