Making Hope Float

Paul Vallas’ Remarks to the City Club

January 31, 2023

Chicago is a great city whose greatness is no short a reflection of its diversity and values. A
city celebrated for its dynamic institutions, the majesty of the lake, distinctive neighborhoods
and rich, colorful history - yet has now slowly devolved into crisis. Whether its crime, rising
taxes, combative leadership, or the mass exodus of city residents, it is fair to say that we all
fear for the future of our great city. Crisis calls for change - change not only rooted in
pragmatic and sustainable solutions, but outcomes worthy of our hopes. We must be
optimistic, equitable, and accountable in our vision for the future, ensuring that we do not
repeat the history that has deprived so many of reasons for maintaining hope. And we must
move urgently to build the vision we have of a flourishing city for all.

In order to grow into a thriving future, our first priority must be to make Chicago safe for
everyone. We can neither grow from within nor attract from outside without a safe
environment for all to live, work, learn, create and prosper from an ethos and ecology of
well-being.

It is, therefore, imperative that we address the pressing need of public safety amidst the
dramatic rise in crime. Consequently, I want to preface the main subject of my remarks today
with a few comments about public safety. Public safety is a human right, and one of the
primary jobs of government is to safeguard it as a public right. As a result, I have articulated
a detailed plan to put city resident’s safety first. Public safety is not, in my view, simply a
matter of law and order. It is a larger state of well-being.

Public safety is not merely a containment strategy from law enforcement. We must
acknowledge that approach has resulted in many Chicagoans seeing the police as an
occupying force. That must change. I would quickly re-orient a staffed up and properly
resourced, trained and supervised CPD to true community-based policing conducted as a
partnership between the community and the police, with officers who know and understand
the priorities, history and sensitivities of those they are sworn to serve and protect. That is
21st century policing. That is the broader objective of the Consent Decree – a
self-sustaining, continuous improvement, transparent and accountable law enforcement
agency that delivers 21st century policing in partnership with the communities it serves.
Simply put, current department and City Hall leadership is failing to meet the requirements,
the pace and the objectives of the Consent Decree. In fact, the Consent Decree is a floor,
not a ceiling. I will provide the police with the leadership, the resources and support they
need while providing the infrastructure and operational systems upgrades needed to
transform the department into a best-in-class, contemporary organization. For communities
to be in well-being, officers serving in the communities must themselves be supported and
sustained in wellness and professionalism.

While the dramatic increase in crime since 2019 demands our immediate attention, simply
returning to 2019 is unacceptable. It is critical in this moment that we do not divert our
attention from the real issue at the heart of so many of Chicago’s problems: the pervasive,
historical neglect of Chicago’s most underserved neighborhoods – most particularly and
grossly inequitable, the South and West Sides.

Policing will always address symptoms, but never the root causes for crime in historically
underserved communities. Crime is a whole city problem that calls for whole government
solutions.

I therefore join those who call for a Second Burnham Plan, but one whose objective is to lift
those very communities into thriving, self-sustaining, indigenously-owned commercial
enterprises coupled with anchor social service, government and cultural institutions
necessary for a state of well-being for all. I am not talking about community economic
development of the nature of Invest South/West, even if it were properly prioritized and
implemented – currently, it is not. That initiative is in the end, a 21st century branding of a
failed 20th century approach. It is a top down, transactionally-oriented, politically fashioned
aspiration that remains undelivered.

That is because the 20th century approach has negligently fostered and reinforced inequities
in the communities across our city. No more so than in communities of color, where
government has generally failed to provide a safe public environment, nor supported the
development of local economies prioritized, owned, sustained by those within the
community itself. True 21st century community, economic development must be forged in a
prioritization of needs and wants determined by those who live and work and raise families
there. It prioritizes contracts and partnership with business and organizational leaders
located in and conducting their work for the benefit of those who live and work there. And
it results in ownership and control with those who will continue on within and from the
community as its legacy.

Neighborhood revival should not result in neighborhood displacement. This means

devoting investments that reactivate and grow the community from within.
Our vision is five-fold and centers on an asset-based community development approach that
lays the foundation for sustainability and growth on our City’s South and West sides.

First, we need to create an Independent Community Development Authority (CDA)

composed of community-based contractors and organizations.

It would operate freed from City Hall politics - the fifth floor and aldermanic privilege. The
determinations of what must be done will not be driven by LaSalle Street and the
Department of Planning and Development (DPD), rather it will be grounded in a
community-based process drawn from community leadership, rooted in asset-based
community development process and objectives. The independent CDA along with
community partners can renovate homes, finance small businesses, provide microfinance
loans, develop industrial parks, finance locally owned and operated social services.

A model for this is the Chicago Neighborhood Initiative which along with its community
partners, has renovated hundreds of homes, launched a microfinance loan program for small
businesses, and developed mixed-use sites with anchors. The CDA can become the driving
force behind the economic revitalization of long neglected communities on the South and
West Sides. The Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives offers a model for the CDA. It revitalizes
underserved and distressed urban neighborhoods like Pullman, Bronzeville, and Englewood.

We will have to make sure that the mission objectives of CDA are not slowed or even
obstructed by inevitable headwinds of the prevailing way of doing business. Doing so
should involve:
- Using the collective budget and purchasing power of City taxpayer money – $28
billion across the City and Sister Agencies
- Directing all contracting city agencies to prioritize local business growth in
procurement decisions. This prioritization should occur at the prime and
subcontractor levels. And the city should leverage existing and more traditional
contractor/vendor relationships to have them serve as partners and mentors to these
neighborhood business enterprises and employees, especially those employing
returning citizens, so that the opportunities generated by CDA projects are accessible
to all and not just the traditional players.
- Working closely with our partners in labor, whose unions will benefit from the jobs
created by this expanded development enterprise to open their ranks to this new
expanded population of community-based workers.
Second, we need to create a Fair Share Investment Trust to hold and reinvest both
public and private monies for second and third generation (re)investment.

This starts by institutionalizing a “Fair Share” of City economic development resources by

requiring that one third of all new revenues from TIF”s and all developer fees, future casino,
sports betting and gaming revenues be dedicated to South and Westside investments. These
are the very neighborhoods that have received little financial help and been on the receiving
end of predatory lending practices going back decades. This road-tested financial vehicle has
been touted in recent years by former alderman and now policy guru Ameya Pawar as a
means to put our money where our mouth is on equity and community development. The
municipal investment fund would hold the dedicated city revenue funds and extend
commercial and mortgage loans.

CDA projects would be prioritized with an emphasis on businesses and family home owners.
CDA funds would be held in a dedicated account in a citywide Municipal Bank - a concept
advanced by former Alderman Ameya Pawar and endorsed by others in this election – that
would extend community purpose loans at lower interest rates than the borrowers could
secure from private sector banks. Besides helping investment in the community, those loans
would improve the city’s balance sheet because a municipal bank would capture the profit
that private banks presently keep for themselves under the existing arrangement. The profits
can then be available for new loans and community investment. In what often feels like a
zero-sum environment, this is a true win-win.

Third, we will implement a strategy to reclaim and repurpose vacant & idle property
across the city’s South and West Sides

The goal is to create a City Land Trust that goes beyond the purpose and operational
capacities of the existing Chicago Housing Trust goal of addressing housing, to include
acquiring control of other non-performing real asset’s like closed industrial sites, shuttered
business corridors and vacant property, and support their development into locally owned
performing assets. TIF bond proceeds can also be used along with eminent domain to secure
all vacant residential buildings and vacant lots to be turned over to local developers and
community organizations for development of affordable housing. The CDA would be
empowered to award long term property tax abatements and provide other local and state
incentives on this reclaimed property to improve the prospects for investment and
development. The city can provide financial support for rehab and new construction in the
form of equity grants and loans. The same approach can be taken to decaying retail
corridors, long vacated industrial sites and vacant land. The proceeds from the TIF bonds
could help finance the physical upgrade and the environmental cleanup needed to make the
property suitable for development. The emphasis is on the creation of local ownership and
wealth accumulation in the city’s most neglected communities. The CLT could transfer
ownership in return for an equity share which would enable the CLT to build the wealth
needed for future investments.

Equally important, the city can and should raise billions of dollars for long-needed
environmental restoration without raising taxes by issuing bonds and amortizing the interest
- financing the bonds with revenues from expiring TIFs. Proceeds can be used to undertake
major environmental cleanup on the south and westside. This is critical to protect public
health and remove a major obstacle to attracting new investment.

Fourth, we must recognize that economic development must be supported by an

ecosystem of wellness and framework of well-being.

Communities and community well-being are not defined simply by crime reduction and
economic development. They are defined also by access to resources, mobility, green spaces
and communal spaces. They are a reflection of the residents, organizations, cultures and
history that make it unique. Under my administration, any major community economic
development must include an agreement that takes into account cumulative environmental
impact and commits funds to social service infrastructure as part of the development itself.
A thriving community is a healthy community - one that is sustained by wrap-around social
services. Opioid and addiction, crisis, mental health, reproductive health and family health
services must exist, be accessible in each community area, and be owned and staffed by those
from within the community. It also requires that we address physical and structural barriers
that prevent community members from attaining holistic well-being , like healthy food
desserts, inadequate safe neighborhood public spaces and degraded urban forest canopy and
greenspaces.

Lastly, we need to regard returning citizens as assets that reflect the larger historical
disinvestment and neglect of marginalized communities. We must elevate and
empower those undervalued men and women into full and productive economic and
community participation and standing.

There is an abundance of adult education and occupational training and support service
providers available to significantly expand quality services to the displaced adult population
and provide education and occupational training alternatives to incarceration. We
documented those very programs and support services when we did our work for US
Attorney General Sally Yates on education and occupational training reform in the prison
system. The key is organizing them to make access easier, and to prevent redundancies. An
“Adult Education and Occupational Training Network” should be created to identify and
coordinate community-based adult education and occupational training programs operating
in Cook County. The Network would identify, mobilize, coordinate and expand services and
supports, while building a data dashboard to increase access for those in need of the services.
The focus can be on high school dropouts, the chronically unemployed and previously
incarcerated. Federal funding is available for job training under the “Federal Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Act” and job placement under the “Work OpportunityTax
Credit program” This requires a holistic and integrated governmental infrastructure. And in
a city with a strong union tradition and foundation, the path to the middle class for returning
citizens must lead to and through our partners in labor. Almost three years ago such a plan
was presented that included identification of available job training and support resources.

Closing

In closing, John F. Kennedy said that a rising tide raises the level of all boats. What he did
not say, and what this moment demands be said, is that this aspirational and uplifting
concept only works if you have a boat or a place in a boat. We must here and now
acknowledge that too many of our fellow Chicagoans do not have, and never have had a
place on that boat. And that for far too long, too little of government has been devoted to
holistic and inclusive community development that brings the historically disadvantaged and
neglected into the Ark. It's time for a change. What we are trying to do is to create the
infrastructure for change. Infrastructure that lifts and nourishes our neighborhoods, by
nurturing small businesses and minority-run organizations in their infancy, and ensures
adequate representation through their entire lifecycle. The great mid-century American
theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once said “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our
lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.” Our once-great city is in crisis. Now is a time
for action. As your mayor, I will do everything in my power to foster the hope in the heart of
each and every Chicagoan, while we work together towards better, safer times and shared
prosperity for all.