Chicago’s Choice: Closing 50 Schools But Spending $100 Million On Basketball Arena

[grahamhgreen]

As we wrote in March, the city of Chicago unveiled plans two months ago to close over 50 schools, mostly in the poorest areas.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan has sparked fierce protests, with thousands of protesters hitting the streets last weekend to oppose the school closures –arguing that they would put children at risk by having to travel further to overcrowded schools.

But while the city insists it must close these schools to close budget gaps, it has just announced that it will be dedicated as much as $100 million in public funds for the construction of a new basketball arena at DePaul University — which is about a third of the cost of the project. http://thecontributor.com/chicago%E2%80%99s-choice-closing-50-schools-spending-100-million-basketball-arena-0

Can you spell "morally bankrupt"?

[Apophis]

1. We live in a country where sports are more important than education.

Morally bankrupt indeed.

[Chisox08]

7. They haven't even mentioned the hundreds of millions of dollars going to

Wrigley Field renovations, but the city is broke.

[aggiesal]

20. As I understand it . . .

Wrigley field is suppose to be completely paid for by the owners.
Except maybe some infrastructure improvements around the ballpark.
[Font color=BLUE]Mayor Rahm Emanuel hailed what the two sides called a "framework" agreement in a joint statement issued Sunday night, noting that it includes no taxpayer funding.[/font]

How was New Comiskey Park (or US Cellular) built? PUBLIC MONEY from the state.

[Chisox08]

29. At the time the state wasn't claiming to be broke and closing schools

nor where they cutting public services.

[aggiesal]

30. So you're saying it's OK to

fund stadiums, as long as the public not going broke, not closing schools
or cutting public services.

But there's a problem when you're privately funding an upgrade on an
existing ballpark, while the public is going broke, closing schools and
cutting public services.

Am I reading this correct?

[Chisox08]

33. This is Chicago we are talking about

When they say there isn't tax payer money involved tax payer money will be involved. Once it goes over budget do to unforeseen circumstances tax payer money will be used to make the difference. This is a classic Chicago trick, my Alderman is asking the same questions that I am.

[aggiesal]

34. That's definitely a posibility . . .

But right now, no public money is scheduled to be used.

When that happens, let me know, because I usually don't follow
City of Chicago finances.

I moved away in 1980.

[rhett o rick]

86. I just posted a similar post. What I have seen happen is that once the project

is well underway then the owners find a reason to blame cost overruns on the city and the city has to pay. Owners have better lawyers than cities and usually the city politicians are in the pocket of the owners anywayz.

[rhett o rick]

84. Sure the owners are saying now they will pay for upgrades. That happened in Seattle also.

The new baseball stadium was negotiated and the owners assured the public there would be no cost overruns like always and if there were the owners would pay. Sound too good to be true? When push came to shove, the owners blamed the city for cost overruns and went to court. I never heard how it turned out but what I wouldnt trust a sports team owner.

[aggiesal]

92. My opinion on all this is . . .

I have no problem with the public floating bonds to pay for these projects.
It's like taking out a mortgage.

In this case the owner of the SPORTS TEAM has to pay off the bonds.
So basically, the public becomes the bank, while the sports team now
has a mortgage.

The public makes money off the teams.

[rhett o rick]

93. The owners and their bought and paid for politicians would never go for it. nm

[rurallib]

2. Is DePaul a private religious (Catholic) school?

which would make this even more egregious in my view.

[datasuspect]

4. private catholic school since like forever

[aggiesal]

22. Amen n/t

[datasuspect]

3. "fuckface" tiny dancer Rahm needs the ever loving shit slapped out of him

I call him the mid level manager of Chicago, because he sure as fuck ain't no goddamn boss like either daley was, and he isn't fit to wipe the dog shit from harold washington's boots.

[Terra Alta]

5. Chicago priorities

A basketball arena is more important than educating our future. Nice. Fuck you, Rahm.

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. Former. Investment. Banker.

They elected this shitheel...

[AnotherMcIntosh]

11. He was from Goldman Sachs. His Chief of Staff replacement was from JP Morgan.

[Apophis]

13. He's still a shitheel.

[msanthrope]

9. Unrec---this is a 10k seater arena used primarily for the upgraded convention center and the Navy

Pier.

Yes, DePaul will play basketball there. But 18 home games is nothing compared to the other bookings. Wrigley didn't get funded because the city would not have been able to use the field for anything else, but this is multi-use:

In addition to serving as the home to the DePaul Blue Demons basketball team, the arena would host conventions and trade shows that are too small for the larger McCormick Place buildings, but too large for Navy Pier.

“Yes, DePaul will play there, but there will be a lot more events there,” Reilly said. “There will be 18 basketball games, but there’ll be 75 or 100 other kinds of events that will occur.”

Emanuel said he was willing to commit public funding for a stadium for DePaul and other entertainment venues at McCormick Place and Navy Pier, even though he wasn’t willing to do the same to renovate Wrigley Field, because the arena at McCormick Place would be a public facility with other uses.

“Medium-sized and small conventions will now become an opportunity and a market we never participated in,” he said. “We will have concerts, which we did not have before, and entertainment for the big shows that never could do that before.”

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/05/16/depaul-arena-part-of-larger-plan-to-revamp-mccormick-place-navy-pier/

[BrotherIvan]

16. Do you think it is more important than funding education?

[msanthrope]

18. How can MPEA funds be used for 'education?' Explain that, please! nt

[BrotherIvan]

19. You win.

[grahamhgreen]

21. Priorities, please. What are your priorities? Education first, it's a no brainer.

[msanthrope]

26. Again--can you explain how MPEA funds get to CPS? You say 'priorities' and that's

all fine, well, and good, but are you suggesting that the Chicago mayor has the power to allocate funds from MPEA to CPS? How?

[mopinko]

32. i think it's called job creation.

funded mostly by taxes on hotel rooms and restaurant meals.
it cannot be spent on schools. period.

good luck talking sense to the rahm haters.

[msanthrope]

35. The Rahm haters still haven't figured out how you keep schools open with

declining enrollment.

[mopinko]

38. the disconnect is making me dizzy.

some of these school "neighborhoods" are acres of rubble. the kids are already gone. that is the point.

but arguing here about anything rahm has no point.

[rhett o rick]

40. Rahm puts profits before education like the good conservative he is.

He will make millions on charter schools. But that's ok with the conservatives that value wealth over education.

[rhett o rick]

39. So it's funded by "mostly by taxes on hotel rooms and restaurant meals". Do you have

a link? There is no excuses for abandoning schools and education for profit making. Those who love Rahm hate education and worship greed. The conservatives among us love Rahm.

[mopinko]

43. to the entire taxing structure of the city of chicago?

we have something called mc-pier, it is funded with a special tax on restaurants and hotels in the downtown area. it's called economic development.

how bout you show me a link to how anyone is making money off the school closings. they aren't.

and i don't love rahm. but he is doing what he was elected to do- specifically, we all got sick of daley hiding under his desk when tough decisions came around.
surprisingly, the job requires you to walk and chew gum and the same time, and surprisingly, he can.

i don't love him. but most grownups who are here, and see what he is doing and trying to do, respect him.
as a major dem official, it is a shame that he is treated the way he is here, but more a shame that people far from the situation bash long time members on the ground.
respect. goes a long way in solving problems.

[rhett o rick]

44. Yes Rahm is doing what he was hired to do. But look at who hired him.

Who paid for his election? I see lots of for profit charter schools in Chicago's future.

Are you claiming that no general fund money is financing the stadium improvements?

[alcibiades_mystery]

56. Dollars to Donuts none of these people live in Chicago

Or understand fuck-all about the structure of this arrangement.

The usual fanatics.

[mopinko]

69. or have much respect for the rule of law, it seems.

can you hear them howl if they were taxed explicitly for one thing, but the money was spent on something else?

yeah, you gotta be here. if you never drove through the south side of chicago, you have no idea what an urban wasteland can be like. there are more broken bottles than kids in most of these neighborhoods where schools are closing.
not sure what part of- there are hardly any kids here, so we are closing this school- is so damn hard to understand.

[sabrina 1]

47. Rahm lovers will support and excuse and explain anything he does no matter how egregious or how

devastating to the people. Otoh, those people elected him for some reason, hopefully by now they have learned a lesson as he destroyes the public schools, privatizes them, which is his job after all and which those who voted for him should have expected.

Rahm is no Dem. He is a Third Way privatizer and it this kind of puppet politician that is destroying our party.

[grahamhgreen]

37. Can you explain how taxes are always raised for education and then used for other purposes?

Stop equivocating. This is not a 'down in the weeds' issue it's a matter of ethics and corruption.

Of privateers vs the people.

Of corporations vs children.

Of right vs wrong.

[mopinko]

42. you got a link for that?

we have clear lines of taxing and funding for a good many things just so such slight of hand is avoided. if you have a link showing cps funds have been diverted to other purposes, we can have this discussion.
otherwise you are just dissing my city, and blowing smoke.

[rhett o rick]

45. You are the one making the claim that there are "clear lines of taxing and funding".

I have heard that all my adult life and it is always lies. Our state instituted a lottery on the promise that the funds would 100% go to education. That lasted a year or two. Now it goes into the general fund.

IMO Rahm is a bought and paid for corporatist.

[mopinko]

49. you want me to post my property tax bill?

hotel and restaurant owners voluntarily tax themselves to fund tourist attractions and trade show infrastructure here. it has pumped a few billion into the economy, and is the basis of thousands of good, union jobs. that is where this money is coming from.
conventions and tourism are huge business here. these investments have paid off.

the schools are not funded out of the general revenue. they are a separate line item on the property tax bill. the remainder comes from the state.
if you want to fault someone for the state of chicago school, try the past 4 republican governors. the state violates their mandate to fund every year by failing to provide "the majority" of funding for the common schools.

[rhett o rick]

51. If that's what your priorities are, fine. Go with sports over education.

But dont blame it on previous administrations. I hope you will be tickled to death with the charter schools in your future. Do you know who sponsors Rahm?

[msanthrope]

89. What? You are the one claiming that MEAP funds should be diverted. Explain how. nt

[grahamhgreen]

91. It's called doing the right thing.

[rhett o rick]

41. The question is, do you think it is more important than education? Apparently you do.

Profits for the 1% is more important than education for the masses. Rahm is a Democrat in name only.

[rhett o rick]

52. So you are saying that "there's nothing that can be done. Education loses and that is that."

Seems Rahm's hands are tied. He has to yield to his wealthy backers. Charter schools will make him wealthy.

[msanthrope]

62. No...I'm asking how the money for the Navy Pier and McCormick place

gets transferred. Rahm can't do it by fiat, can he?

This money has been proposed as a solution. Explain how the solution works.

[rhett o rick]

63. Once again we must rely on the "Our leader is totally helpless. He can not do a thing about this

terrible problem." It's funny how politicians run on how they are going to fix things, then when elected, spend most of their time explaining how utterly helpless they are.

[msanthrope]

65. Rather than dramatic grand pronouncements, why not just tell us how MEAP

money should...and more importanly...can be allocated to the schools?

Tell us how this solution works.

[rhett o rick]

66. Rahm was elected to fix those problems, not me. IMO Rahm is a sell-out to big money.

Explain how he is helping the 99%. Maybe you support charter schools.

[msanthrope]

67. Ok...explain how Rahm would move MEAP money to the schools.

Rather than ranting about Rahm, why not tell us how he could easily remedy this. There must be specific steps, yes?

[rhett o rick]

68. He was hired to figure that out. I dont believe he is as helpless as you want to believe.

You rationalize that he is helpless with no responsibility. Do you support charter schools?

[msanthrope]

71. He was hired to figure out how to reallocate MEAP funding? No. He wasn't.

It's pretty apparent you have no idea what MEAP funds are and have no idea how they could be reallocated.

[rhett o rick]

72. You are correct. And I dont care. Rahm was hired to run the city.

You are making sound like his hands are tied. I dont believe he is as helpless as you portray. I believe he is influenced by those that donated to his election.

Since you wont answer, I assume you support the idea of charter schools. I dont. I support public education.

[msanthrope]

73. Well, if you are advocating a solution using public money, but you have no idea how that public

money is accessed, then you don't look very serious in your advocacy.

[rhett o rick]

76. I disagree that private charter schools are better than public schools. nm

[msanthrope]

79. Yes, well, catfood, sponges, milk, and tomatoes. nt

[mopinko]

82. it's called the law.

the fund was set up to take voluntary tax money and allocate it toward the tourism and conference industry. it works pretty well. it is a huge part of our economy, and helped see us through the recession.

you seem to be calling for the entire city to grind to a halt, and devote all resources to keep open schools with almost no children in them. you are not making ANY sense.

this is a big city with a lot of moving parts. we need all of them, and we don't go scavenging through working parts to fix broken parts. we try to fix the broken parts with as little collateral damage as possible.
tearing down a source of jobs and economic development is not how we fix broken institutions in blown up neighborhoods.

[rhett o rick]

85. Are you saying that 100% of the $100 million will come from voluntary taxes on

the local businesses? Sounds too good to be true.

[mopinko]

87. that's the way we do it here.

everybody got their own bucket. some from the general revenue, some from special taxes. prevents both the right hearted moves like you suggest, and the black hearted moves that tend to be a little more common here in reality.

http://www.mpea.com

[rhett o rick]

88. I looked at the link but didnt find where it said where they get their money.

Is it there somewhere? I find it very hard to believe that they dont get public money.

[mopinko]

90. it's in the annual report.

[Bluenorthwest]

46. The useage at 75 to 100 other events plus the games is still very, very low expectation

for building any sort of theater, arena, or other event space. Most hate to be down even a day, I can not think of any that got funded for 93 bookings a freaking year. This fact makes the rhetoric about Wrigley not being multi purpose sort of odd because baseball plays about 81 home games a year and draws way more people at each event, people who spend way more on food and concessions than do those attending a concert or a convention.
The funding might not be able to go to schools, but it sure looks to me like this is being done to benefit the school playing ball there. They will be the dominate users, about 20% will be them if they book 75 other dates. It's theirs. Their choice of dates will dominate, if a game is on a date, they can not book that date no matter how high dollar the draw.
I don't know about the surrounding politics, but a facility projected to be mostly empty and primarily used by a single fortunate party is hard to understand and indicates that there is some agenda going on.
If they can't use the money for schools, that still does not mean it should be used for this. Mostly empty, primarily used by one party. If I lived there, I'd want that explained.

[uponit7771]

48. What difference does that make? Money should spent on SCHOOLs first...priorities are skewed

[mopinko]

83. it's called the law.

that money was voluntarily taxed by an industry that expects it to be used for that industry. and that would bring the mother of all law suits if it wasnt.

[Initech]

15. Priorities, people!!!

[kysrsoze]

17. That's our Mayor Rahmie!

Everyone's gotta lighten up. I mean, what are the odds anyone associated with the closing schools, teacher, parent or child, will be a major campaign donor for Rahmie? It's private schools for the little Emanuels!

[Taverner]

23. Yay Rahm! Ooh, look at the pretty lights...

[School Teacher]

24. Always More Room for Sports Fans at Jen Weld Field in Portland, Oregon

Yes fans, keep filling those stadiums to feed the rich owners and corps. One evening I was driving by the soccer stadium here in Portland and saw thousands lined up to get into the game, people flowing out of trains and cars to attend. I thought, if only we could get that kind of a crowd at an anti war demonstration! Stop feeding the sports beast, America. And start feeding and educating our children! We have 44% of Oregon kids living in food insecurity! People can't afford it but they keep attending.

[HiPointDem]

54. +1

[Divernan]

25. Rahm's morally bankrupt move to cement economic inequality.

The Chicago School closings are part and parcel of a strategy for remaking the American metropolis as a center for spatial and economic transformations which will further cement economic inequality. One key component of this strategy is demographic inversion- moving the poor out of the center city into the periphery, where they will no longer be able to physically or politically threaten the global elites who will be working and playing in the redeveloped Center. This process is already well under way in cities like New York, Chicago, Washington and Milwaukee- with the result being that more poor people now live in suburbs than in cities- but for poor people who remain in cities, the elite's preferred strategy is intrusive, "stop and frisk" policing and the transformation of public schools into sites of draconian discipline where compliance and obedience are the preferred behaviors, strategies taken to the highest point of perfection by some of the nation's most celebrated charter schools.

Where do school closings fit in this elaborate strategy to scatter and neutralize the poor? Public schools in poor neighborhoods, even those whose test scores mark them as "failing," are important centers of community life, places where different generations of people interact and mark their connection to historical space. They contain memories of families raised, community arts forms celebrated, sports victories won, powerful friendships forged. If you ignore those experiences and reduce the school to its failures, you erase a communities history and make that community easier to divide and disperse.

Underlying School Closings is a world view which marks off residents of poor communities, not just the schools in them as failures, people who have to be dispersed, incarcerated, disciplined and divided for the Global Metropolis to prosper. It reveals the profound moral bankruptcy and cynicism pervading neo-liberal economic policies, whether they have a Democratic or Republican facade.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-naison/erasing-history-in-chicago-and-other-places/10151363569306503?notif_t=note_tag

[TheUnspeakable]

36. +1,000.000 EXCELLENT post n/t

[HiPointDem]

53. +1

[Catherina]

27. This is beyond moral bankruptcy. n/t

[grilled onions]

28. Where Kids Are Pawns In The Bigger Game of Chicago Politics

There was a time when kids lived in the very neighborhood where the schools were. I walked two blocks to my grade school. Parents knew that until the kids reached almost high school level the kids learned where they lived. The only exception was the Catholic kids seemed to always have schools out of the neighborhood. Many years later they started closing down schools, busing kids in circles that even a good GPS would have no idea how to navigate. Little kids have to get on buses in the wee hours and some times fall asleep and are found hours later still napping on a bus.
Neighborhoods are being fractured. Parents can't always allow their kids to "new" friends they met in their "new" school because they don't know the parents yet, the streets may be zoned for more then one gangs turf. Schools may be far away from home so how many are willing to allow their kids after school activities if a bus or a car is required. The kids--it should be about the kids. The crooks they come up with this shell game often game from private schools in safe neighborhoods. They have no idea(or worse could care less) that many families will experience hardships trying to once again normalize their children's school,school activities and for the parents to meld with other parents in yet another district.
Meanwhile let's play ball! What could be more important than siphoning money from bricks and mortar the pour it into a new stadium that will make the top honchos look better! No doubt they can't wait to the ribbon cutting ceremony right now and getting their posh box seast for the first game!

[HiPointDem]

31. kr

[mopinko]

50. a completely different angle here is also the fact that colleges are a big part of our economic base

creative financing and tiff funds helped to reuse quite a few old downtown buildings to create a downtown campus with a dozen or so colleges. this would be more of the same leveraged investment.
this is a big, complicated city. this kind of simple strawman like this is a useless.

[HiPointDem]

55. oh bull

[alcibiades_mystery]

57. Exactly correct...there's plenty to criticize in the school closings

Unlike most of the shouters here, I walked the line with the CTU and my daughter, who goes to CPS, during the strike.

Plenty to criticize in Rahm's education policy - which is neoliberal and incredibly destructive, but this deal isn't related in the least bit, except for ignorant fanatics. Most of the people here don't know shit about the (Daley) plan to revitalize parts of the Loop through a focus on higher ed. They don't know anything about DePaul, Roosevelt, Columbia College, Robert Morris, any of it. Hell, most of these people don't even know what "the Loop" is. They're mad at Rahm. He called them stupid or something, so they're mad. They know they're supposed to be mad, and blah blah, the usual stupidity.

Plenty to be angry about in the school closings. Rahm is wrong about that, 100%. Or 95%. Some of those schools have no enrollments. You know what Daley said five years ago, everybody: "The day we decide school policy based on gang territory is the day we've given up the city." People cheered that. And he's goddamn right about it.

But most of you wouldn't know, since you don't know fuck all about the city of Chicago, supposing you've ever even stepped foot into it.

[HiPointDem]

58. oh, bull. penny pritzker is a native, and she lurrves rahm's policies, school closings, stadium-

building, and use of tif funds for the 1%.

one doesn't have to be a native to see the problem, and being a native doesn't mean you get it either.

[alcibiades_mystery]

59. ^^^^^^Sign and Symptom of Know-Nothing Bullshit^^^^^^^^

Penny Pritzker!!!!!

1%!!!!!!

Feel free to pretend you know ANYTHING about this subject anytime soon.

Or, feel free to yell "Bul" and "Penny Pritzker" and other know-nothing nonsenses for as long as your heart desires.

[HiPointDem]

60. you pretend only people who live in chicago know anything about chicago, chicago politics,

education in chicago, etc.

it's like saying only americans know anything about america.

and the politics of chicago are not specific to chicago; they're the politics of the US.

penny pritzker is part of a much smaller group than the 1%ers, but she's also part of the 1%. and she lurrrrveees rahm's policies, because they're her & her family's policies, bought and paid for

there are plenty of chicagoans saying the exact same things as the OP. Here's one of them:

JESSE SHARKEY: There’s been a real shifting rationale about why the district is closing the schools. What they keep—what they’ve said is that it will save money and they have a budget deficit to worry about, and then now they’re saying that this will allow them to better serve the students whose schools are being closed. Both rationales are outrageous. As far as saving money, the district is planning—or the city is going to spend $300 million to renovate a new stadium for the DePaul basketball team and renovate the tourist areas of the city, that we don’t believe the school closings will save that much money. And we definitely don’t think that this will actually help the students that are being affected. In all the previous rounds, we found that the University of Chicago research shows that over 90 percent of the students actually wind up with worse educational outcomes as a result of their schools being closed.

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/28/chicago_to_shutter_50_public_schools

[HiPointDem]

61. PS: tell me which schools have no enrollments. here's a list of the closures.

Last edited Thu May 30, 2013, 02:47 AM - Edit history (1)

http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/626445/cps-school-closings.txt

some more chicagoans who hate the depaul plan:

‘‘Sheer folly. It makes no economic sense whatsoever.’’

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022920610

[mopinko]

70. this should be it's own op.

i don't have the emotional energy to slog through all the hate, tho.

[HiPointDem]

77. "the hate" = lol.

[HiPointDem]

78. With rahm's depaul plan, we've entered a new arena of stupidity

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022920610

also written by a chicagoan; the stadium plan is even worse than i imagined

[grahamhgreen]

75. We can clear this up quick. Are you for the privatization of public schools or against?

[mopinko]

81. chicago

has a school bureaucracy that is a hindrance to education, and a honey pot for the well connected.
there always have been schools outside that structure, catholic schools and others. they served to buoy up some of the very schools that are being closed today. they gave parents choices to take their children out of failing schools.

i strongly support a strong public education system. i do not think that that means all schools are the same, or that all schools have to be controlled by the mothership.
i also support teachers unions. some of the charters are held by the union. many of the charters are voting to join unions. i think it is in the best interest of the teachers to join a union.
as long as charter schools get the same per pupil spending as the bureaucratic controlled schools, i support diversity in outlook and teaching styles so that children can get the school that fits them.

is that clear? what do i get?

[Octafish]

64. It's what the 1-percent need.

Two parties with one motivating factor: Money.

Schools? If the kids of Chicago want an education, they can go to private school like everybody else who's connected.

[Dawson Leery]

74. This is sadly a common theme.

There is always funding for sports/sports arenas, yet primary education is given a low priority.

[Rex]

80. Sports always trumps education.

It is a horrible commentary on our society. So what corporate name will be on the basketball stadium?