The kids were in the park tossing baseballs across a new diamond, shaded slightly by a row of new trees. The parents were on the sidelines, gawking at the new wrought-iron fencing separating the park from new homes. And the politicians were on a speaker’s stand unveiling plans to infuse more newness into city neighborhoods. Much more.
As part of his oft-stated commitment to community and undoubtedly, re-election, Mayor Richard Daley went to Kolmar Playlot on the Northwest Side on Wednesday, and before throwing out the first pitch at a Little League game there, announced his intent to pump $1 billion into city neighborhoods before the year 2000, one year after the next mayoral election.
Daley’s new “Neighborhoods Alive” project, the centerpiece of his annual State of the City address Wednesday night, will focus on further fixing the city’s crumbling infrastructure–124 blocks of new streets, 320 new alleys, 80 miles of new water mains, to give a sampling. It will include the building and upgrading of parks and libraries, expanding community policing and luring more businesses to city neighborhoods.
All of this, and no new taxes, Daley all but promised. The improvements will be funded instead with long-term borrowing and the expected savings from a new pension reform program that the mayor seems sure will be approved by Springfield lawmakers, some of whom Wednesday afternoon were still questioning the wisdom of the proposal.
Nevertheless, the mayor spoke excitedly about beautifying his city, block by block.
“It doesn’t look like (there will be a need to raise taxes),” he said at the park. “We have been very modest in our increases. That’s the thing you just can’t explode (taxes) because if you do, you just move more people out of the city.”
Later, during his annual State of the City address before the League of Women Voters at the Palmer House Hilton, 17 E. Monroe St., Daley blasted the recent incidents of racial hatred and other violence in the city, pointing out that his “highest priority is neighborhoods.”
“The goal of `Neighborhoods Alive’ is clear,” he said.”(We want) to ensure that every neighborhood is one in which people want to live and work and raise a family.”
To be sure, Daley has made a concerted effort to build up broken down communities. Since taking office in 1989, he has put about $187 million a year into capital improvements with the aid of long-term borrowing. His latest three-year package indicates that he plans to spend about $333 million a year or almost twice the rate of the previous efforts.
Still, while he and his aides promote the latest capital development plan as a kind of savior for unraveling neighborhoods, it lacks specifics on the funding streams and hinges on several factors, not the least of which is cooperation from the traditionally unpredictable General Assembly.
The plan assumes that Springfield lawmakers will give the necessary endorsement to his plan to take about $75 million in taxpayer money that would have gone into the municipal and laborer pension funds annually and use it instead to help pay for streets, sidewalk and alley repairs and other things.
Downstate legislators have indicated they are open to the plan, which also would cut city property taxes by $20 million and eventually eliminate the city’s despised $4-per-worker-per-month head tax on businesses of 50 employees or more. But on Wednesday others cautioned against any assumptions.
“I cannot and do not make predictions on the fate of legislation in Springfield,” said Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago). Last week, Madigan indicated that he is willing to work with Daley on “a” pension reform idea.
Daley insisted that the extra money to do all of the neighborhood upgrades will come from”innovative management approaches.” When asked what he meant, he offered privatization and streamlined staffing as examples, only to later state that he has no plans to further privatize city operations or cut city jobs.
“I don’t think the mayor is referring to anything specific (in terms of economies),” city budget director Diane Aigotti explained. “The mayor sees his capital program as a long-term process, not something you do one year. You have to build a vision as to where you want to go and you make a commitment to reach that vision every year.
“Everything can’t happen in one year so it’s important to package all this stuff together. It keeps the momentum going.”
