Every summer, the same conversation returns to Chicago. Teen takeovers draw headlines, prompt urgent calls for action and spark debates at every level of government. And yet, after three summers, the real question remains: Why do young people keep showing up, and what would give them somewhere else to be?
The answer may be simpler than the debate suggests.
Chicago’s young people have been clear: The traditional youth programs many cities lean on, community centers, libraries, the standard summer offerings, have lost their appeal with this generation. That observation says more about this problem than any policy debate has managed in three years. Chicago’s young people bring plenty of energy and ambition. What they need are opportunities that take them seriously, push them and connect what they do today to a future they can picture clearly.
For over 15 years, Genesys Works Chicago has placed Chicago Public Schools students in paid corporate internships, backed by real skills training and mentorship from business partners across the city. Our students are not killing time. They are building resumes, professional networks and a tangible sense of where their lives can go, often for the first time anyone has asked them to think that far ahead.
Public safety matters, and the disruption and property damage are real and deserve a real response. At the same time, the proactive side of this equation, what Chicago actively offers its teenagers, deserves just as much attention and investment as any other approach on the table.
We cannot solve a citywide phenomenon alone. No single organization can. But proven workforce development models exist, and they work. They deserve the same level of investment and urgency this city brings to every other part of the conversation.
City leaders, corporate partners and fellow nonprofits all have a role to play, and youth opportunity belongs on the table with the same weight as every other proposal that has come before it.
Chicago’s teenagers have already told us what is missing. It is time to act on it.
— Holly Zann, executive director, Genesys Works Chicago
A new tool for homeowners
The Cook County assessor deserves credit for making the assessment process more transparent. The Home Value Report and the office’s publicly available residential valuation model documentation give homeowners greater insight into how properties are assessed. Perhaps most importantly, the documentation acknowledges that maintaining accurate property data across more than 1.8 million parcels is an ongoing challenge.
The next opportunity is to help homeowners make effective use of the information that is already publicly available.
The Home Value Report helps homeowners understand how their property was assessed. A property data audit tool would help homeowners verify the accuracy of the property data underlying that assessment.
Today, homeowners who want to evaluate an assessment must gather and reconcile information scattered across numerous public records, often requiring knowledge, time and resources many do not have. The Cook County assessor could build on the Home Value Report by developing a tool that automatically audits publicly available property information, verifies both the subject property’s data and the factual accuracy of comparable-property information, identifies potential factual discrepancies and organizes objective market evidence.
Such a tool would help homeowners better understand their assessments, verify the factual accuracy of both their own property data and comparable-property information, and determine when an appeal may be warranted. More importantly, it would improve the quality of information submitted during appeals, creating a valuable feedback mechanism for improving public property data over time.
Providing homeowners with this tool would build on the assessor’s commitment to transparency while advancing three principles that should guide every property tax system: equity, transparency and governance. Better tools would lead to better-informed homeowners, more accurate property records, more efficient appeals and greater public confidence in the assessment process.
— Tony Bonvolanta, Chicago
Support for renewable energy
Thank you for the op-ed “The Iran gas tax is going to hit American families. But we can change the future” (July 6). The less dependent America is on oil, the less leverage hostile governments will have over us, the cleaner our air and water will be, and the cheaper our electric bills will be.
It’s amazing how this is such a difficult concept for Americans to grasp. Corporate greed, corruption and calculated political misinformation stand in the way of progress toward an accelerated clean energy transformation. That stupid calculus means fewer jobs, more inflation, increased healthcare costs and a less competitive America in world markets.
Let’s demand our politicians provide more support for renewable energy since their point of view appears to be clouded by fossil fuel lobbyists and a stunted vision for the future.
— Dorelle Ackermann, Mokena, Illinois
Call for permitting reform
I could not agree more with the Iran gas tax op-ed by U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi. Our country should pivot away from dependence on fossil fuels, but, as he laments, President Donald Trump’s administration is moving in the opposite direction.
However, there is one bright spot in current climate politics — a rare bipartisan interest in permitting reform that would strengthen and extend the electricity grid. With the midterms approaching, both parties are eager to show their credentials in affordability. A current historic increase in electricity demand will drive up everybody’s costs unless offset by a comparable increase in supply.
Fortunately, a surge in renewable and fossil fuel electricity supply can meet that demand, but only if it can gain access to the grid. That access is being strangled by an old and cumbersome permitting process for electrical transmission. There are now thousands of energy supply projects currently in the yearslong queue for transmission permits.
In the name of affordability, both parties in Congress have started negotiations on legislation to streamline permitting. If you want affordable electricity, tell your congressional delegation to get permitting reform done.
— Albert Wagner, Orland Park
Cost of Bike the Drive
Several days of letters addressed bike safety and bike lanes, but no one addressed the great opportunity to have a safe and carefree ride along DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Perhaps this is because the cost for two adults is $69 each (no shirt), plus the additional cost of parking near the drive.
We have done the ride for several years, but the cost for an afternoon of carefree riding strains people’s budgets, especially since there are many free bike trails in the forest preserves. If the cost is lowered, more cyclists would be tempted to join in Bike the Drive, and the fundraising goal would still be met.
— Mary Ann McGinley, Wilmette
Improving safety on the road
Safety is the excuse for the protected bike lanes, but safety is not increased when first responders are stuck in traffic, while the bike lanes are relatively empty.
When in my car, I am surrounded by metal, but I must still wear my seat belt and have a workable air bag. When I’m on my bike, I am not required to wear a helmet, although I do so, along with wearing gloves. Government officials who holler “safety” should mandate helmets for bike and scooter riders.
Scooter riders are hitting and injuring pedestrians, so for the sake of safety, their speeds should be lowered, if not banned.
Drivers of motorized vehicles must be tested and licensed, so similar requirements should apply to riders of scooters and motorized bikes — again, in the interest of safety.
— Larry E. Nazimek, Chicago
I’m glad I read this story
Thank you ever so much for Lisa Schencker’s article addressing foodborne illness (“Illness may have some running to the bathroom,” July 8).
A timely reading of the Tribune helped me steer clear of purchasing potentially problematic fruit that could have upset my already sensitive stomach. The illness identified as cyclosporiasis as reported can be quite debilitating. It makes one wonder how many other food-related illnesses we never even learn of.
— Celeste J O’Dea, Oak Lawn
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
