We can’t blame them for all the shiny new skyscrapers downtown, all the hustle of the Magnificent Mile, the ceaseless flow of capital. What about the other Chicago? The latter, where hope is a commodity and opportunity an afterthought? I’m not just referring to these beautiful, mostly Black South and West Sides communities, which have long been systematically deprived of resources.
With a problem so daunting in scale, it’s easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to want to throw up your hands and feel like there’s nothing that you can do. So I’m here to tell you that real, substantive change is possible and within our grasp. It's not about charity; it's about investment. Intelligent, purposeful capital that uplifts neighborhoods from the inside out.
Investments Build Community Wealth, Not Pity
The city’s committed a few million of its own dollars toward community wealth-building initiatives. Great. But that’s a drop in the bucket when you look at the decades of disinvestment these neighborhoods have suffered. It will require a fundamental paradigm shift. These people are not charity cases, they’re unrecognized reservoirs of talent.
Think of it like this: you wouldn't expect a plant to thrive without water and sunlight. Just like you can’t build a community where people thrive without capital and resources, you can’t do it without opportunity. That's where we come in. Not as saviors, but as partners.
Affordable Housing: A Moral And Economic Imperative
The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program offer a powerful mechanism for change. Investing in affordable housing isn’t simply the right thing to do—ensuring access to affordable housing brings stability to families, builds vibrant communities, and creates economic activity.
Affordable housing is infrastructure. Like roads and bridges, it’s an essential economic engine that is a fundamental building block of a prosperous society. Housing stability support access to safe and affordable housing increases rates of employment. It leads to children doing better in schools, which positively impacts the whole community.
Consider, for instance, the case of a single mother with two jobs trying to survive. Access to affordable housing will be the difference between Julia living in a state of perpetual anxiety and being able to start saving for her daughter’s future. This is not just an investment in bricks and mortar, it’s an investment in human potential.
Real Estate: Beyond Luxury High-Rises
Forget the luxury condos downtown. The true potential is in capitalizing on this investment by deepening that investment into multifamily residential properties and neighborhoods such as Avondale and Bronzeville. These markets provide Class B and C apartments that serve the working and middle-class workforce. Strong demand, increasing rents, and the opportunity to do well by doing good? That's what I call a win-win.
Think about it: every dollar invested in these properties goes directly into the local economy. It helps local businesses, puts local residents to work, and makes the community a better place for those who live there. It’s a welcome change from the far past’s trickle-down economics which have so thoroughly failed across the last several decades.
Cryptocurrency: The People's Finance
Okay, hear me out. I understand crypto might feel like the Wild West, rife with scams and volatility. Underneath all of the hoopla there lies a great potential for financial empowerment, particularly in traditionally underserved communities. Chicago's got Bitcoin ATMs popping up everywhere!
Inspiring the next generation of creators We need to educate the world on the amazing promise of cryptocurrency. It can build generational wealth and empower them to achieve financial stability. Imagine a flourishing ecosystem where community members have hassle-free access to microloans that help them invest in their neighborhoods. They run towards the global economy, doing so while escaping predatory local banks that have forever refused and redlined them.
This isn’t some get-rich-quick scheme — this is the first step towards creating a more equitable financial system. At the end of the day, it’s all about empowering Americans with the tools they need to take control of their own economic destiny.
Community Investment: Bet On Your Neighbors
The city’s fledgling, but very promising, Community Wealth-Building program. Now, we need to set the stage for a dramatic scale up to enhance its impact and effectiveness. We need to create more Community Investment Vehicles (CIVs) and worker cooperatives, empowering residents to own and control the businesses in their own neighborhoods.
This is where you come in. If you do have the resources to spare, please continue to invest in these efforts. Put your purchasing power behind neighborhood entrepreneurs who are dedicated to creating the local jobs and community wealth you want to see. Don’t stand idly by—join us and be on the winning side of these important issues.
So I implore you to consider the type of Chicago in which you’d like to reside. An equitable city where every person lives a life of opportunity, no matter what their zip code? Or a community where all of the positive outcomes from growth are limited to only certain privileged areas, with the rest ignored and neglected?
The choice is ours. Let's choose to invest in our communities, to empower our neighbors, and to build a more just and equitable Chicago for all. Because quite frankly, it’s not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do. The old saw, a rising tide lifts all boats. By investing in the needs of our neglected communities we can ensure a safer, more equitable future for all of us.
