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PILSEN IS NOT FOR SALE
The PN4S campaign first organized in response to a specific high-end condominium development and has evolved into a community education and direct action movement. The campaign successfully passed two Public Advisory Referendums in 2004 & 2006, as part of the campaign’s strategy to empower the community’s voice by demanding political accountability and transparency with regard to development decisions in Pilsen. Both Referendums had incredible success with overwhelming electoral and community support.
In Partnership with Depaul University’s geography department, an extensive research project, “Pilsen Building Inventory Project” conducted between 2006 & 2007, provided crucial findings on Pilsen’s housing crisis that empowered PN4S’s grassroots efforts. One of initial findings was that a large percentage of homeowners were not aware and did not apply for property tax exemptions that would ease their tax burdens and allow them to hold on to their homes. In response, Pilsen Alliance kicked off a year-long Property Tax Community Education Campaign (that continues to this day) which provides on-going workshops, events that:
- provide home owners with a comprehensible understanding of the Property Tax system and available property tax relief programs,
- provide free property tax-relief application workshops as well as
- motivating and mobilizing local residents to become active members/leaders of the Pilsen Not for Sale Campaign.
Displacement/Gentrification
Is a profit driven change in the class and race composition of a neighborhood over time. The rents and housing prices are no longer affordable to people with lower incomes, the residents find themselves having to leave their homes due to unaffordable rent, appreciated taxes, tenant harassment and the disappearance of essential services in the area. This process is led by developers and landlords with support of the government.
How Gentrification/Displacement has
Affected our Community:
- Property Taxes have gone up between 50-150%
- There are more than 1200 current foreclosures in Pilsen
- Rents have gone up considerably and continue to rise and heat bills are sky rocketing. Some families must choose between paying the heating bill and rent or providing enough food for their family.
- Chicago Public Schools are closing and privatizing schools. Our Children are being displaced and having to constantly switch schools affecting their performance in school.
- Small Latino owned businesses close on a daily basis because they can no longer afford to pay the rent.
- Families are forced to leave Pilsen and move to other areas where services are not provided in the family’s language, schools do not utilize a bilingual curriculum, and people have to commute for hours to get to their jobs.
- The People that have had substantial benefit from the displacement have been developers, private corporations, politicians, and yuppies who, little by little take over the neighborhood and transform the area into a center of commerce and exchange.
Victories
- Securing the restoration of weekend train service along the Douglas branch of the Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line. After a seven-year battle against transit racism, the Pilsen Alliance compelled the Chicago Transit Authority to restore weekend service on the Douglas Blue Line on January 1, 2005.
- Passing a first-ever Public Advisory Referenda in Chicago’s 25th Ward, calling on the local alderman to hold open, community hearings on all zoning changes. Intended to provide the community with a means of voicing their concerns over the growing number of high-end loft and condo conversions, the Referenda passed with 95% of the vote.
- Passing a second Referenda in Chicago’s 25th Ward, March 2006 calling on the local alderman and the Chicago City Council to down-zone residential portions of Pilsen from RT-4 to RS-3 zoning to slow down gentrification. Intended as a community strategy to preserve existing scale and affordable housing, limit potential for condo conversions and increase community notification/input. The Referenda passed with 76% of the votes cast.
- School of Leadership and Social Justice. Pilsen Alliance hosts first ever School of Social Justice and graduates 20 residents.