Environment | Transportation | Economic Development and Jobs | Housing | Education | Criminal Justice | Ethics and Corruption
- Expand curbside recycling to all fifty wards by January 2008.
- Advocate for federal government or private development to clean up brownfields for job creation and/or affordable housing.
- Find creative ways to encourage residential developers to incorporate green and sustainable design and technology into their developments.
- Recommit to buying 20 percent of the city’s energy from renewable resources.
- Encourage wind turbine installation on city, business, and nonprofit buildings.
Transportation Recommendations
- Establish a third-party commission to pursue equity in service for all communities, and create a Transportation Equity Plan to be fully implemented by 2015.
- Lobby to secure state funds to supplement the $590 million already allocated by the federal government to expand the Red Line to 130th street.
- Halt all plans to create a Circle Line until the needs of underserved communities are met first, and re-evaluate the Circle Line plan to optimize the addition of the system to benefit those who need it most.
- Modify the Block 37 plan to ensure that it improves transportation and transfer opportunities for all Chicago residents.
- Reinstitute the CTa transfer system that was in place prior to 2006 for all buses and trains.
- Bar further fare increases except for inflation increases.
- Continue to improve on the Bike 2015 plan and promote other alternative transportation such as car sharing.
Economic Development and Jobs Recommendations
- Implement a living wage ordinance mandating that all workers in Chicago receive at least $10 per hour plus access to basic benefits.
- Place a moratorium on creation of new TIF districts until further study can verify the true costs and effectiveness of the hundreds of TIFs currently in place.
- Establish more PMDs in appropriate manufacturing areas and provide financial support for improved infrastructure in current PMD districts.
- Shift city priorities to ensure that job programs prioritize the most-in-need, including ex-offenders, uneducated youth, and non-English speakers.
- Create affordable housing guidelines at levels determined by the neighborhood family median income (e.g., $37,495 in Englewood or $34,902 in North Lawndale) instead of the metropolitan median family income (currently $72,400).
- Pass a set aside ordinance mandating 15 percent affordable housing be allocated at 80 percent or less of the neighborhood area median income to ensure that people with limited options can find housing.
- Significantly increase the 2008 budget allocation for affordable, permanent housing. an increase to $50 million would make it possible for the city to build and preserve two to three times more units annually than it can now and would immediately increase funding for the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund to help lower-income renters.
- Place a moratorium on further demolition of public housing until HUD develops a concrete plan to investigate and implement changes in CHA’s funding process.
- Investigate the finances of the CHA’s Plan for Transformation.
- Require that the CHA involve the appropriate resident councils in all decision-making processes in public housing developments, including management, rehab of units, relocation and development.
- Place a moratorium on CHA relocation in all developments until public housing tenants and the appropriate resident councils are satisfied with the decision-making process.
- Restore CHA trained tenants and Resident Management Corporations as managers of public housing sites.
- Invest $3 million a year for homelessness prevention and $2 million a year for supportive housing services. Implement a policy that nobody can be turned away from a shelter.
- Implement a moratorium on all school closings under the Renaissance 2010 plan until further evaluation of the effects can be completed.
- Redistribute discretionary Title I money to benefit the most disadvantaged students in the city.
- Increase funding for LSCs, and increase their power to have more control on budgets and principal accountability including hiring and firing.
- Develop a plan with LSCs, policy groups and community organizations to increase graduation rates.
- Support equal per-pupil state funding.
- End the proliferation of non-union contract and charter schools by creating an equal amount of each type of school for all new schools created within the Renaissance 2010 Plan.
- End the Zero Tolerance policy, and create alternative ways for children who have been expelled to graduate.
Criminal Justice Recommendations
- allow civilians to submit anonymous complaints, treat civilian complainants appropriately and eliminate lengthy and duplicative steps in the disciplinary process.
- Institute whistle-blower immunity for police officers who provide information about other officers’ wrongdoing, and provide protection from reprisals.
- Require the CPD to produce printed annual reports and make monthly statistics available to allow sufficient public monitoring and reasonable analysis of the disciplinary system
- Provide more funds to alternative crime prevention programs such as CeaseFire and BUILD.
- Install personnel performance software on the I-CLEAR system that will enable the Police Department to identify rogue police officers and hold them accountable.
- Expand the ex-offender hiring program and create incentives for Chicago businesses to initiate a similar program.
- Create a policy that respects the rights and dignity of witnesses.
- Institute a system-wide analysis of how the 911 call center assigns calls, and enact a program to equalize wait-times across the city.
Ethics and Corruption Recommendations
- Place a one-year moratorium on bidding for city contracts or petitioning for zoning variances for developers and contractors seeking to contribute to an aldermanic or mayoral campaign.
- Extend the Chicago Inspector General’s jurisdiction to the City Council.
- Eliminate the mayoral powers of appointment over vacated aldermanic seat. Reinstate special elections, returning this power to the ward residents.
- Mandate that all campaign contributions, voting and attendance records for each committee meeting be posted in an easily accessible manner at the City Clerk’s office and on its website.
- Require Mayor Daley to personally pay the legal fees and the fines for the destruction of Meigs field, and in the future, for any unilateral decision he makes that imposes financial obligations upon the city.