Chicago City Council

Regarding— I want to say something about the podium. The podium structure and integrated parking garage, while it is unconventional for a TIF request, is the key to unlocking the potential for this 62-acre site that has sat fallow for almost the same amount of time, at least 40 years, 60 years, I’ve been told.”

There’s some areas in this city that have 20 to 30 machines in a gas station. That’s a mini casino operating illegally that we’re not getting a dime from.”

On one hand, we say that the welcoming city bars our officers from being involved anywhere near immigration enforcement activity, but at the same time, we want them to be involved enough so that we can use their body cam footage and record what’s going on, particularly when there are issues such as creating perimeters to maintain public safety.”

If we’ve got a situation downtown like we did a few weeks ago where a child went to the morgue instead of going home, what does this do to prevent that from happening?”

I remember someone was stopped in front of me for beeping their horn, and ICE got out and threatened to arrest the guy.”

I don’t know if there’s some confusion, but I want to get it on the record that we’re only asking for one— $16 billion is being asked. We have went along with everything in this budget except a head tax.”

At the core, at the core of my decision is a simple principle. Fiscal responsibility must come first before we debate priorities, programs, or even politics. We have an obligation to pass a budget that is honest, reliable, and truly balanced. This budget is not. It relies on revenue assumptions that are uncertain, unstable, and unsustainable.”

This is what TIF is designed to do— spur development. This project cannot happen without the infrastructure investments that Alderman Dowell is seeking to do at the site.”

We can tax wealthy corporations to improve our lives and have some reliable progressive revenue that is so deeply needed, or we can decide that working people are going to pay.”

It had not occurred before where ICE, uh, CPD at that point showed up. Uh, there were concerns about a level of coordination, which is what this is about.”

We didn’t do it just in the city, we did it throughout the country. We told people, wait your turn. And as I said, we rolled snake eyes, right? We lost that gamble. And now we’re sitting here staring down the barrel of a $1.2 billion deficit.”

For me, um, I’ll say, as someone who’s been in this body for more than a handful of years now, but also spent, uh, quite a few years before that working with local governments everywhere, I just want to highlight the real issue, and the real issue with our budget is things cost more. We don’t have enough revenue.”

ICE’s policies have caused real pain and devastation for many families in Chicago, and our focus should be on protecting and advocating for immigrants in our communities who have been harmed by these policies.”