Back in 1998, proponents of a tax-increment financing district in Pilsen were almost condescending as they tried to sell it to neighborhood residents. The tool, one of Mayor Daley’s favorites, was all about jobs and industry and economic development in this case, they said soothingly, not gentrification. The poor misguided protestors simply didn’t understand. Now, the protestors are protesting a 387-unit condo and townhouse project proposed for 18th and Peoria, in the TIF district. The units would be priced from the $250s to around $700,000.
The fact that former Clinton housing secretary Henry Cisneros is on board the development team isn’t doing much to assuage fears of displacement in the mostly Mexican neighborhood. Pilsen Alliance Vice President Vicky Romero is quoted in the Chicago Journal as saying her group will fight outsiders trying to take away the neighborhood “whether they’re called Cisneros or not.”