In 1994, Imre Hidvegi and Edgar Alvarez opened Chicago Soccer, a soccer supply store, in a vacant storefront on the 4800 block of North Western. “It was just the two of us, and we did maybe $50,000 in business” to start, says Hidvegi.
The block in question is part of the Western/North tax increment financing district. As faithful readers know, a TIF puts a 23-year cap on the amount of property taxes in a given area that goes into the public coffers, diverting any new revenues into a fund controlled by the mayor. By law it’s a tool reserved for use in blighted communities that otherwise would not attract development. Instead the bulk of TIF money goes to affluent, gentrifying neighborhoods like the Loop and the near south side. TIFs are supposed to build the tax base, but they wind up diverting over $400 million a year from entities like the schools, the parks, and the county. Instead of making the city more livable, they’ve driven up property taxes to the point that it’s becoming difficult for working-class and middle-class residents to afford their homes. And of course there’s the issue of transparency–TIFs are virtually off the books, not itemized on any tax bill or budget.
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The acquisition letters set off a panic among the merchants affected. But their local alderman, Eugene Schulter of the 47th Ward, insists that the acquisition authorization letter’s part of a process he’s initiated over the last couple of decades to protect small businesses. Schulter says he’s routinely bombarded with calls from developers eager to buy up property and tear it down so they can build big-box monstrosities “like you see on Clybourn near North Avenue.” He claims the threat of eminent domain wards off that kind of development: if property owners can’t sell their property, big-box developers can’t buy it up.
The larger lesson is clear: the merchants of Western Avenue had better be vigilant. Otherwise a demolition order could be coming their way.
