"It sucks," one respondent said.
By Grace Del Vecchio, Kelly Garcia, Corli Jay and F. Amanda Tugade
Deborah Williams (Photo: F. Amanda Tugade/City Bureau)
This story was published originally in October 2020 with Austin Weekly News.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently released a budget proposal to offset a historic $1.2 billion deficit. A $94 million property tax increase, a 3-cent per gallon gas hike and layoffs and furloughs for hundreds of city staff topped her list.
This year, more than 38,000 people responded to the city's online budget survey, a 400% increase from last year. It was a part of the annual budget engagement process where the city aims to listen to residents on what they want in the budget. For Chicagoans, community services and public health are the top two city-funded programs they care about the most.
But, the number of respondents is minimal in comparison to the city's population of 2.7 million, and the sample was highly skewed when it comes to geographic representation. Nearly half (45%) of responses came from the North Side while West Side respondents clocked in at only 4%. South Side's representation was slightly higher at 9% with 8% from the Southwest Side.
It's a glaring indicator that voices from the West and South Side communities are left out by the city in its decision making processes.
Before Lightfoot's official budget announcement, City Bureau talked to four West Siders about what they know—and don't know—about the annual city budget process and how they hope the city will reinvest in their communities next year.
Deborah Williams, 53, lifelong Austin resident, community outreach and engagement supervisor for Habilitative Systems, Inc. and a member of Counting on Chicago Coalition
What city investments in your community would you like to see?
We've been asking for more traffic signs on Austin Boulevard near the 290 expressway. We also need more youth programming, more parenting programs. I'd like to see more schools really start to promote civic engagement.
In what ways would you like to see the city to share its budget information with your community?
The budget should be presented by each community area. We should have not just one or two budget hearings. We might need to have a budget hearing for all 77 communities and see what's in it for a particular community. Break the budget down to 77 communities, so we can compare.
Did you know that the city actually had budget ambassadors and held community roundtables in 66 communities?
Lately, doing this?
In September.
No, ma'am.
Sherman Lofton, 43, a North Lawndale resident, a member of Gardeneers
Sherman Lofton (Photo: F. Amanda Tugade/City Bureau)
What have you heard about the Chicago city budget process? Where did you hear about it?
I heard it sucks. Is that elaborate enough? The budget is not as accessible for people. When I say not accessible, oftentimes it's a committee or something like that that makes a decision how the budget and the money are going to be allocated. That's a process that doesn't really involve the local community in the decision-making. It's not that community residents are not willing participants. A lot of them just don't know—or they are living their lives—to not have an opportunity to put forth an opinion about it.
What city investments in your community would you like to see?
There's no food in the area, and aside from all the other things that go with a low-income neighborhood, police treat people a certain kind of way. When I walk down the street and I see a group of young men—maybe in high school or something like that—just lift up their shirts just because they see the police, they know that they're about to come and mess with them, [police harassment] is not proper. That's inappropriate.
Chicago has a $1.2 billion dollar budget gap because of the COVID-19 pandemic. How should the city raise money to close the gap?
First of all, we have to acknowledge that there was a gap before. When we say it in relation to COVID-19, I guess we would have to say, what do we do, period?
Everything can't be politically motivated. Everything can't be motivated by who's going to get a couple extra bucks in their pocket and things like that. We have to have something in plan to move forward, to maintain. It's not impressive for the city to come up with a community program, and then it fizzles out in two years and there's nothing left.
In what ways would you like to see the city to share its budget information with your community?
When you start talking about numbers, you can tell me how much money you got and you can tell me where you're going to spend that, it doesn't really matter. It's what we do with it.
This is about production. Can we get some food in the neighborhood? Isn't that like a basic necessity for human beings? Can we get proper policing, not just when there's shootings and things like that? Sharing budgetary ideas doesn't mean anything if I'm not participating in it.
Debra Gordon, 65, East Garfield Park
Debra Gordon (Photo: Grace Del Vecchio/City Bureau)
What city investments would you like to see your community?
I think we need to do something with streets and traffic. I'm currently working with our alderman and CAPS because we have a speeding problem up and down Washington Boulevard.
If you want to have a stable community—because I've lived over here for over 35 years—you gotta make it where people feel comfortable and safe. That starts at the little stuff like cleaning up city-owned lots and blocking them off so people can't dump on them.
I believe that we should have police in our community because I think they serve as a deterrent, but also don't close down all of the mental health facilities. When you have individuals who either are former addicts or they have other mental things, we should have more than one or two locations in the city that they can go to.
Chicago has a $1.2 billion dollar budget gap because of the COVID-19 pandemic. How should the city raise money to close the gap?
I think they should do 10% budget cuts across the board. They should have all municipal employees do three to four furlough days and probably try to borrow the rest.
I don't think that they should go up on property taxes anymore because that seems to be the go-to answer for everything. I know that the [union] contract is coming up with the police. They need to make sure they negotiate a contract that doesn't put more burden on the taxpayers for pensions and salaries.
We need to focus more on having strong community schools. I do definitely think the mayor should start with budget cuts and furloughs, and I think every employee should take a furlough.
Do you feel like Chicago residents should have more say in the city budget? How would you want to give your input?
Virtual town halls need to be publicized on TV, as well as on the city of Chicago website, so that people who have the ability to log in can do that. I also think that the mayor should send out a white paper of her major budget proposals. What's that going to take? You can do that in the mail, just like they send out all this election crap. They can do that for the budget.
If you could create a new department or city service to best solve an issue in your community, what would that be and what would it look like?
I would not create a new department. We have too much bureaucracy right now. I would take the people who are there and actually have them do their jobs better. I think there's a lot of government inefficiencies.
Shenell Ollie, 44, East Garfield Park
Shenell Ollie (Photo: Grace Del Vecchio/City Bureau)
What city investments in your community would you like to see?
I feel safe where I live now because I know the people in that area, but the way the world is now I don't know if it's anything that can actually be done.
Chicago has a $1.2 billion dollar budget gap because of the COVID-19 pandemic. How should the city raise money to close the gap?
I wouldn't want to see less going to any investments that's made to mental health, education, or anything that helps with jobs. I wouldn't want to see that decrease, and maybe anything that helps with housing. This plays a big part in what causes neighborhoods and communities to be unsafe.
Do you feel like Chicago residents should have more say in the city budget? How would you want to give your input?
The city should go through community meetings with aldermen and precinct captains.
If you could create a new department or city service to best solve an issue in your community, what would that be and what would it look like?
It would probably be a jobs program or a youth program that targets teens, preteens to get them ready to look for jobs, even as a young adult.
For more stories on the 2021 budget, visit citybureau.org/budget.
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