Eminent Domain

Photo ArchiveGoogle EarthGoogle Maps While the legal battles for International Plaza are slowly grinding forward, the public relations battle is picking up steam. Sheila Ahern of the Daily Herald has a nice summary of what's going on: In the past few months, the plaza’s owners have held two rallies, phoned residents and started a Web site to try to save their shopping center … [Read more...] about The Battle for International Plaza

This is Pesche's Flowers, one of the many businesses in Des Plaines, Illinois, that the city claims is "blighted" so they can abuse their eminent domain power to replace it with something they like better. The city's materials justifying the TIF show some of the worst views of some of the uglier properties, so I thought I'd break with my usual documentary style to show you one … [Read more...] about XMAS in the TIF

Cal Skinner just sent me an email pointing out a PAC called Des Plaines Residents for Responsible Taxation. Its officers are Scott Olson and Barbara VanSlambrouck, co-owners respectively of Geiser-Berner and Chromatech, both of which are threatened by the Five-Corners TIF in Des Plaines. I spoke to another Geiser-Berner co-owner, Robert Janczak, a while back and he told me … [Read more...] about An Anti-TIF PAC in Des Plaines

Photo ArchiveGoogle EarthGoogle Maps In my previous post, I was exploring some of International Plaza's neighbors that are also part of the TIF district and in danger of condemnation. In the photo above, the building in the background is the Arlin-Golf Plaza strip mall. As I walked around to take more pictures, the sign promised a small but thriving mall. I've driven … [Read more...] about Arlin-Golf Plaza and the Residences

Photo ArchiveGoogle EarthGoogle Maps There was a rally for International Plaza a few weeks ago, but I had errands to run that morning, and by the time I got to the Plaza, all the excitement was over. There were just a few stragglers, including a newspaper reporter and Leo Plotkin who owns Unigma Camera. Plotkin told me that he put about $100,000 into remodeling the … [Read more...] about International Plaza and Its Neighbors