Lightfoot planning anti-poverty summit to bring ‘transformational change’ to neglected neighborhoods

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she plans to convene an anti-poverty summit to marshal resources from the city, business community and philanthropic groups to rescue Chicagoans “trapped in the throes of generational poverty.”

Lightfoot campaigned on a promise to deliver “transformational change” to long-neglected South and West side neighborhoods.

That’s why she’s targeting 10 inner-city neighborhoods for an unprecedented $250 million city investment and $500 million more from other government agencies.

That’s also why the mayor persuaded the City Council last fall to cut Chicago scofflaws some slack by reducing fines, expanding payment plans and stopping driver’s license suspensions for nonmoving violations.

On Monday, the mayor used the Martin Luther King Jr. scholarship breakfast to take another major step. She announced plans to convene an anti-poverty summit she likened to a call to arms.

“We, as a city, will turn in a different direction and make sure that we leave no one behind because of their race, their gender or ZIP code. That is what we must do to make real the legacy of Dr. King,” the mayor told the audience at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

“We will have more to say about this in the coming days, but understand that this will be a primary focus of my time in office.”

Lightfoot put some meat on the bone after joining members of the Mayor’s Youth Commission at the Greater Chicago Food Depository to pack bags of potatoes and macaroni for families in need.

She said people across the city are “trapped in the throes of generational poverty” and that her laser-like focus on bringing “economic equity and resources” to impoverished neighborhoods “will all be for naught” if those “most in need” aren’t lifted up.

“We have neighborhoods across the city where the consistent unemployment rate is 25 percent or higher. We have neighborhoods across the city where significant portions of the population rely upon federal assistance of some sort for their daily bread. Where jobs are not plentiful. Where good schools are an illusion,” the mayor said.

“We believe that it’s important for us to take on this challenge of poverty. We’re not gonna solve it in a day. We’re not gonna solve it in a year. But we’ve got to start laying the foundation for breaking that grip so that people can really realize this God-given potential.”

Lightfoot said she doesn’t want to “roll out everything today.” But, she promised to take “very specific, concrete steps” and announce some of them in the run-up to the poverty summit.

“The point is not just to talk about the challenge, but to actually engage in very specific, concrete steps that we, as a city, will be taking. But also calling upon the philanthropic and business community to join us in those efforts,” she said.

The $250 million earmarked for Lightfoot’s “Invest South/West” program is “re-prioritized money already in the pipeline” from tax increment financing; the moribund $100 million Catalyst Fund; the Small Business Improvement Fund; and the share-the-wealth Neighborhood Opportunity Fund generated by developers paying a fee for permission to build bigger and taller buildings downtown.

Together with $500 million in CTA, Metra and Park District improvements already in the pipeline — and a $10 million sponsorship from BMO Harris Bank — the goal is to turn abandoned commercial corridors into thriving inner-city hubs with the amenities needed to attract residents, not lose them.

“While our Central Business District has been thriving, families on our South and West sides have been leaving. … These are families who aren’t leaving because they want to, but because they feel like they have to. If anyone wanted an indication of a flawed economic plan, that is it,” the mayor said on the day she announced the plan in Austin.

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley built dozens of neighborhood libraries, police and fire stations and used those projects as catalysts for neighborhood development.

Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel did the same with the planned police academy in West Garfield Park and the new fleet maintenance facility in Englewood and by moving the administrative headquarters for City Colleges of Chicago. He also created the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund.

Lightfoot said what her predecessors did were “one-off projects.” What’s needed is a “comprehensive plan that really brings communities together and builds upon the infrastructure that’s already there,” she said.

Contributing: Stefano Esposito