LeAlan Jones: Capital Development Projects Are Trojan Horses in Urban Chicago

How did hot fish with hot sauce economics become so valuable when picking the pockets of African American property taxpayers in Chicago?

Walgreens is a Chicago based company that has been an anchor for all communities in the city for over three generations. It's a valuable economic indicator as well for the health in neighborhoods they are located in.

Now, these institutions are being closed in African American communities across Chicago. The locations of the closing stores are economic case studies for community disinvestment. It also exposes a self-imposed economic and political shackling of market capacity and diversity, from the internal leadership class of urbanized African-Americans.

What should the viability forecast be in these communities?

The Obama Presidential Center community engagement suggested it would be an economic boom to the community it would be located in. The debate also surrounded how much community investment would the project generate for the local community. This was very contentious because the Obama Foundation didn't want to be held under a Community Benefits Agreement–and it wasn't.

The $482 million price tag of the Center was supposed to be the “rising tide that lifted all ships.” This phrase was often spoken by the 44th President himself during his 2008 run and when he was in office. In hindsight, the phrase represented absolutely nothing when the tide was elevated to its highest point.

Moreover, it provides a political and economic pattern of behavior that hasn't needed to be adjusted to trick African Americans in communities where these capital development projects strategically misappropriate public resources.

The closings of Walgreens on 71st and 79th and Jeffery, in South Shore are in the footprint of the economic zone of impact of the Obama Center; that is scheduled to open in the spring of 2026.

Chicago Tribune/ E. Jason Wambsgans photo of the Obama Library

The list of failed capital development projects which ultimately picks the pockets of Chicago property taxpayers is extensive. The marketing and community outreach are all familiar though.

It all starts with introducing the opportunity of a once in a lifetime capital development project, to the institutions within the targeted community. Then pay for the donuts and coffee. Discern who desires more than Dunkin Donuts. If the community is more sophisticated. Deploy the pans of hot fried catfish and perch.

Once they've been well fed. The next phase for the community outreach agent requires race and white progress be infused. Essentially, if white folks have it in their neighborhood so should you.

Bally’s Facebook Page/ Mayor Brandon Johnson cuts the ribbon for the opening of Bally’s temporary location

Once the ribbon is cut at the groundbreaking. The big money flows and the community outreach has leveraged property tax-dollars for hundreds of millions in capital development projects, for less than $1500 in actual benefit to the community. This averages out to 23 pans of hot fish per capital development project.

The hot fish and frosted donuts are the true economic miracle when you critically analyze the exchange.

Evanston Now / “Ribbon Cutting” at a Walgreen;s “net zero” energy use store

“Inner City Entertainment Theaters” were located in Chatham, West Englewood and Lawndale. The Big Box Retailers: Walmart and Target were opened and closed in Chatham and Bronzeville. Whole Foods in Englewood, The Dan Ryan Expansion. None of these projects injected the economic dynamics that were advertised when they were presented in the community outreach phase of their development.

The legalization of cannabis in Illinois further demonstrated a profound incompetence of the internal leadership class of urbanized African-Americans, in its failures to maximize from public policy they're tasked with legislating to generate economic growth for their constituents.

Facebook / State Rep. Kelly Cassidy and her cannabis lobbyist wife Candace Gingrich.

Chicago aldermen were able to get more dog parks than they were licenses to distribute cannabis for African American distributors. In communities where the illegal cannabis trade sustained working class families for at least two generations.

How are African-Americans in Chicago communities where all the major commercial investments have failed. Especially those associated with Tax Incremental Financing maintaining interest?

Loop Capital Management community outreach plan is honing the same techniques it used for the successful development of the $100 million dollar Regal Mile Studio Production facility in South Shore, which is not far from the ICE Theatre that is closed in Chatham, not far from the repurposed Walmart SuperCenter that is close. The soon to be closed Walgreens on 79th and Jeffery is in the immediate economic footprint of Regal Mile Studio Productions.

Loop Capital Management has now been tasked with garnering $250 million of equity for the next big development project, by selling shares in the Ballys Casino River North Development.

How does Mayor Johnson, a Chicago Teachers Union Beneficiary navigate the fiduciary responsibility of taxpayers resources?

Ballys is concurrently lobbying to reduce its property tax exposure to insure it has a substantial profit for their equity owners. The Chicago Teachers Union is flirting with another strike because they're seeking a significant raise for their Union Members. The casino operator and the teachers suckle their mouths at the Fat Cow whose tit is drying.

The Loop Capital Management community outreach to market shares in a casino development project, in a city floating on insurmountable public employee pension debt would be as foolish as taking financial advice from Bernie Madoff and Charles Ponzi with the piggy bank money of unborn children in Chicago.

If the hot fish economics of urban Chicago lacks the economic growth to sustain Walgreens or movie theaters, in what used to be a thriving middle and working class neighborhood like South Shore. How does marketing an equity stake in a Ballys Casino Development Project enhance the broader organic economic viability of the community?

The Ballys Casino Development in River North is now the next Trojan horse capital development project in Chicago being repackaged as a private investment opportunity to the gullible property taxpayer.

Yelp / J and J Fish Catfish with Mild Sauce

This sophisticated investment relies on the incompetence of the internal leadership class of urbanized African Americans, to lead their constituents' fingertips to the pans of hot greasy fish. With a new value proposition of expecting a dividend that is likely to never come.