This article was published as part of a Telemundo Chicago-NBC Chicago collaboration with DePaul University to amplify the work of Chicago student journalists.
Leonardo Quintero, a district councilor for the city of Chicago, has lived in Pilsen all his life. He is also a community activist against Tax Increment Financing (TIF), considering himself a “TIF Abolitionist.”
Signs saying, “Say No to TIF” and “Abolish TIF” hang on the windows outside Quintero’s home.
TIF is a financing tool used by the city to fund public and private investments in what supporters call “blighted” communities. An expansion in the TIF district is being proposed to the entirety of the Pilsen neighborhood, including residential and business areas.
The current 907-acre TIF district in Pilsen only functions in the industrial corridor, the area in Chicago designated for industrial and manufacturing use. The Department of Planning & Development (DPD) and area Ald. Byron Sigcho López (25th Ward) proposed the expansion.
While Sigcho-Lopez is a frequent TIF opponent in other neighborhoods, he supports TIF expansions in Pilsen.
But it doesn't come without criticism.
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There’s overall opposition to the expansion by Pilsen activists like Quintero and grassroots social justice organizations like the Pilsen Alliance and Residents against the TIF Expansion. Together they are pushing back on city officials in favor of expanding, like Mayor Brandon Johnson and Sigcho-López.
“People who have [TIF] money, know how to obtain and access this money. The people who are paying for it, the señora across the street, end up having to subsidize and pay for these corporate welfare and companies, who in response, don’t hire within the neighborhood, or don’t give back in any type of way,” Quintero said.
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TIF opposers say the expansion could contribute to further gentrification and increased property taxes, thus forcing out long-standing Latino residents in Pilsen.
“[Pilsen residents] basically feel like Pilsen is 90% gentrified right now. If the TIF expansion happens, it’s basically the nail in the coffin to Pilsen,” said Andres Guzmán, a Mexican-American activist and Pilsen resident involved with the Pilsen Alliance.
Quintero said a newly constructed condo in front of his house was originally owned by a local family, who had to sell it two years ago.
“We used to have block parties that were filled to the brim,” Quintero said.
He saw the biggest shift in demographics in Pilsen around 2018. But Quintero and his community have been fighting against it since around 2007. He said the biggest housing difference can be seen from Halsted Street to Western Avenue, with "sporadic condos" filling the streets.
Eduardo "Eddie" Chavez is a lifelong resident of Pilsen, living in a 100-year-old house that’s been in his family for generations on Cullerton Street. He described Pilsen as a "home for immigrants," but noted a population of developers is changing that dynamic.
Once a property is bought by developers, the building is never going to be owned by a family, Chavez said.
This TIF expansion could affect both homeowners and small business owners, Guzmán said.
“Nearby areas around the TIF district will have to raise their property taxes to compensate for the loss of funding in public services,” said Guzmán.
Supporters of the expansion say TIF funding is used to help build and repair infrastructure, clean up pollution and fund community projects, according to the City of Chicago’s website.
Dannielle Jenkins is a Pilsen resident and a personal assistant for the Human Services Department of Rehabilitation at the Resurrection Project. They are a non-profit organization that provides affordable housing and services for immigrants – both are supporters of TIF and its expansion.
The TIF expansion could make a “huge difference” if approved, because Pilsen residents would have the opportunity to get housing as well as provide tax assistance for homeowners, according to Jenkins.
Jenkins lives with her four children and two grandchildren in Pilsen. Her children attend Joseph Jungman STEM Magnet school, which Jenkins describes as old and in need of repair, having opened its doors in 1902.
“They have a ceiling in one of the bathrooms that is falling in, and they just don’t have the funds to fix these things,” Jenkins said. “They want to provide certain amenities for the students, and different activities, but with no funding, they can’t do it.”
TIF funding from Pilsen’s industrial district repaired the roof of Manuel Perez Elementary School and built a plaza commemorating Mexican figures in Benito Juarez High School in 2010.
Critics of TIF funding say that Pilsen schools like Ruiz Academy and Benito Juarez High School may benefit from repairs and renovations, but TIF does not cover teachers’ and janitors’ salaries.
Quintero said that “it doesn’t make sense” to have the infrastructure of the building renovated unless you can’t provide quality staff for the school community.
“TIF doesn’t go into those things,” he said.
The Chicago Teachers Union has called on Johnson’s administration to end all TIFs in the city, according to their website.
“They’re basically taking chunks of revenue from these public services and then giving them crumbs every now and then, whenever they feel like it,” Guzmán said.
He believes that TIFs are defunding schools and money shouldn’t be taken out in the first place.
Sigcho-Lopéz conducted his own town halls to present the TIF expansion for residents at Dvorak Park in September 2024.
The alderman received pushback from community members stating their disapproval of the expansion.
Sigcho-Lopéz also created a TIF expansion digital ballot in September, for residents to vote on the amendment. Quintero and other Pilsen organizers managed to receive over 1,000 signatures opposing the expansion. They presented this petition on Sept. 13, 2024, to Pilsen’s Committee on Finance, according to Quintero.
Sigcho-Lopéz responded in a statement on Facebook saying most of the signatures were from people outside Pilsen. The results of the digital ballot have not been released to the public, and the link is still open for residents.
“There’s a clear pushback on this, people do not want this,” Quintero said after collecting signatures.
TIF funds are not transparent, Chavez said, adding that renovations made by TIF only benefit a few, and not the mass population.
“These people are thinking of Pilsen as a hot commodity, as an investment, not as a place for them to grow their own family, and that’s what’s missing,” Chavez said.
