I want to preface this by saying that my comments do not necessarily represent my views as an elected official.
Regardless of my position, I am a veteran, a citizen, a taxpayer, and a resident of Ward 2. The Quincy City Council recently passed an ordinance establishing the TIF South District. Whether I agree with the outcome or not, as a citizen, I am comfortable with the amendments added to the ordinance that at least alleviate the perception that government officials may gain from the creation of a TIF district. I sincerely hope that this district will be a success for the entire city.
but …
Just as in ancient Roman mythology, Nero played his violin while Rome burned, so too did the same thing happen in our town. The motivation for creating the South Side TIF District was to encourage development in areas of the city that were suffering from severe urban blight. So my question is, what area of our beautiful city meets this criteria better than Northwest Quincy? If the real reason for creating the TIF is to help struggling areas, why is my community being overlooked?
One can speculate all they want about why our part of the city has received less than its fair share of resources and infrastructure. I have asked many times why TIF has not yet been considered for our part of the city. The 2nd Ward has historically had pre-horseback water and sewer systems and roads that are like East St. Louis and Gaza combined. This would certainly be a good place to start for revitalization.
I didn't really understand why this was happening. Then I stumbled across a study in the Washington Law Review that described something called the Team 4 Plan for North St. Louis (Rethinking the “Team 4 Plan” with Community Partnership and Private Capital in Mind – Washington University Law Review (wustllawreview.org)). In simple terms, it divided parts of the city into three categories: Preservation, Redevelopment, and Blight.
I'm not saying that this administration is knowingly copying a template designed to disenfranchise entire communities, but I'd love to be proven wrong. If you own a home and have invested in remodeling your living room, dining room, and bathrooms, would you let your kitchen rot and fester? That's the situation in northwest Quincy.
But we are human beings: we work, we own, we rent, we pay taxes, and most importantly, we vote… and then winter comes.
Mark C. Philpott
Chairman of the Quincy Park Neighborhood Board
Quincy, Illinois
