UPDATE: Action Now’s Rebuild Chicago plan no longer involves the Infrastructure Trust. For a summary of the new plan, click here.
UPDATE: Action Now’s response to the Mayor’s plan to demolish buildings has started gaining traction in the media. Read the coverage below:
Lawndale News, “Action Now Responds to Emanuel’s Plan to Demolish Vacant Buildings”
CMW Newstips, “Action Now: Don’t demolish – rebuild”
Progress Illinois, “Neighborhoods May Not Be Ultimate Winners In Plan To Demolish High-Crime Properties”
Press Contact: Aileen Kelleher (312) 351-0395
For immediate release
Action Now Responds To Mayor Emanuel’s Plan To Demolish Vacant Buildings
We must rebuild Chicago’s communities, not destroy them.
Mayor Emanuel announced his new initiative to demolish vacant buildings as a way to curb gang activity. The Mayor stated, “With these actions we are sending a clear message to gang members: you will find no shelter in the City of Chicago,” but Action Now President Michelle Young sees another message behind his rhetoric, “He’s really saying that working families will no longer find shelter in the City of Chicago.”
She continues, “All over the city there are blocks full of vacant homes. Our neighborhoods have become ghost towns. The Mayor is going in the wrong direction. The solution to the vacant property problem is not creating more destruction by demolishing buildings. We must rebuild our communities by transforming vacant buildings into homes for families once again.”
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To read the Mayor’s press release, click here.
