Schools Update

The Bridgeport Alliance hosted a School Task Force meeting Thursday, June 6, from 6:30 - 7:30 at Benton House. Our goal for this initial meeting was to start building a school and
community network of people who want to get involved in strengthening our schools and our community. We need all of our school communities to come together, learn from one another, and help each other out when needed.

Also, as a community, we should give input into the "Bridgeport-Chinatown" (CPS title of our neighborhood) section of the CPS Draft 10 Year Educational Facilities Master Plan. This, by law, was due May 1, 2013. The final 10 Year Facilities Plan is due October 1, 2013. If you would like to get involved in collecting information, checking data, and responding to this Plan on behalf of our community, please get in touch with the BA at info@bridgeportalliance.org.

Please get in touch, too, if you'd like to get involved in our schools.

Here's a link to the Draft 10 Year Educational Facilities Master Plan:

Things to pay special attention to:

• Pages 78 & 79.... It's officially due October 1, 2013 so there's a list of how CPS will engage communities this summer. You can also find the "Conclusion" here.
• Pages 124 - 129... "Bridgeport-Chinatown" section. If anyone would like to help come up with input on this section OR if you want to check CPS data for accuracy OR if you see a glaring error, please see the email above and get in touch.
• You can also find an individual school's "Educational Facilities Master Plan" on www.cps.edu.

• Click on the "Schools" Tab (on the far left of the CPS homepage)
• Go to "Find a School."
• Type in your school's name and click Find.
• Once on your school's page, scroll all the way down to the very last report under
• "Report Name". Click on "Education Facilities Master Plan."

We recommend you look this over within your school community: at a LSC or PAC meeting, with teachers or with your principal, etc. We know there are some errors for some schools & we should try to get them corrected.

Thanks for your continued commitment to our schools and our community!

Versionfest

Bridgeport Alliance is excited to be part of Version13: An Urban Operating System

Version Festival 13 will present projects by cultural workers, community developers, social entrepreneurs, artists, designers, boutique manufacturers, food interventionists, public space hackers, service mediaticians, urban planners, cultural geographers and adventure capitalists, to share their ideas to develop a collective hack of the current urban operating system.​ ​​

June 14 through June 22, 2013

To learn more visit http://www.versionfest.org/13.html

BA In the News

Read what people are saying about last night's TIF Illuminator Workshop!

Progress Illinois - TIF Program Angers Bridgeport, McKinley Park Residents

DNA Info - TIF Workshop Illuminates Complicated Tax Projects

New Playgorund at McGuane

Great news for our friends at McGuane Park.  Contact Maureen Sullivan for info.

Friends of the Parks and the Chicago Park District have received and reviewed your community’s nomination for McGuane Playground for the Chicago Plays! Playground Renovation Program.  We are pleased to announce that McGuane Playground has been selected as the one of the first playgrounds to be built in the first year of the Chicago Plays! program.

The Chicago Plays! Program has created much excitement and has gotten Chicagoans thinking about community and its importance to their parks.  There were numerous outstanding nominations from community organizations across the city of Chicago so the decision making process was a difficult one.  The commitment and enthusiasm that your community has displayed in your application was evident and both the Chicago Park District and Friends of the Parks are excited to work with your community to make this new playground a reality.

Over the next few months we will work with you regarding the anticipated construction date and playground designs. Your community will have the opportunity to select playground equipment based on the provided designs.

Congratulations on your new playground!

Let's Get Registered!

We all know that the most important thing that we can do to affect positive change is vote.  No, really, it's true.

In order to vote, of course, one must be registered.  So ask yourself:

• Am I registered to vote?
• Am I registered to vote at my current address?
• Are all of my friends/colleagues/relatives/clients/neighbors/etc.  registered to vote?
• Do I have a voter registration booth for my next event?

If you have answered "no" to any of these questions, please contact info@bridgeportalliance.org.  We have deputy registrars in our midst who would love to get you and everyone you know registered.  

In the immortal words of Frank Zappa, "Don' t Forget To Register To Vote."

TIF Illuminator Workshop for 11th & 12th Wards

Let's Talk TIFS

McKinley Park Civic Association and the Bridgeport Alliance presents

LETS TALK TIFs IN THE 11th & 12the WARD

• What is a Tax Increment Finance District?
• How many of them are there in our community?
• How do they impact us?
• Who gets money from a TIF and why?

McKinley Park Library (1915 W 35th Street) The presenter will be Tom Tresser, co-founder of the CivicLab, a space for civic innovation and lead organizer for the TIF Illumination Project (TIP). TIP is investigating and exposing what TIFs are doing to us on a ward-by-ward basis.



Learn More

Help Build Strong Schools in Our Community

Community Meeting

June 6, 2013, 6:30 p.m.

Benton House, 3052 South Gratten

Three of our local schools were on the CPS closing list. Community support saved them. Now we need to make them the best in Chicago. Join us on June 6 and help build strong schools in our community.

This will be a working meeting. Please bring your lists of ideas, resources, needs and problems. We hope that you will attend and we encourage you to discuss this effort with your friends and neighbors.

Sponsored by The Bridgeport Alliance School Task Force