.. Development Council Choosing McKinley Park Migrant Housing Sites By Justin Kerr
(support local reporting)
Published October 17, 2023
The McKinley Park Development Council has chosen and recommended McKinley Park migrant housing sites for consideration by ward and municipal officials, McKinley Park Development Council Board Member John Kugler said.
The decision to recommend migrant shelter locations in McKinley Park, as well as the site selection process, was conducted secretively and internally, Kugler said, without informing fellow board members or engaging the public.
“It’s like a corrupt, crony backroom deal, like the old days of Chicago machine politics,” Kugler said.
Kugler cited internal council board communications showing that council officers had already reached out to municipal officials offering specific migrant sites in the McKinley Park and Bridgeport neighborhoods.
This outreach was conducted without first deciding as a council whether or not to make this outreach, Kugler said.
Council President Kate Eakin
“All we’re doing is pointing out alternative spaces to the ward offices so they can negotiate, and that has already been done,” McKinley Park Development Council President Kate Eakin wrote in a message thread on the Discord service shown to the McKinley Park News.
“We’re just making intros/providing information,” she wrote.
Neither Eakin nor the McKinley Park Development Council had replied to multiple attempts at outreach as of the time of publication of this article.
Migrant Site Locations
Kugler said council communications included discussion, consideration and prospective recommendation of the following locations as migrant housing sites from the time already-completed outreach was first disclosed in internal board communications on the night of Thursday, October 12, 2023:
– The former El Rey Ballroom at 3504 S. Western Ave.
– A new, but empty warehouse on West Exchange Avenue, between South Morgan Street and South Racine Avenue in the Stockyards neighborhood
-A former medical center, now empty, at 3316 S. Ashland Ave.
-A former laundromat and dry cleaner, now empty, at 2013 W. 35th St
-Empty warehouses of the Central Manufacturing District along West Pershing Road
Kugler said he did not know whether all board members were aware of the McKinley Park migrant sites discussion, of any process or effort for internal and pubic outreach and assessment, or of a finalized list of properties under consideration.
“There’s no list. There’s no discussion. There’s no transparency. There’s no participation,” Kugler said.
Third-Party Consultant
“I figured we were collecting information to have a meeting with the residents,” Kugler said. “When I asked that question — ‘What do the residents say?’ — [Eakin’s] response to me was there’s no need to check with the residents.”
Third-party consultant and McKinley Park resident Eladio Montenegro was engaged with recommending migrant sites in board communications, although Montenegro was not a board member, Kugler said.
The development council has engaged Montenegro as a paid consultant from its Our Great Rivers grant funding, Kugler said. Montenegro had not replied to attempts at outreach as of the time of publication of this article.
12th Ward Call
Kugler said primary communication about McKinley Park neighborhood migrant sites included a direct and immediate phone call from 12th Ward Alderwoman Julia Ramirez to Eakin following the City of Chicago’s announcement of a lot at West 38th Street and South California Avenue as the prospective site of a migrant tent encampment.
In a statement released on social media, Ramirez said that the 38th and California site “is currently being evaluated by city departments. An upcoming meeting will be held to discuss the plan.”
Neither Ramirez nor the 12th Ward office had responded to attempts at outreach as of the time of publication of this article.
A Done Deal
“I’m trying to help in good will and good intent, and then I see that, oh, we’re already making decisions, and we’re giving information to people and already making deals,” Kugler said.
“We’re not dealing with the public,” he said. “It’s already a done deal.”
At her inauguration as 12th Ward alderwoman on May 15, 2023, Ramirez spotlighted the McKinley Park Development Council’s role in making neighborhood development decisions.
Development council board members were directly engaged in the Ramirez campaign, including campaign volunteer and board member Liz Gres, and Anthony Wojtal, who served as a petitioner for Ramirez and is the treasurer of the development council.
As previously reported here in the McKinley Park News, then-12th Ward Alderwoman Anabel Abarca charged that the McKinley Park Development Council was colluding with the Ramirez campaign for the election.
No Membership
Formed in 2016, the McKinley Park Development Council is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization with a mission to “collectively foster economic, cultural and social development through the connection of residents, institutions and enterprises for the benefit of the McKinley Park neighborhood of Chicago.”
The development council has no membership program, and there is no way for residents or community stakeholders to join or directly engage in direction or oversight of council activities, Kugler said.
No Elections For Years
The council’s board consists of volunteers, with the last board election taking place in December 2020 via an anonymous Internet poll conducted without oversight or qualified process. Since that time, Kugler said, members have been brought onto the development council board by internal votes that forego public engagement.
“I don’t know how all these guys got on the council,” Kugler said.
No Elections Soon
Kugler said to expect no development council elections soon: Anna Lloyd, an organizational consultant contracted to engage with the development council, recommended delaying elections while the board overhauls the organization, Kugler said.
“She said, yeah, you can just push [an election] off another year,” Kugler said.
“We’re in a rebranding phase,” he said. “I don’t know why.”
Mission and Name Change
Kugler said that the board is currently working on changing the mission of the McKinley Park Development Council, and even considered a name change, but backed away from this.
“It would maybe throw up a red flag why we’re changing the name,” Kugler said.
Lloyd had not responded to attempts at outreach as of the time of publication of this article.
No Public Feedback
Development decisions are made without quantified public engagement, Kugler said, such as when the McKinley Park Development Council chose the IBT Group over two other developers to redevelop the historic Quartermaster Depot properties in the Central Manufacturing District along West Pershing Road.
The decision to pick IBT Group came exclusively through an internal vote of the council’s board of directors, Kugler said, and there was no process for assessing and tallying public feedback. “There never is,” Kugler said.
Anti-Business Council
“We’re working on multi-million dollar ideas and projects and possibly altering our neighborhood, and … there is no participation from the neighborhood,” he said.
“In the hindsight, maybe we should have went with the movie [studio], since it’s jobs-related,” Kugler said.
“My experience on the council is that it is an anti-business council,” he said. “They don’t support businesses at all that come into the neighborhood.”
Lack of Transparency
“That’s not what I signed up for on this thing,” Kugler said. “I thought this was representing our neighbors. It’s just a bunch of people getting information and seeing what’s best for them.”
Kugler said he came forward with information about the migrant sites decisions and council operations due to concerns about the council’s lack of transparency with the neighborhood.
“I’m really protective of this community because it is a great community for families,” he said.
Raise Our Children
Kugler, himself a childhood immigrant, has been a resident of the McKinley Park neighborhood since 1998, he said, raising four children at the same address with his wife, a Japanese immigrant. He has served on the board of the McKinley Park Development Council since the December 2020 election.
“This is a very stable, low-rent, low-property-value neighborhood that’s very reasonable for generational families to stay here and raise our children,” Kugler said.
Supposed To Be Independent
“The council has become a gentrification vehicle to bring outsiders in and to destabilize the neighborhood,” Kugler said.
“We’re supposed to be independent,” Kugler said. “We’re not supposed to work for the government.”
Council Meeting Wed., Oct. 18
The next McKinley Park Development Council Meeting is at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, at the McKinley Park branch of the Chicago Public Library, 1915 W. 35th St., Chicago.
Ed. Note: McKinley Park News Publisher Justin Kerr is a founder and former board member and officer of the McKinley Park Development Council, volunteering in this role between 2016 and 2020.
Ed. Note: Anthony Wojtal was originally incorrectly identified as a media liaison for the Ramirez campaign in this article. This has been updated to reflect Wojtal’s role as a Ramirez campaign petitioner.
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