Chicago Program That Set Aside Billions for Development Left Poor Areas Behind, Study Says

Nell Salzman at the The New York Times published a story about Chicago's very expansive use of tax increment financing. It extensively quotse an underlying report by the UIC Great Cities Institute at University of Illinois at Chicago. I'm quoted as being critical of the report's methodology -- I think TIF accounted for more than 1-2% of the increase in property values -- but overall the story and the report are directionally correct. Like so many other cities, #Chicago has focused its #TIF on #Downtown and allowed the thing to go on too long.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/us/tif-chicago-study-tax-program-downtown.html