STOP C40

The Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) won a contest for the C40 Reinventing Cities competition in 2018. Initially, there was no indication that the project would lead to any actual development. This project had the full backing and support of former mayor Rahm Emmanuel and while several aldermen assured community activists and organizations like mine that this project was 'nothing to be concerned about', as a resident, I am very concerned at the city of Chicago's ability to drive development that could lead to displacement and replacement of current residents. Almost 90% of residents in the footprint of the proposed site for development on 5th Ave & Kedzie had no idea what the C40-Garfield Green project was. POAH's organization admittedly had not gained any community input for the decision to build on said site and have only recently put out flyers detailing what the structure will look like, not at all asking if any of the residents would like it to be built at all. In fact, there are other sites on the table for the organization to consider that will bring less of a threat of gentrification if built there. The petition is simply asking the alderman of the ward (Alderman J. Ervin, 28th Ward) where the site is being built to put a stop to all development that will lead to displacement and replacement of legacy residents and to allow the opportunity for resident-led development to take place.