Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
The Illinois Constitution (and the First Amendment to the US Constitution) forbids any government money going to religious organizations. That's what made Blagojevich's day-of-fire promise to rebuild Pilgrim Baptist laughable. Now if the church has set up a separate not-for-profit development corporation to develop badly needed new strip malls to serve the people of Hamilton Park, well that's different. But supposedly someone will be looking to make sure no money crosses over to the church itself.
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Bingo.
Most of these organizations have their heart in the right place, I'm just worried about a few bad apples. Especially in Chicago, that's always a risk when government decides to hand out a big pot of money to private actors...
Also more than a little concerned about letting some of these organizations impose their version of urban planning on the community... street closures, community gardens or parking lots right next to L stops, the outright demolition of the 63rd St L... the track record is not great.