Since 1998, the Pilsen Alliance has been dedicated to building a power base of leaders in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen, and has won substantial victories through its various grassroots, community-based efforts. Most recently, Pilsen Alliance led the near unanimous passage of the first ever Pilsen-wide Public Advisory Referendum placed on the March 2004 Primary Election, calling for transparency and community input on development issues, with 94.77% of the vote. In addition, as a lead agency of the Blue Line Transit Taskforce, Pilsen Alliance won a commitment from the Chicago Transit Authority to reinstate weekend services along the Douglas branch of the Blue Line, after an exhaustive, creative and dynamic six-year community organizing campaign with collaborators from Little Village and North Lawndale. These current campaigns on issues of gentrification, development, and public transportation are in stride with Pilsen Alliance?s objectives to organize, educate and advocate on behalf of and with local residents and businesses in the Pilsen community. This in turn creates an empowered base of residents who have a voice and create avenues for leadership in decision making in Pilsen. The Pilsen Alliance continues to work to ensure the existing community is not displaced and the interests of the people currently residing in Pilsen are served.
Pilsen: Historical Context
Established
as an industrial area in the mid-1800's, Pilsen has long been a
thriving working class Chicago community just west of Chicago?s
downtown area, that has served as a port of entry to immigrants from
all over the world. Presently, the Pilsen neighborhood is a
working class Mexican community that boasts a strong base of
businesses, restaurants, churches, and cultural centers. Pilsen
supports a young community; approximately 59 percent of the population
is under the age of 29. The median household income is
$27,763. Some experts calculate the high school dropout rate at a
towering 60 percent. Unemployment holds at about 13 percent on a
regular basis (figures based on the 2000 census). During the last
decade, there has been strong development activity in and around the
Pilsen community. Local leaders and residents have feared the
imminent entrance of upscale development projects and gentrification
pressures that indisputably can result in loss of jobs as local
industries become loft conversions and existing residents and
businesses are displaced by skyrocketing property taxes and successive
increased rents.
Pilsen
has faced a variety of challenges over the past 50 years, from a
land-banking problem at the east end of Pilsen to the threat of
complete displacement of the entire community due to a 1992 World?s
Fair plan. In the past, community residents successfully
organized to handle these threats, and, in the course of improving
Pilsen, have added many community improvements such as schools, a
library, parks, affordable housing initiatives and bilingual education
for their children. Yet, the escalation of the development
pressures have reached an all-time high demonstrated by 80% increases
in property tax assessments and the documented exodus of many
working-class families priced out of Pilsen.
