The Digital Demonstration Communities are Mayor Daley's Turf

At 9:55 Tuesday morning, Mayor Daley's speech at the Resurrection
Project building in Pilsen was scheduled to begin. He announced his
ambitious initiative to eliminate the "digital divide" between poor
ethnic communities and the digital technology that is the future of the
new American economy.

LISC/Chicago - Daley speaks in Pilsen Tuesday morning

The Mayor said,

“The study tells us that the magnitude of the digital divide separating low-income Chicago neighborhoods is comparable to the rural-urban divide in broadband use... “If we want to improve the quality of life for everyone, we must work to make sure that every resident and business has access to 21st century technology in their own neighborhoods and homes,”

With that clear, overarching objective in mind, Mayor Daley is starting with four specially selected Chicago neighborhoods in the struggling South and West Sides. They will become his "Digital Excellence Demonstration Communities" --

-- The charming Hispanic enclave of Pilsen is among them.

Mayor Daley has gotten his hands on some federal funding for his initiative. A LOT of federal funding. The figure begins with a "B." Thanks most directly to President Barack Obama and Da Mayor's old pal Arnie Duncan, who will be directing a total of $90.9 billion of the stimulus money to education programs across the USA.

The Digital Excellence Initiative is Daley's show, so come what may, the buck stops at the 5th floor.

But in fact, Da Mayor is actually a very small part of the day-to-day operations of the program, which is planned and executed locally by local grass roots organizations that serve as "central command" for each of the four legs of the broader enterprise:

The Resurrection Project in Pilsen

Team Englewood

The Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corp.

And the Greater Southwest Development Corporation in Chicago Lawn, where beautiful Marquette Park is located, the traditional home for Chicago's Lithuanian community--

Marquette Park

Each community organization is socially, culturally and historically tied to the neighborhood.

The Resurrection Project, for example, was founded in 1990 by a coalition of local churches to focus on housing issues. And the Greater Southwest Development Corporation expresses the hopes and dreams of their particular community:

Because we love Chicago Lawn and want to stay here, we envision a community that in five years would be voted one of the top 10 most desirable neighborhoods in the county. Chicago Lawn will have stable homeownership and no abandoned buildings, high quality health care accessible to all residents, great parks with excellent facilities and programs, outstanding schools and a wide assortment of cultural, sports and educational after-school activities for children and youth.

All four community organizations are as unique and distinct as the neighborhoods they hail from. But a closer look revels that they aren't exactly discreet, with organizational ties to each other long before Mayor Daley ever got involved.

They are lead agencies in a coalition with 10 others, the New Communities Program, representing 16 Chicago neighborhoods in a coordinated effort to...

...support comprehensive community development... rejuvenate challenged communities, bolster those in danger of losing ground and preserve the diversity of areas in the path of gentrification.

The New Communities Program is the nation's largest demonstration of comprehensive community development, they say. But it was created and is managed by another, larger organization, LISC/Chicago:

LISC/Chicago is to organize capital and other resources to support initiatives that will stimulate the comprehensive development of healthy, stable neighborhoods and foster their connection to the socioeconomic mainstream of the metropolitan region.

Here's how that works out visually:

Jeez, Daley! That's a level of administration or two more than I was expecting!

pic from How to Grow Astroturf

LISC/Chicago is, as you might expect, just the local wing of the LISC (Local Initiative Support Corporation). It's a New York outfit. I checked:

LISC is a national organization with a community focus. Our program staff are based in every city and many of the rural areas where LISC-supported community development takes shape. In collaboration with local community development groups, LISC staff help identify priorities and challenges, delivering the most appropriate support to meet local needs.

And LISC was founded in 1975 by the Ford Foundation, a philanthropic juggernaut worth $13.7 billion USD. Their name might sound familiar to you if you watch a lot of WTTW. They basically invented PBS and provided generous funds to the Children’s Television Workshop to help create and launch Sesame Street .

The Ford Foundation is no stranger to "Recovery and Reinvestment," either. Many of their early members, and one of their first presidents, had a role in the United States Government's European Recovery Pan, also known as the Marshall Plan, rebuilding the infrastructure and economies of Europe in the destructive wake of World War II.