Community Development and the Quality of Life

Throughout the topics discussed to this point there has been a great deal of research regarding communities as both a protecting and possibly damaging factor. Community development is the key to easing the problems experienced by so many individuals throughout the Chicagoland area. Problems like unemployment, obesity, and lack of access to education have been traced back in many cases to a lack of the social and community resources in a given neighborhood.

The Leadership Council’s report on the opportunities points out that a neighborhood lacking in these resources will find it quite hard to build these resources - resources that require investment capital, interested parties, and institutional support. Many individuals and companies, however, are hesitant to build in low income areas. This continues the cycle of economic instability as jobs, capital, and resources move out of the city and into the more affluent suburban hubs. These suburban areas offer little to no affordable housing and are often hard to access from the inner city, affectively putting the majority of livable wage job opportunities out of reach of inner city residents

These communities lack the resources taken for granted by most outside these impoverished areas. Without bank branches and other financial institutions used to build and manage wealth, these individuals turn to currency exchanges and predatory loans which cost them a large part of their already insufficient income.

Lower income neighborhoods development is further impeded by the inability to generate tax income. Tax dollars are the primary source of funding for many community resources including police enforcement, sanitation services, and most importantly education. The gap in home values and the resulting gap in real estate tax revenues create a very large gap in local education budgets in the state that ranks 49th in the nation for state funding of public education.

All of these resources are fundamental in creating a healthy, safe, prosperity-promoting neighborhood. These factors create what the LCMOC deemed the opportunity level of a neighborhood. The lower the amount and availability of these resources lower the opportunity level, and the lower the opportunity level the less likely a person is going to be prosperous.