I'm going to assume that we're going to have some discussion when we get to the property tax - the revenue side of this coming from the Finance Committee - so I won't go into that right now.  But I do want to say that we have a situation where our regulatory agencies have a very punitive point of view.  And we fail, in many instances, to balance that with the effects it has on people's lives and their day-to-day ability to survive, do business and live in their communities.

One area where this is true in my view is parking. It's something that I've raised consistently.  Part of the problem with the way that we develop our parking strategies is similar to problems we have developing our Streets and Sanitation strategy.  We develop the strategy from the point of view of one part of the city which tends to be less dense.  Then we attempt to apply that strategy to all parts of the city including those that are extremely dense.  We end up with many limitations and many problems for the people who live there.

With parking, that's a clear example.  And while we are cracking down on parking tickets that are owed by people who work for the city - as we should because we should have one set of rules - I would like to suggest that we need to look more generally at the entire system because currently people feel it's incredibly unfair - at least in the area of the city where I live.

But I have to say one thing - we have cracked down on the city workers and inadvertently created what I think we should create for the whole city - a payment plan.  We allow people to make arrangements to have the money withdrawn from their checks on a timetable basis.  I'm raising this because I think we should do it citywide.  We should have a payment plan.  I think we should make it possible for people to avoid being criminalized especially by parking tickets, especially when they live in areas of the city where it's virtually impossible not to get them.

I just want to make mention of one other thing.  We seem to have developed a disdain for people who have fewer resources and greater hardships.  Somehow it's okay to be physically disabled and deserving of our support if you are capable of becoming independent.  But if you are too physically ill, you are no longer as worthy.  It's now okay for your access to emergency meals and home assistance to be cut or curtailed.  In any case, you will pay with your dignity if you want a trickling of help from the City in your day-to-day struggle for basic survival.  I have to stress that to me this is unacceptable.  It represents a stain on our budget, in our policies and in our way of thinking.  Including the entire residency, people who live throughout the entire City of Chicago, as part of what happens in the city is very important.