Living in Lincoln Park Blog

Last week, I saw these two articles and I figured they probably flew under the radar. I was thrilled to see that, at least in Illinois, there seems to be a local effort to help the local people and businesses.

The MacArthur Foundation is giving $68mm to local organizations to help battle the home foreclosure crisis. “The scale of the foreclosure crisis threatens to disrupt hard-won gains in many of Chicago’s lowest-income neighborhoods,” said MacArthur President Jonathan F. Fanton. “Nowhere is this work more urgent and nowhere is it more important to us than in the city we call home.”

In a separate story, the Illinois Treasurer is planning on making a $1B deposit into the state banks in an attempt to dismantle the credit jam. Under the plan, any state-chartered bank or national bank with an Illinois branch may request as much as $25 million. The major banks from which President Bush proposes the federal government buy $250 billion in shares using the federal rescue fund are not eligible, according to the Crain’s Chicago Business article.

The State of Illinois and the MacArthur Foundation - local groups helping the local economy - a very exciting concept if you ask me. I hope other states and Foundations follow this lead. What are your thoughts?