Independent Chicago Venues Band To Delay Taxpayer-Funded Lincoln Yards

Via Sterling Bay – Lincoln Yards Development Rendering

A group of Chicago independent venues announced they’ve formed the Chicago Independent Venue League to promote local arts and culture as well as delay the $6 billion Lincoln Yards development that is proposed to include a number of Live Nation owned venues.

The group, headed by owners of venues including  Schuba’s, Metro/Smart Bar, The Empty Bottle, The Hideout, Thalia Hall, Martyr’s and others, staged a press conference and protest prior to a Nov. 29 Lincoln Yards community meeting regarding the development to announce its formation.

CIVL argues that major music companies like Live Nation and AEG are inducing the city to use taxpayer-funded initiatives to construct competing venues and “gain leverage against small, independent performance venues” like theirs, the group said in a statement.

In its announcement, CIVL said it was “formed by Chicago independent venue owners concerned about current urban development trends favoring tax-payer supported developments that leave out, disregard, or even stifle smaller, independent, often historic performance venues and businesses.”

The group’s board includes co-chairs Robert Gomez of Subterranean/Beat Kitchen and Katie Tuten of The Hideout.

Live Nation’s Mark Capana, COO  of U.S. Concerts, sent a letter to Chicago Alderman Brian Hopkins saying “we want to be a great neighbor and always work with independent venues,” the Chicago Tribune reported Nov. 29.

CIVL’s Gomez told the paper in regard to the three to five Live Nation venues expected to be part of the Lincoln Yards project that “everything’s happening behind closed doors between the mayor, the alderman and [developer] Sterling Bay. Enough.”

But Gomez also insists the organization isn’t opposed to Live Nation; the venues ask for inclusion in decisions made about Chicago’s cultural landscape.

“I work with Live Nation,” Gomez added. “This isn’t an anti-Live Nation movement. This is: If you’re going to alter the cultural music scene of the city we need to be in the conversation,” he told the Tribune.

But in a news release, CIVL demanded a delay of the project, citing the creation of a Tax Increment Financing district that would collect tax revenue for 23 to fund the development. “ CIVL leaders and supports will call for a delay of the North Branch $800 million TIF (#DelaytheTIF) and $5 billion development that will dramatically transform the city of Chicago until the  next mayor and city council are seated. CIVL seeks official recognition of the value of Chicago’s ‘creative economy’ and will introduce a platform and set of recommendations.”