Real estate developer Charles H. Shaw, who helped spark the redevelopment of the North Lawndale neighborhood with his Homan Square project, suggests an overhaul of the property tax system that would fund school systems in other ways besides levies. Meanwhile, 48th Ward Alderman Mary Ann Smith says multifamily owners who are convicted of an offense involving mismanagement of their property should be denied profits above what they paid for the building.

Both were panelists this week at a Business and Professional People for the Public Interest discussion on mixed-income communities along with Bernard Tetreault, founder and president of the Innovative Housing Institute and previously executive director of the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, MD. More than 10,000 affordable units have been developed in the sixth-wealthiest county in the US since 1974.

Shaw, whose Homan Square project was spurred by a request from Sears, Roebuck & Co. to redevelop their old headquarters site at 3333 W. Arthington on the West Side, encouraged professionals to write their legislators urging them to fund school systems other than through real estate taxes. "We pay for schools the wrong way," says Shaw, whose multifamily projects have included Lake Point Tower in Chicago and Museum Tower in New York City. In addition, he noted that longtime residents in redeveloping areas also are forced to sell because of skyrocketing property tax bills. "The better job you do, the more you pay."

Smith's frustrations stems from slumlords who have operated in her Uptown/Edgewater community on the city's North Side, giving the neighborhood a reputation as "Arson Alley" and a "psychiatric ghetto" before more than $80 million in improvements were made. The city has tried to acquire some of the remaining derelict properties for redevelopment, but officials are usually rebuffed by high-ball asking prices. If the city moves to condemn, the fair market value is challenged in lengthy court challenges, she adds. "We are being held hostage by slumlords," Smith says. "You pay through the nose."