Chicago’s 50^th Ward is one of the most interesting and diverse areas our city has to offer. A wide variety of religious and ethnic groups call the ward home, adding their own culture and ideas to our community, creating the melting pot our forefathers envisioned when they founded our country. We are proud of the character of our residential neighborhoods. The 50^th Ward has the potential for a vibrant economy and business community, and we ask nothing of government other than to be left alone. Unfortunately, through carefully planned economic meddling, involving the flagrant rewarding of certain well-connected parties at the expense of others, of which the local TIF is only the most egregious example, we have seen our community stagnate and know that our future is blight. The 50^th Ward is a great place for Alderman Berny Stone to live, work, run a patronage business, and raise a family, all at public expense. Alderman Stone knows this, and is boastfully proud to have done to our community what he has.