Chatham/Avalon Park Community Council

Saturday, August 7, 2010

ShoreBank on the brink: Failure to secure $75 bil. fed bailout means low-income lender's days are numbered

The clock is ticking closer to midnight for Chicago's ShoreBank Corp.

The South Shore-based lender, renowned nationally for its support of low-income borrowers, could be closed within days by federal regulators. It has failed to secure a $75 million federal bailout as a follow-up to $145 million it raised in May from Wall Street's biggest players.

A source said ShoreBank has control of the private capital only until today, but may announce a deal for a short-term extension of the commitment. The extension could allow the bank a few more days to hunt for additional equity.

ShoreBank has been trying to raise at least $200 million. The federal bailout was a crucial piece, but banking industry experts said the Federal Reserve has been put off by continued declines in the institution's financial condition.

The bank lost $39.6 million the first six months of the year, according to a report it submitted to regulators. In 2009, it lost $119 million.

The report showed ShoreBank being hammered by bad loans to apartment buildings with five or more units. It said it had $103 million in loans to such properties on which no payments are being made.

What regulators call the bank's Tier 1 capital, a measure of its liquid assets, is down to $4.1 million, the report said. The sum was $43.5 million at the end of 2009.

ShoreBank spokesman Brian Berg declined to comment. The bank was founded in 1973 as an answer to other banks' redlining of black neighborhoods and it concentrates its activities on Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.

Its fate has become a political storm in Washington. ShoreBank has close ties to President Obama, who remembers it from his days as a South Side community organizer and has publicly praised its business model, and to presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett. Conservative critics of the president have charged that Wall Street banks helped out ShoreBank to win favor with him while financial reform was being hashed out.

The White House has denied direct involvement in the ShoreBank matter, saying the president has left decisions to regulators.

The private equity came from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and the capital units of General Electric Co., among others.

See this Crain's Chicago video:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid30292882001?bctid=424986017001

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Golf Outing at Kennedy-King College

Real Men Charities, Inc.

August 2010

Sponsors

Upcoming Events

August 14 ,2010
Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic
www.budbillikenparade.com

August 21, 2010
Health Care Professionals Conference
The University of Chicago and the South Side Health Centers will be holding a workshop for Illinois Health Care Professionals at Governor's State University.
Cooks from Real Men CookÂ® will do the Healthy Cooking Demonstrations for Real Men Charities, Inc.. The nonprofit will host a workshop at the conference on healthy eating, cooking techniques and will look at food and water as medicine, as part of its mission to build healthy families and communities with the full involvement of men.

September 18, 2010
United Negro College Fund Annual Run, Walk, Bike-A-Thon.
27th Annual Walk for Education
Location: 31st Street Beach @ South Lake Shore Drive & 31st St.

Real Men Charities, Inc. will feature the men of Real Men CookÂ® cooking and serving the before and after race refreshments.

Join Us at Jackson Park Golf Course, Friday, August 6, 2010 for Kennedy-King College's 15 Annual Golf Outing

A Message for Kennedy-King College, Director of Communications, Deborah Crable

Greetings to all REAL MEN!

I personally invite you to don your golf gear and hit the course for a competitive but friendly round of golf at the - benchmark- 15th Annual KKC Scholarship Golf Outing! Proceeds help deserving students achieve their academic goals and aspirations at KKC and the City Colleges of Chicago.

It is my desire to introduce you to our new president John Dozier who enthusiastically supports the RMC Father's Day event. It's also an opportunity to learn about the rich alliance opportunities that exist at Kennedy-King College and the City Colleges of Chicago.

The outing will be held at the historic Jackson Park Golf Course in the heart of Chicago! The course has been fully renovated and has lots of options for non-golfers. Detailed information is attached and we need more golfers.

Please consider the options that include a host of non-golfer activities and a delicious Friday Fish Fry by Melon Express!

We look forward to enjoying a GREAT TIME with YOU on Friday, August 6th!

Thanks!

Deborah

For more information please contact Deborah Crable at 773.602.5543 or email dcrable@ccc.edu

golf

Daley: Service cuts an option to balance budget

Mayor Richard Daley warned today that service cuts might be required to balance next year's city budget.

The mayor's annual State of the City speech marked the first time he has held out cutting services "permanently or for a year or two" as an option to dig out from a $655 million budget shortfall. Daley previously has acknowledged that all possibilities to fill the budget hole other than a tax increase were on the table.

"We cannot balance the budget through better management and growing revenues alone," Daley told a ballroom packed with aldermen and other city officials at the Chicago Hilton.

As he considers running for a record seventh term in February, Daley's 40-minute speech touched on many of the accomplishments that he said have made Chicago a stronger city.

He cited improvements in test scores this year and falling dropout rates as evidence Chicago schools are getting better.

Recent agreements to bring Wal-Mart stores to the Pullman and Chatham neighborhoods will create thousands of jobs and bring in millions of dollars in tax revenue, Daley said in the first of several lines that drew applause from the friendly audience.

Daley also laid out a template for what Chicago needs to do to remain economically competitive. He talked about transforming Chicago's economy in part through "Chicago Growth Accelerator," a privately funded job training and business incentive program he announced to bring technology companies to the city. In a comparison he brings up often, Daley urged Chicagoans to think like China, "20 or 25 years down the road in planning their economy."

It needs to be easier for businesses to get permits and licenses in Chicago, Daley said.

"Government should not stand in the way of business growth," he said.

And Chicago schools need to be able to provide the employees with the skills to work in those businesses by providing practical, technologically based educations, he said.

Though he has not said whether he will run again, the mayor's eye toward the future had several aldermen in attendance predicting he will be on the ballot early next year.

Ald. Latasha Thomas, 17th, said Daley sounded like a politician who wants to be in office to get some of the ideas he discussed rolling.

"Everything he said had future goals attached to it," Thomas said.

And Ald. Daniel Solis, 25th, said the mayor might be the only one capable of making the ambitious plans a reality.

"If those are going to get implemented, he's the person to do it," Solis said.

ShoreBank unlikely to get U.S. bailout money: report

ShoreBank Corp. is unlikely to get $75 million in federal bailout funds it needs to survive, Bloomberg News reported Thursday morning.

The South Side bank, which specializes in lending money in lower-income neighborhoods in Chicago and elsewhere, is under regulatory orders to raise capital to shore up a balance sheet shredded by losses on real estate loans.

The bank negotiated with leading Wall Street banks for an infusion of $145 million. But that money was contingent on federal authorities kicking in an additional $75 million. Without the federal funds, the deal with Wall Street would collapse, setting the bank on a course for failure.