Our Cabrini-Green community forum — held in partnership today with CatchLight and City Cast Chicago at the Chicago Public Library — was hacked and audiences were exposed to inappropriate and disturbing content. We are disgusted by the events and assure you that the Better Government Association has reported the attack to the FBI’s cyber crimes unit.

We host community forums to create a safe space for dialogue and today we failed to accomplish that. We extend our sincerest apologies and reiterate our commitment to amplifying community stories and empowering residents across the state to hold the government accountable.

Despite attempts by bad actors to suppress a conversation about Cabrini-Green, this discussion is critical to understanding the impacts of government policies and actions on some of our most vulnerable neighbors. While disturbed by this horrendous act, our community engagement team and panelists decided to continue with the discussion offline and will share a video recording with you later this week.

With regret,

David Greising
BGA president and CEO 

David Greising is the president and chief executive of the Better Government Association, joining the BGA in 2018. For nearly a century, the BGA has fought for honest and effective government through investigative journalism and policy advocacy.

Greising’s career started at the City News Bureau of Chicago, with stops at the Chicago Sun-Times, Business Week magazine, the Chicago Tribune and Reuters. He was a co-founder of the Chicago News Cooperative and worked briefly as a consultant to World Business Chicago. Today, Greising writes on government issues in regular columns for the Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business.

Under Greising’s leadership, the BGA has played a key role in uncovering public corruption amidst the wide-ranging federal probe, starting with an in-depth report about Ald. Ed Burke’s conflicts of interest before the federal charges against Burke. The BGA also has exposed waste and fraud at O’Hare and the proliferation of corruption and poverty into Dolton, Lyons and other Chicago suburbs. The BGA’s policy team has led calls for ethics reform in Chicago’s City Council and in state government.