Hispanic aldermen welcome proposal to cut City Council in half
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com December 21, 2011 1:06AM
Updated: December 21, 2011 2:17AM
Calling Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s bluff, the Hispanic Caucus has drafted a new Chicago ward map that cuts the City Council in half — with 25 wards nearly evenly divided between blacks, whites and Hispanics.
The 50-member City Council is currently comprised of 22 whites, 19 blacks, eight Latinos and Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), who is of Indian descent.
The 25-ward map drafted by the Hispanic Caucus includes eight majority white wards, eight majority black wards, seven majority Hispanic wards, one Hispanic “influence” ward and one black influence ward.
That more fairly represents a city now 32.9 percent black, 31.7 percent white and 28.9 percent Hispanic, according to Ald. Danny Solis (25th), chairman of the City Council’s Hispanic Caucus.
“If it was 25 wards, we would be much better and more fairly represented because you’re starting from scratch. This would be welcomed by the caucus and me,” Solis said.
“It was an issue in the last election. Editorial boards asked the question. It’s been mentioned in several of the meetings that the mayor might push this. We would be open to it and confident the end result would more accurately reflect the population.”
Ald. Howard Brookins (21st), chairman of the Black Caucus, scoffed at the suggestion that Hispanics would fair better if the Council was cut in half.
“They think they’re gonna beat Ald. Ed Burke in a ward that’s double the population and he’s got $9 million in the bank? That’s a pipe dream. They will not fare better. It’ll be harder to run, harder to win and require more money,” Brookins said.
Earlier this week, Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the mayor’s City Council floor leader, warned that Emanuel is prepared to push a non-binding referendum asking Chicago voters if they want to cut the council in half if feuding aldermen can’t avoid a $30 million repeat of the 1990 remap referendum.
This remap is an absolute waste of time. Time to cut the city council in half.
ReplyDelete25 alderman voting in lock step with the mayor is the same as 50 aldermen voting to please the mayor.
50 councilmen is to many - NOTHING gets done.
YES!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping if Sposato is drawn out of his ward, that he moves to the 41st and runs against Ald. O'Connor. He upset the machine before, he can do it again!
ReplyDeleteSposato is a much better fit for the 41st Ward than O'Connor. Rahm didn't win the 41st Ward, yet O'Connor goes along with him and is afraid of him.
ReplyDeleteSposato on the other hand isn't afraid of Rahm or the Dems. Good for him. Move into the 41st alderman Sposato.
I agree- Sposato gets it from many vantage points - as a parent, as a fireman, as a citizen who wants money spent properly on communities, and because he listens to his constiuents and isn't beholding to a political party.
ReplyDeleteFor all these reasons, yes to a change in the next election.
How about the majority map including about 5000 more people in the North side wards than the south side wards. What ever happened to one person one vote. What a joke. So sick of the poitical class thinking we are here to serve them. Give me a chance to vote to cut the counsel in half. It will save money and we have no representation either way.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they mention the so called "dooms day" map. Dooms day for the politicians and the dawn of a bright day for the electorate. It simply blocks the wards with equal population giving no consideration to the politicians' desire to cut out certain blocks and areas that may be strong or weak for the particular aldermen. It also would reflect the racial make up of the city, keep neighborhoods together and give no consideration to the personel preference of the individual alderman. Oh wait! That would never work--it sounds too much like representative government. What am I thinking?
ReplyDeleteO'Connor signed on to black caucus map that would include about 5000 more residents in north side wards than south side wards thus diluting our representation.
ReplyDeleteTo Blogger: Interesting article in sun times today about Illinois being tied for first in the nation of people leaving (moving out of) the state. There has been much discussion on this blog about tax policy. It might be an intesting topic. Policies do have consequences. People seem to be voting with their feet.
ReplyDeleteof course the voters want a smaller city council, but try to get selfish politicians to go along. We need a BINDING referendum. Get 25 bums off the council and lets really same some money.
ReplyDeleteI thought race isn't an issue? No one sent the memo to the hispanic caucus. Good job "machine" you continued the race war. Morons.
ReplyDeleteIf O'Connor did sign on to a black caucus remap which hurt the 41st ward representation you can thank every irishman and woman (or cronny) in a clout heavy city, county, or state job for that. They got her in. Good job Mulroe keep raising our taxes and also vote present on the ComEd vote after taking their money. Sad.
ReplyDeleteBoth candidates for alderman in the 41st Ward in the last election were Irish you nimrod 8:54am. You are the sad case in my opinion. I'm not Irish but I sure did vote and my choices were two Irish politicians.
ReplyDeleteLets not bring ethnicity and race biases to our community. We have enough problems getting any kind of reinvestment provided by this awful mayor.
Hey 8:54; You must be livid that Iraq war hero/ U.S. Senator Kirk voted this week to raise the taxes of 160 million Americans by $40.00 a week. Imagine that. And he's not even Irish. You must be filled with rage, 8:54.
ReplyDelete