Friday, December 9, 2011

The 11th ward isn't even immune to the ward remap...

Chicago's 11th Ward
The 11th Ward as most of us Chicagoans know is the home base of the Daley family and beyond the Daley family it is also known as the cradle for mayor as many Mayors from Edward J. Kelly from the 1930s to Richard J. Daley and his son Richard M. Daley. It looks like even that ward which largely consists of Bridgeport wasn't immune to the ward remap.

11th Ward Ald. Jim Balcer is fighting to keep his ward intact just as other Alderman are fighting to maintain theirs. It appears the Black Caucus put out another map to save as many of the 19 Black wards as possible:
The Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this week that the Black Caucus has drafted a new ward map that preserves 18 of 19 black wards in a way that would have been unthinkable during Richard M. Daley’s 22-year reign.

The 11th Ward, cradle of Chicago mayors and political power base of the Daley family, would lose nearly 60 percent of its current population, including Canaryville and McKinley Park. Instead of a near equal mix of whites, Hispanics and Asian-Americans, the new 11th Ward would be 92 percent white.

The heavy turnover would make it very difficult for Balcer to get re-elected. Daley’s brother, County Commissioner John Daley, is the 11th Ward’s Democratic committeeman.
I did note that the 11th Ward is the home base of the Daley family. Yeah confirmation right there in that last paragraph.

Judge Lyle was quoted here:
On Thursday, former Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th), an attorney representing the Black Caucus, denied that black aldermen had chopped up the 11th Ward because Richard M. Daley is no longer in office to protect it.

“That was never a consideration. Our guy has no idea of the political dynamics of Chicago. He’s from Lansing, Michigan. All he does is sit at the computer,” Lyle said of the mapmaker hired by African-American aldermen.

“There’s an unattributed population we haven’t put in any ward. When that’s done, we may put the 11th Ward back together and make it more compact. That version is not gonna stay. That version has unassigned people. It is an unfinished map. It should never have left the room.”

She added, “Things are getting closer to finalization. People are unhappy. And they want to start using the press as their additional lobbying group. It’s really unfair. Now, it’s one big mess.”
I wonder if this was the same guy who presented the first known draft map at the public meetings held by the City Council Black Caucus? Although one good thing is that an outsider is drawing the ward maps. At least for those of you opposed to gerrymandering.

Of course many of us, including myself, still want to see what's the deal with the 6th ward as far as this remap goes. No news on when the public at large will see a map.

No comments:

Post a Comment

PLEASE READ FIRST!!!! Comment Moderating and Anonymous Comment Policy

While anonymous comments are not prohibited we do encourage you to help readers identify you so that other commenters may respond to you. Either read the moderating policy for how or leave an identifier (which could be a nickname for example) at the end of the comment.

Also note that this blog is NOT associated with any public or political officials including Alderman Roderick T. Sawyer!