Thursday, December 1, 2011

Message to Emanuel: Black aldermen not happy with remap

I missed this and it's related to the previous article I had posted. Black Alderman wish for the Mayor to get involved with this remap.
With a deadline looming to pass a map, tempers flared Wednesday night. A message from some members of the Black Caucus was sent to Emanuel, aldermen confirmed Thursday.

"I'm sure he got the message we're not happy," said Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd. "He's not oblivious to what's going on. … And it's not all happy. We're not in paradise right now."

Creating the new Latino ward in Back of the Yards would cause too much harm to African-American interests protected by federal law, said Ald. Will Burns, 4th. "For me that is a nonstarter — it looks like a racial gerrymander," said Burns, who added that as a result, another ward would be more than 80 percent black.

"The administration does not want a racial situation," Burns added. "Redistricting in the best of times is a highly political exercise, and then you have our city's history of ethnic competition and ethnic resentment. … If there continues to be an impasse, the fifth floor may want to become involved in this."

Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st, shared that view, but said the time for the mayor to play a role already has arrived.

"This has the potential to get ugly real fast," Brookins said Thursday afternoon as he left the remap room. "It appears that we're not going to be able to work this out without some input or guidance as to a set of rules that we all are working under."
They're not going to release any maps yet so we still got to wait and see how a proposed ward map is going to look! If you have any information about this feel free to e-mail us at any time!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for providing insights that we cannot get anywhere else.

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