The whole reason Chicago has city council members, or "aldermen," is to make sure that citizens have a say in our city's government. The city is divided into different #wards, each of which is represented by an individual alderman. It makes sense that the #WardMap needs to be redrawn on occasion to keep pace with the evolving demographics of our population, as it was in May of 2022. But this should be done by an independent commission, instead of leaving it in the control of #Aldermen who are looking out for their own best interests.
The remapping of Chicago's 50 wards is a process that has historically been hammered out in secrecy through political agreements among competing factions. It has been decided by aldermen instead of regular citizens, and the whole process has been seriously lacking in transparency. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has put up a commendable effort to push for an independent citizen’s commission to draw the upcoming city ward map, effectively snatching away the aldermen's authority.
Historically, redrawing the city's ward map has been carried out by politicians without regard for citizens' best interests. This goes directly against the purpose of having a City Council, which is supposed to give us a voice in the governing of our city instead of ignoring our need for a responsive and democratic process that gives everybody a sense of belonging. As it sits now, politicians strongly disagree with one another about whether the changes they have decided upon will have a positive or negative effect. We need a fair, inclusive, and sensible ward map. Instead, we continue to be subjected to the whims of aldermen's political alliances.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said, "I live in the 35th ward, and the ward has no relationship to neighborhood boundaries. We can't afford to keep carving up communities that aren't fair to them or doesn't give a fair representation." There are many examples of how the city's wards are poorly drawn. For instance, Englewood neighborhood has fewer than 15,000 people across merely 3 square miles. The neighborhood alone is carved up among six different wards. On the other hand, there is the 2nd ward that bobs and weaves across seven Northside neighborhoods from Streeterville to Buck town.
Many residents are in a perpetual state of confusion because they cannot tell in which ward they reside and by whom they are represented in the City Council. The tacked-on areas face the challenge of being ignored or receiving less attention from their aldermen. Since the residents cannot vote the aldermen out, they have to cope with the challenges.
Fixing all the confusion and increasing the public's involvement in how the city is run should be our top priority right now. The process requires a well thought out approach that take into account the ongoing loss of more than 200,000 residents from predominantly black neighborhoods. We also need to address the fact that we need more aldermen with Asian heritage to represent our growing international population.
Mayor Lightfoot’s idea of forming an independent citizens’ commission to redraw the ward maps would be a much better method for solving these problems. Leaving the responsibility solely to aldermen is a problematic method; their political dalliances and backroom deals are the source of countless problems, and the strange new ward map is just the latest in a series of bad decisions.
