posted by richard gill
Hyde Park is largely divided between the 4th and 5th Wards. The line runs along 55th Street, Lake Park Avenue, and 53rd Street. The redistricting may, or may not, put all or more of Hyde Park in the 4th Ward (Ald. Will Burns), the 20th (Ald. Willie Cochran), the 7th (Ald. Sandi Jackson), or 3rd (Ald. Pat Dowell). Any of these four Aldermen hold promise be an improvement, if for no other reasons than that they seem inclined to get things done, and confront buffeting winds when necessary.
The remap process, of course, is a contest of self-interest among the 50 Aldermen. Beyond the legal requirements of contiguity within wards and substantially equal populations among wards, the boundary lines are allowed to wiggle and twist, so that wards can acquire all manner of bizarre arms and tentacles. Take a look at the current Chicago ward map at www.cityofchicago.org and click on Chicago Government.
The new boundaries won’t take effect immediately, but it’s likely the incumbents will run again. It’s not too hard to believe that future Aldermen representing Hyde Park will have drawn the short straw. Hyde Park is known to exhibit all manner of silliness, obstructionism, hysteria and outright craziness over all matters big and small. Among the Aldermen themselves, the question may be: do they want us?
8 comments:
A friend once told me that he thought that HP was split among wards (when it was first incorporated into the city?) explicitly to remove/diminish its potential influence as a political entity in itself, that is: being split among two wards, Hyde Parkers would never have the ability to elect their 'own' alderman. Food for thought.
From the current ward deficits and gains ( http://robparal.com/Chicago%20Wards.html (click on total)) essentially one of the south side wards needs to move completely to create a new ward in the 2nd and 42nd area. The 5th ward being surrounded on all sides by other deficit wards seems to be a really good candidate for fixing those wards. (This is of course if logic and common sense are used--which may not be likely.)
One (at least semi-logical) option is the 4th to expand North, the 20th to take the 5ths part of HP, and the 8th and 7th to take up the rest of the 5th. The 5th would then be moved North of the 4th taking parts of the 2nd and 42nd.
Another alternative is to have the surrounding wards split up the 20th. But again, speculation on this type of thing will never match the actual insane results cooked up behind closed doors by the city's aldermen.
I hope hp expands north to the areas that are gentifying. Its not in our best interest to be included with the slums.
What's in Hyde Park's interest is for the whole neighborhood to be in one ward. Whichever way that goes - north or south - probably doesn't matter (there are plenty of slums north of Kenwood, for anyone who knows the area). We've seen how easy it is otherwise for small and vocal groups of obstructionists, or negligent alderwomen, to have their way. If the mass of Hyde Park had to weigh in before one alderperson on issues like Doctors Hospital or the Woodlawn corridor 53rd Street development or whatever, it will be a lot harder for any one NIMBY assortment to throw a wrench in things.
Almost all of Hyde Park was in one ward, the 5th, until fairly recently (ca. 1975?) The ward boundary down 55th Street was established, so the story goes, to de-fang independent Hyde Park Aldermen, such as Leon Despres who was 5th Ward Alderman 1955-1975. He could irritate Mayor Richard J. Daley no end.
Hyde Park - Kenwood was split between the 4th and 5th wards in 1981 under the administration of Jane Byrne. It is a quite recent development. Prior to that date, as Dick mentions, HP was solidly in the 5th.
Cool, if they move my 4th Ward block to the 5th Ward will we get blue recycling carts?
I'd lay money on HP staying split. The political battle is over Hispanics getting more seats as they are roughly 1/3 of the population. Of the 200,000 population decline since 2000, roughly 180,000 was African Americans leaving the city. The black caucus is not likely to risk combining HP so that a ward is created with 1/3 of the 53,000 being white. More likely they will cede Hispanic neighborhoods in their wards and hope to get away with losing only 2 seats rather than the 3 or 4 that 180,000 would seem to dictate.
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