Change ahead for South Side lakefront as candidates vie for 3 open City Council seats

The retirement of three South Side aldermen has lakefront neighborhoods from the Near South Side to Hegewisch bracing for potentially sweeping changes as dozens of candidates hope to be the ones to alter the course of their communities and the City Council.

News that council members Sophia King, who is running for mayor, Leslie Hairston and Susan Sadlowski Garza wouldn’t seek reelection opened a floodgate for candidates in the 4th, 5th and 10th wards, particularly in Hairston’s 5th Ward, where nearly a dozen candidates are running for the seat she’s held since 1999.

All three wards have played key roles in Chicago political history. The 4th and 5th held great sway in progressive and liberal circles. So too did the 10th, though it was also known in the 1970s and 1980s for high-profile Ald. Edward “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak, who was often the face of opposition to then-Mayor Harold Washington.

The other two — the 4th, which hugs the city’s coastline from the South Loop to Kenwood and the 5th, which covers most of Hyde Park, South Shore and part of the Greater Grand Crossing community — share more in common than larger housing stock, lakefront access and picturesque DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

The neighboring wards are both expected to reap the benefits of the coming Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park after its scheduled completion in 2025, though many residents and activists expect the new landmark will come with gentrification and hefty strings attached.

New home construction near the center, a boost in outside real estate investment and higher rents have stoked fears in both wards, driving demand for rent control measures or easier access to home financing.

Both wards are also known for independent-minded aldermen willing to buck the mandate of whoever was mayor at the time. They included Ald. Paul Douglas in the early 1940s and Leon Despres from 1955 through 1975, both of whom represented the 5th Ward.

Fifteen years ago, Hairston and former 4th Ward colleague Toni Preckwinkle, now the president of the Cook County Board, were among the five aldermen who voted against Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration’s controversial and hastily approved privatization of city parking meters, downtown garages and the Chicago Skyway, which two subsequent mayors have fought bitterly.

[ Mayor Lightfoot denies permit to Southeast Side scrap shredder; company vows to fight on, saying process ‘hijacked’ by ‘false narratives’ ]

Over in the 10th Ward on the city’s East Side along the Indiana border — a once-formidable Democratic ethnic political stronghold built on heavy industry and union support — five candidates are running to replace Sadlowski Garza, some stressing public safety, others campaigning to make a new path to free the somewhat-isolated, semi-industrial community from its toxic legacy. Hanging over the aldermanic race is the fate of the multimillion dollar Southside Recycling facility, which awaits a Cook County judge’s decision.

Among the candidates are two Chicago police officers, a Southeast Side activist who was part of a monthlong hunger strike in 2021 protesting General Iron’s possible relocation to the ward, a local actress and the former head of a labor organization for low-income residents and immigrants.

Among those running to replace King are her chief of staff, Prentice C. Butler, whom King has endorsed, Ebony Lucas, who unsuccessfully ran against King in a 2017 special election and in 2019, state Rep. Lamont Robinson, former Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago administrator Matthew “Khari” Humphries and retired Lucent Technologies executive Helen West.

Butler, West and Humphries cited crime as the biggest topic for residents, but each argued that additional financial resources will be needed to adequately address the root causes. Crime “is not a problem that exists in a vacuum,” said Butler. “All these issues are intersectional and require experienced leaders in City Hall who understand the complexities and nuances of local public policy.”

In an election questionnaire by the Tribune Editorial Board, which is separate from the newsroom, Bey, who works as director of operations for the nonprofit convict reentry program Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change, suggested more community-level approaches to battling crime, such as appointing community “liaisons” who would work on all ward anti-violence and intervention programs, similarly to what her own organization does.

With its mix of urban professionals, academics, students and working poor, the 4th Ward is one of the more diverse wards and has long had some of the widest wealth gaps in the city.

Lucas, a real estate attorney, cited rising property taxes as the biggest issue in the ward and pledged to advocate for property tax stability.

“Exorbitant property tax increases in commercial districts has caused a revolving door of struggling small businesses that open and shutter, and impact jobs, stability, and vibrancy throughout the ward,” Lucas said.

A former senior director of youth policy in Lightfoot’s office of Education and Human Services, Humphries pledged to engage all parts of the ward, not only its affluent half, questioning King’s engagement with the Lightfoot administration’s support for an upcoming NASCAR event in the Loop.

Robinson, who recently voted in Springfield supporting a bill banning the sale, delivery and purchase of high-powered firearms and large-capacity ammunition magazines throughout the state, said he would work to implement legislation restricting assault weapons and ghost guns and that he supported the creation of a new “office of gun violence prevention” within the City Council.

Traditionally a reliable liberal independent ward that often voted against the old Chicago machine, 5th Ward voters tend to stick with like-minded aldermen, having had only three since 1979. But the wide-open race with 11 political neophytes appears to lack any clear front-runners.

Like its 4th Ward neighbor to the north, the 5th is diverse with a wide disparity between rich and poor residents, and with each end seemingly suffering different fates and fortunes. The north end contains most of Hyde Park, its sprawling University of Chicago campus and $10 billion endowment, a popular shopping district and the entirety of the presidential center campus. The south end contains working-class slivers of Woodlawn and part of South Shore, including the upscale Jackson Park Highlands.

Despite work by business leaders and concerned residents to reverse damage done by foreclosure and eviction crises, South Shore’s main business drag on East 71st Street has continued to struggle amid community complaints that some property owners purposely kept storefronts closed in order to receive a vacancy tax break.

The community languished as a food desert during the six years that an old Dominick’s store near 71st Street and Jeffery Boulevard sat vacant until 2019. Home to young families and thousands of Section 8 voucher holders, crime and poverty have remained stubborn problems, particularly in South Shore. Last year, South Shore had the second-highest number of homicides in the city, but only a portion of the community sits in the ward.

Open aldermanic spots in the ward often lead to packed contests and this year’s was no different.

The 11 candidates are mostly political newcomers with professional pedigrees, including Jocelyn Hare a University of Chicago administrator. Another candidate, Renita Q. Ward, is an associate counsel for Northwestern Memorial Healthcare. Consultant Joshua Gray is former chairman of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, and Kris Levy is a sales director with a wine and spirits company. Dialika “Dee” Perkins, a Loyola graduate who boxed professionally before becoming a candidate for alderman, said she supports a plan that would establish an advisory board to “provide funds for local entrepreneurs who have showed attempts at starting and running a business, to assist with formation, fees, filings, taxes and startup capital.”

Activists have argued for a community bargaining agreement to ensure housing protections in a neighborhood where more than 75% of residents are renters.

“I will say that both the biggest promise and the greatest perils our ward faces are either literally or metaphorically represented by the Obama center, both its development and its eventual operation,” said Gabriel Piemonte, a Woodlawn resident and writing coach and editor who also ran in 2019.

Gray, the former chairman of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, called for “more local control of improvement projects, including the use of community benefits agreements.”

To stabilize the ward’s shaky tax base, Marlene Fisher, a Grand Crossing homeowner who has a senior administrative job at the University of Chicago, said she supports giving the owners of delinquent properties in the ward “a chance to redeem their property by removing the monthly interest charged” as well as tax increment financing, or TIF, districts.

[ Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s signature Invest South/West program is 3 years old. But some of its big projects were already planned when she took office. ]

Attorney Martina “Tina” Hone worked as the city’s former chief engagement officer and supported the Invest South/West initiatives designed at aiding disinvested neighborhoods, as well as increasing both access and funding to mental health programs, community-based violence reduction programs, reentry programs for formerly incarcerated people and youth programming.

Rounding out the candidates is Wallace E. Goode Jr., the former executive director of the Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce. Goode, a Woodlawn resident who has previously worked with the University of Chicago to bring in retail shops, offices and restaurants to Harper Court, said the biggest issue facing the ward was “filling the void” left by Hairston’s departure following 24 years in office. If he won, he pledged to “invite every single candidate,” many of whom he acknowledged care for the ward, to create a “sort of 5th Ward think tank,” on how to implement change.

Stretching from the South Chicago neighborhood at East 83rd Street to Hegewisch, the 10th Ward also boasts a diverse population, with a majority being Latino.

There are signs of growth for the East Side ward that locals often believe is a forgotten side of the city. While several Southeast Side neighborhoods, including South Chicago, South Deering and the East Side, all lost population during the last decade, Hegewisch saw a 6% gain, according to census data.

A former mill town that later became the center of Polish life on the Far South Side, Hegewisch has remained a neighborhood for city and union workers and the Ford Motor plant.

While steel mills and factories are long gone, the Southeast Side is home to numerous industries that produce waste materials affecting the area’s air, land and water. Those include sewage treatment, refuse and garbage plants, as well as incinerators, landfills and chemical- and food-processing facilities. Area residents also remain plagued by higher rates of coronary heart disease, asthma and some cancers than any other part of the city.

The Southeast Side was upended in 2019 when Lincoln Park metal scrapper General Iron signaled its moving operations to the Southeast Side after years of pressure to leave its now upper class North Side home. The move triggered activists and environmental groups who wish to move the community away from industrial jobs that pollute the air or water.

Earning the endorsement of the outgoing alderman, Sadlowski Garza, and Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García is Ana Guajardo, a founding member of the United Workers’ Center, a group that works to protect the rights of immigrants and low-wage workers. A mother of two and a former member of the National Guard, Guajardo called public safety the ward’s most pressing issue and vowed to increase resources to battle crime. “We need to invest in more beat cops, detectives and resources that keep criminals off the street,” her campaign said.

Crime and safety also were priorities for the race’s two candidates who are police officers, both Southeast Side natives. Peter Chico, who is a Chicago police officer in the South Chicago district and the grandson of a South Chicago steelworker, said he supported evaluating all of the department’s administrative positions and desk jobs to see if officers can be placed back on the street along with managing officers in the districts more efficiently.

In her Tribune Editorial Board questionnaire, Jessica Venegas, a CPD officer and practicing attorney, decried leniency toward criminals, particularly juvenile offenders, saying “a slap on the wrist” leads to them committing harsher crimes. She proposed the creation of a court-appointed “character education program” where young people are required to attend to “learn positive meaningful life skills.”

At the other end of the spectrum is activist Oscar Sanchez, who has advocated for defunding police and redirecting funds to community groups and green initiatives. He also supports a state ban on high-powered firearms. Sanchez, an urban planner for the Southeast Environmental Task Force, was one of four people who forged a hunger strike to oppose the building of an industrial shredder on Hegewisch land near two schools.

Rounding out the race is Yessenia Carreón, a former health and response coordinator with Calumet Area Industrial Commission, who also works as a social media content creator with several acting credits to her resume. Carreón said economic development and safety are the ward’s most important issues and stressed the ward must attract new businesses and empower the local chamber of commerce to spur growth and combat crime.

“The 10th Ward has a unique problem that the rest of the city cannot relate to … we are on the border of Indiana and are competing directly with their businesses and lower taxes,” she said.

wlee@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @Midnoircowboy