In the North Side lakefront 48th Ward, which includes part of Uptown as well as Edgewater and Andersonville, small business owner and progressive organizer Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth is running against affordable housing developer Joe Dunne after the two finished atop a crowded 10-way race in February.
Retiring Ald. Harry Osterman and many of the city’s major labor organizations endorsed Dunne, while progressives such as mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson and several Asian American elected officials backed Manaa-Hoppenworth, who is Filipina. Dunne finished with 26% of the vote to Manaa-Hoppenworth’s 23% in February.
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The ward has been grappling with higher housing costs and vacancies along some of its economic corridors. Dunne, who has worked with the nonprofit Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation, argued he’s equipped to usher through more affordable housing options. Manaa-Hoppenworth backs lifting the ban on rent control.
The two are split on their approach to crime. Dunne backs more frequent police patrols. Manaa-Hoppenworth favors alternatives to traditional policing, but does not “use the term” abolition when talking about the future of policing.
“We’re spending a lot of our budget on policing, and not everybody feels safe,” she said. “So we have to look at not only the dollars that we’re spending, and not only the number of officers that we have on the force, but how we’re actually using them, where they’re being deployed.”
