Excellent points raised by Greg Hinz over at Crain’s.
Ask folks at City Hall whether new or old wards apply for purposes of voting, zoning and distribution of services and the like and, after a couple of shrugs, you’ll get a multipart answer fit for an SAT test. …
“We’re dealing with the old aldermen,” another official says. But, just to be safe, the city also is consulting with the new aldermen, too, in the many cases in which blocks or whole neighborhoods are being moved around. Suffice it to say “there’s at least two aldermen involved in every issue,” that source adds. “It’s a fairly complicated issue.” …
Officially, the new map goes into effect upon publication and approval of the official Journal of City Council proceedings…. But the lines on the new map are so contorted to protect incumbents and racial and ethnic minorities that doing so immediately is all but impossible. For instance, the council majority and Mayor Rahm Emanuel pretty much hate Ald. Bob Fioretti, 2nd, a rabble-rousing independent sort with a bit of hot dog in him. So they carved up and parceled out his current ward on the Near South and Near West sides and created a brand-new ward two miles north—not a square inch of which is in Mr. Fioretti’s current ward. As a result, a 3½-mile stretch of Roosevelt Road that’s now pretty much within the old 2nd Ward has been divided among the new 3rd, 4th, 11th, 25th, 27th and 28th wards. Man, I’m glad I’m not the executive director of the Roosevelt Road Improvement Association.
via Crain’s Chicago Business.
I have no idea how this can be permitted to stand.