Battle of Beverly, the sequel? Yet another redistricting brawl to dismay us

MARKHAM, Ill. – It seems that the community activists from the Beverly neighborhood are geared up for a political brawl, and their punching bag of choice will be Cook County government.

These are the activists who engaged in a vocal and visible crusade back when Chicago was drawing the new boundaries for the City Council’s 50 wards.

REMEMBER HOW THE 19^th Ward that historically included all of the Beverly neighborhood was redrawn to stretch into surrounding communities, while also dumping some people on the eastern edges of Beverly into a ward with their neighbors from the Morgan Park neighborhood?

Those people lost that brawl, and it still smarts. Or so it seems.

Because now the Cook County Board is engaged in the process of drawing new boundaries for its 17 districts. The board’s redistricting committee on Tuesday held the first of what will be three or four hearings where the politicians will pretend they’re listening to the public’s interests.

That first session held in a basement courtroom of the south suburban courthouse based in Markham became dominated by Beverly residents – many of whom were the same people who ranted and raged about the redistricting that split up their wards (and put some of them in boundaries with people of neighboring communities whom they’d prefer – for various reasons – to ignore).

ONLY NOW, INSTEAD of screaming about how “sacred” their 19^th Ward is, they’re engaging about how special a place the 11^th county commissioner district is.

That particular district is NOT just Beverly. But it takes in many neighborhoods that encompass the spirit of the Sout’ Side Irish of old – even if their modern-day composition is a mixture of ethnic groups.

It takes in at its far end the Bridgeport neighborhood, which is how it is the political turf of Commissioner John Daley, D-Chicago, who sat through Tuesday’s committee hearing with a grin repeatedly popping up on his face after person-after-person got up to testify about what a wonderful place the 11^th District is, and how incredible a public official Daley is toward his constituents.

“I feel I was lucky enough to have grown up there,” 19^th Ward Alderman Matt O’Shea told his county government counterparts.

NOW DON’T TAKE this the wrong way. I’m not knocking the one remaining son of late Mayor Richard J. Daley who is involved in politics.

Maybe he really is that attentive to the people who voted him into office.

Or maybe the “Daley” name just has that much pull in Chicago, making people feel like they’re something special by being able to say he’s their representative in Cook County government.

Which is a claim that I doubt many people can make. Personally, I have always wondered how many people have a clue who their county board member is?

OR IF THEY really understand the difference between municipal and county government (and no, the joke that a county board member is someone not quite good enough to get elected alderman doesn’t work here – even if there is an element of truth to it).

But listening to official after official, including mayors of suburban Oak Lawn and Hometown that also are in the 11^th District, engage in the rhetorical love is just a bit much.

Particularly since Tuesday’s hearing was likely the only chance for South Side and surrounding people to express their views on redistricting – unless they feel like making a trip to Maywood or Des Plaines next week.

Based on what I heard at that hearing, it seems the whole world wants to live in the Cook County 11^th district with Beverly as its spiritual center, and be represented by a Daley. Hardly anybody else expressed a thought.

THAT KIND OF apathy by the public ultimately is what leads to what likely will be the end result – when the county government does get around to finally creating new boundaries for its districts, there will be a lot of disappointed people.

Because I suspect that for all the talk of public hearings and maintenance of a special room (number 1134 at the County Building, 118 N. Clark St.) where people can use county computers to draw their own political boundaries for consideration, the maps that ultimately get approved are ones being concocted by the politicos in that oldest of political clichés – the smoke-filled room.

That is, unless all the health and wellness initiatives being touted in recent weeks by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle have made it illegal.

But whether there is smoke or not, the end result will be just as secretive.

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Nobody ever truly happy w/ redistrict, but is Beverly more miffed then usual?

Lately, whenever I use a Metra Rock Island line commuter train to travel downtown (I live within walking distance of one of their stations and I hate the idea of paying for parking), I know when I’m passing through the Beverly neighborhood because I see an outbreak of what I think of as the measles.

Variations are spreading around Beverly



Red blotches all throughout the neighborhoods, on the front lawns of residents who see the potential for the redistricting of Chicago’s 50 wards for the upcoming decade and become ill at the very thought.

THE SO-CALLED BLOTCHES are really signs (bright red, with white lettering) and in style they are just like those signs that crop up every election cycle for people who persist in letting the whole world (or at least anyone who passes by their house) know who they support.

But these signs aren’t for any specific candidate. They literally are about the issue of redistricting – which is usually something that people don’t give much thought about.

But these Beverly residents are giving thought, and they are upset – which is why I get to read sign after sign that says, “Don’t Re-Map Me!” every time I pass through the neighborhood (both headed for the Loop and on the return trip home).

And in smaller type, they read, “I am 19^th Ward.” The Beverly Area Planning Association takes credit for spreading these signs around the ward.

WHICH HISTORICALLY HAS been the Southwest Side ward that is centered around the Beverly neighborhood. The fact that the ward and the neighborhood come so close to coinciding is a good chunk of why that neighborhood has significant political pull in the City Council.

But it also makes it a largely-white community and ward surrounded by African-American neighborhoods and wards.

The ward may not look the same soon

Which may well mean that in an attempt to bolster the political pull of racial minorities on the South Side, any redrawn ward boundaries are likely to take a few people who now are a part of the 19^th Ward and Beverly and put them politically in with the ward to the east – which represents a good-sized chunk of the neighboring Morgan Park neighborhood.

But it also crosses over those invisible barriers that often separate race in our home city.

WHAT ALL OF this comes down to is that there is a very good chance that a lot of these people who are complaining about not wanting to be removed from the 19^th Ward and Beverly (they’d still be a part of the neighborhood, regardless of where the ward boundaries are drawn) are really saying they don’t want to be a part of any non-white majority ward.

It is the ugly tension that is a daily reality for the neighborhoods of the South Side. It might not be a blunt and brutal as decades past, but there are places where races glare across the street at each other – and the wrong word can spark a brawl.

Which means that when I call these signs a form of measles outbreak, I’m only being semi-sarcastic. Because it almost strikes me as being an illness.

People wanting to cling to a ward number because they don’t want to be perceived as living somewhere else – even though nothing about their actual residence has change – can’t be that healthy for one’s mind.

BESIDES, THERE’S ALSO the reality that population shifts mean that the current boundaries can’t stand.

The Beverly Review newspaper, in reporting about the local resident concern about the issue, cited the fact that the current 19^th Ward (as it existed in the 2000s) is 1,200 people too few of the 53,912-total that all 50 wards are supposed to have.

But the 21^st and 34^th wards to the east have even bigger shortfalls, and the easiest way to resolve them is to make that ward boundary shift that is going to rile up the natives something fierce.

Beverly would be far from the only neighborhood split up politically. Chinatown officials ranted about how much their community was hacked up among so many districts during the past decade, and one version of a new ward map being considered has the Back of the Yards neighborhood split among five different aldermen.

BY COMPARISON, BEVERLY residents ought to be grateful for what little might happen to them.

I happen to realize that this pride in neighborhood is a significant part of what makes Chicago unique and special. The idea that people who live in Beverly think of it as a special place where they desire to reside is something that we ought to be encouraging in all the city’s neighborhoods.

But the sight of all those signs from Beverly residents who don’t want to associate with neighboring Morgan Park is something that manages to give me a touch of a chill up my spine every time I see it while riding the Rock Island line.

And it also makes me a little bit proud to say that nobody I know personally who lives in Beverly has one of those red rashes popping up in their front yards.

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Could it someday be Miguel Madigan?

Latino activists who gathered on the Southwest Side this weekend to talk about what laws they want passed (or what bills they want ground into oblivion) got favorable words from the city’s local political establishment.

MADIGAN: He needs to consider Latinos

That even included Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, in whose legislative district the sessions were held.

HE TOLD THOSE in attendance (according to the Chicago Sun-Times) that he plans to be “fair” to Latinos when his people put together the new political boundaries for the Legislature and Congress and that there may be an Illinois version of the DREAM Act – that measure meant to do away with the bureaucratic procedures that prevent many young children of undocumented immigrants from being able to advance themselves in our society through education.

There are those political observers who are making a big deal out of Madigan’s rhetoric – citing the fact that he used to openly refuse to even talk with such activists. Now, he’s being sympathetic to their concerns.

Has Michael Madigan had a conversion experience?

I doubt it. About all that is really happening here is that Madigan is looking at political reality, and he is one of the biggest political animals amongst our local government officials.

THE FACT IS that there are significantly more Latinos in Illinois these days – just over 2 million of Illinois’ 12 million population is Latino. There are even more Latinos these days in Illinois than there are African-American people (who top out at about 1.8 million across the state).

That is why Latino activists have come out with their own statements about wanting more political representation – saying that by all rights, Latino population numbers could justify as many as 28 of the Illinois Legislature’s 177 House and Senate districts being drawn in their favor. Those activists say they’re willing to settle for 20, which is more than the 12 that have existed for the past decade.

Now some people like to point out the difficulties that exist in getting Latino voter turnout to match their share of the overall population, and use that as a reason to ignore such concerns.

But the reality is that, particularly in Chicago proper, there are many districts currently represented by white guys (including some of the most established political names like Burke, Lipinski and Madigan himself) that consist of a LARGE amount of Latino people.

SO WHEN I learn that Madigan is being sympathetic to the political concerns of Latino activists, I’d say it is not because he has some sudden sympathy for those issues. It’s about self-preservation.

He wants to keep himself in political office.

As recently as the 2010 election cycle, there was speculation that state Rep. Dan Burke, D-Chicago, in a neighboring district to Madigan, could lose because of the changing population.

Burke managed a slim win because he got the remaining non-Latino people to turn out in force to back him against a Latino challenger. But eventually, such a strategy is not going to work.

MADIGAN SURELY DOESN’T want to be the first “victim” of Latino political growth come the 2012 election cycle. So he’s not about to say something blatantly stupid to energize the growing Latino electorate into wanting to dump him from office.

Madigan isn’t alone. This is something that long-time 13^th Ward Alderman Ed Burke is going to have to deal with, as will Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., just to name a couple. The fact that they’re the holders of some of the long-time names of Chicago politics won’t save them.

In fact, when I consider the possible restructuring of Illinois’ congressional districts to create a  second Latino from the state in the U.S. House of Representatives, I see that with just minimal changes, Lipinski’s district is the logical choice for conversion.

There are those people who are going to argue that it is somehow wrong to even take ethnic or racial aspects into consideration when setting political boundaries (although it always seems that their “ideal” districts wind up being represented by a batch of white guys). They may have a point that one does not have to be a Latino in order to represent Latinos in the General Assembly or Congress, since most districts wind up having a variety of people who all have to be covered by one public official.

BUT THE FACT remains that even if the incumbent white officials in these growing Latino parts of the city and suburbs manage to maintain their political posts, they are going to have to be respectful of, and sympathetic to, the portion of their constituencies that ARE Latino. If you don’t think that a Latino is entitled to a ward or district, I’d argue where is it said that a “Burke” or anyone like him is owed one either?

Lipinski as the “second” Illinois Congressman from a Latino district may find himself having to alter his attitudes (and some of the people he currently aligns himself with) if he wishes to have a political future.

Perhaps he could even take his lead from Madigan, who seems to be altering his own viewpoint to accommodate the people who he will wind up representing.

Michael Madigan as the Conferensista of the Illinois House? It may be the only way he gets to keep that precious “Speaker” title until he’s ready to voluntarily retire.

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