Linda Sánchez

The Tribune Editorial Board continues its endorsements in races for aldermanic seats in Chicago’s Feb. 28 municipal election.

8th Ward

The time is ripe for a leadership change in this South Side ward that includes parts of the Avalon Park, Burnside, Calumet Heights, Chatham, Pullman, South Chicago and South Shore neighborhoods. Since 2006, Michelle Harris has been the alderman of a ward where murders and shootings persist at intolerable rates, and disinvestment keeps long stretches of storefronts abandoned. We don’t doubt Harris’ commitment to serving the city, but 8th Ward residents still await tangible results.

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Linda Hudson is a longtime community organizer who says Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Invest South/West initiative has yet to deliver for the ward’s distressed business community. “It looks like a third world country,” Hudson tells us, referring to the sight of boarded-up storefronts on major streets. “We’re wondering when it’s going to start, because we’re not seeing anything. I see no investment in my ward at all.”

Hudson says the ward needs a marketing plan that lays out the strategy for an economic comeback, pop-up stores that can test whether a new business idea will take hold, and better access to capital for small business owners. Also running is Sean Flynn, former chief of staff for Ald. David Moore, 17th. Flynn has commendable ideas about reaching out to youths in high-crime neighborhoods, but Hudson is the better choice. She is endorsed.

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9th Ward

No one can say that Ald. Anthony Beale hasn’t delivered for his ward. The Pullman National Historical Park is a South Side gem. Also built under Beale’s watch: Pullman Park, which includes a Walmart, an Amazon delivery station, a Whole Foods distribution center and Method, the environmentally friendly cleaning products manufacturer. The sprawling project has generated nearly 1,500 jobs and represents a sorely needed shot in the arm for the 9th Ward. The project was kick-started with tax increment financing money, and represents the right way to tap TIF funding to tackle blight.

Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, speaks at a Labor Day groundbreaking ceremony at the Pullman National Monument on Sept. 7, 2020, to mark additional site work kicking off and commemorating the area's significance to the Labor movement. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Beale’s opponents are Cameron Barnes, a former national youth director for Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and Cleopatra Draper, a social work consultant. Both are young, energetic voices in the community, but Beale’s track record speaks for itself. He is endorsed.

10th Ward

Incumbent Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza’s decision to not seek reelection leaves this Southeast Side seat open. Óscar Sanchez, a 25-year-old urban planner, says he is fed up with this far-flung ward along the border with northwest Indiana being treated as the city’s ashcan. For decades, Black and Latino families on the Southeast Side have lived amid garbage dumps, toxic waste, Superfund sites and polluted air and water. The final straw came with City Hall’s decision to allow a Lincoln Park scrap metal recycler with a track record for pollution to move to the Southeast Side.

Oscar Sanchez in Chicago's Hegewisch neighborhood on Feb. 18, 2021. Sanchez was one of several protesters who had been on a hunger strike, drawing attention to concerns about a scrap shredder under construction in the East Side neighborhood. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Residents had enough, opposed the move and forced the Lightfoot administration to reverse the permit approval for General Iron, the scrap recycler, and RMG, the company with which it merged. Sanchez was a part of that movement, and even went on a 30-day hunger strike to protest General Iron’s plans.

Sanchez wants businesses to come in, but rather than inviting polluters, he would push for green businesses and green jobs. A good place to start, he says, would be South Works, lakefront land in the ward that has remained fallow ever since U.S. Steel shut down its operations there in 1992. To decide what kind of development to pursue for South Works, Sanchez says he would first survey residents and get their input. “I want it to come from a data-driven approach,” he tells us.

Also running are Yessenia Carréon, a former community health and response coordinator; Ana Guajardo, an ex-union official; and Chicago police Officers Peter Chico and Jessica A. Venegas. Sanchez is endorsed.

11th Ward

Incumbent Nicole Lee was appointed nearly a year ago to replace Patrick Daley Thompson, who was convicted last year of tax evasion and lying to federal bank regulators, and is a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley. She is the City Council’s first female Asian American alderman and the first woman to represent the ward, which includes Bridgeport and Chinatown.

Ald. Nicole Lee. 11th, prepares Jan. 29, 2023, before the Lunar New Year Parade through Chinatown. The annual event, this year celebrating the start of the Year of the Rabbit, returned for the first time since the pandemic. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

We like her commitment to improving public safety by, as she puts it, “taking on gangs that have been terrorizing our neighbors for too long,” while at the same time tackling “root causes of violence by investing in historically neglected communities and by generating jobs and economic opportunity in areas where options have been limited for too long.”

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Like us, she backs the Red Line extension to the Far South Side, a long-term project that would dramatically help create transit equity for that part of the city. Lee’s background includes work at United Airlines managing the carrier’s relationships with charities, as well as similar social engagement experience at BP America and Premier Bank.

She is the clear choice over her opponents: lawyer Steve Dimitro, businesswoman Elvira “Vida” Jimenez, high school civics teacher Froylan “Froy” Jimenez, substitute teacher Ambria Taylor, Chicago police instructor Anthony Ciaravino and Donald Don, a Chicago firefighter. Lee is endorsed.

12th Ward

After George Cardenas left the City Council to serve on the Cook County Board of Review, Lightfoot last December appointed his former chief of staff, Anabel Abarca, as his replacement for this remapped ward, which will now include Brighton Park and McKinley Park. Abarca’s opponent is Julia Ramirez, whose job as a re-engagement specialist at Chicago Public Schools entails helping students who have been expelled reengage with education, either at their previous high school or at an alternative high school.

Ald. Anabel Abarca, 12th, speaks in favor of the Red Line extension during a Chicago City Council meeting on Dec. 14, 2022. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Both Abarca and Ramirez are young, smart and articulate. They both support, as we do, expanding funding for violence prevention and street outreach programs, a public safety strategy that has consistently shown it can reduce crime by connecting with teens and young men at risk of either becoming perpetrators of shootings or shooting victims themselves. They each also back TIF reform and ramping up security on CTA trains and buses.

However, we disagree with Ramirez’s opposition to charter schools, which give parents more choice when it comes to their children’s education. Both candidates would serve their constituents well, but Abarca and her government experience, which also includes work as a staffer in U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley’s office, gives her the edge. She is endorsed.

13th Ward

Paul Bruton has a tough task ahead of him. He faces incumbent Ald. Marty Quinn, who’s been on the City Council since 2011 and is a longtime ally of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, now facing trial on corruption charges. The 13th Ward is Madigan turf, and Bruton acknowledges that when he goes door to door, many residents “aren’t bothered at all” by the charges against Madigan, and Quinn’s strong connections to the one-time Illinois Democratic Party kingmaker. Others, however, tell Bruton that Madigan’s allies in the ward “have to go,” he tells us.

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Bruton says he has been a stay-at-home dad since 2018. His previous work experience includes a four-year stint as an analyst at the Chicago inspector general’s office, which provides the crucial function of ferreting out waste, mismanagement and inefficiency in city government. It’s hard to imagine a better lead-up to becoming an alderman.

Bruton says one of the biggest challenges for this Southwest Side ward is the body blow that the pandemic delivered to the 13th’s small businesses. “I will study what types of businesses our ward is lacking, and actively recruit and work with local entrepreneurs to fill those gaps,” Bruton tells us.

Quinn doesn’t try to hide his Madigan alliance. “I’m not going to rewrite history,” he tells us. “We’ve done some good things.” He cites his oversight of nearly $300 million invested in 13th Ward schools, including the Southwest Side’s first selective enrollment school. He adds, “I personally shovel snow and my staff removes graffiti and cleans up shuttered buildings so quickly, they rarely can be found in the ward.”

That’s admirable, but Quinn’s long-standing ties to Madigan are a bridge too far for us, and they should be for 13th Ward voters. Bruton is endorsed.

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