September 8, 2010
SCHULTER, MORENO SECURE IN 2011 ALDERMANIC RCES IN 47TH & 1ST WARDS

ANALYSIS & OPINION BY RUSS STEWART

Here's an intuitive political insight: Geographic contiguity precipitates homogeneity. Conversely, noncontiguity precipitates diversity. Say what?

I'll simplify it: In the 47th Ward, encompassing the Ravenswood, North Center and Lincoln Square neighborhoods, where the immigrant population is nonexistent and the upscale white population dominant, 35-year Alderman Gene Schulter is impregnable. Schulter, age 62, has spent nearly 20 years methodically downzoning his ward, thereby blocking tear-downs, apartment conversions to condominiums and demographic change.

Call the ward "white haven." Extending from Foster Avenue to Addison Street, between the North Branch of the Chicago River and Clark Street, the ward is more than 70 percent owner-occupied, and it has a vibrant and eclectic array of small businesses along Irving Park Road, Lawrence Avenue, Montrose Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, Addison and Clark.

"It's a mostly homogenous ward," said Schulter, who was first elected in 1975. What he really means it that it's an almost entirely white ward, with the vast preponderance of housing units occupied by middle to upper class white families and with rentals high enough to discourage minorities. "When people buy here, they intend to stay here and raise their families here," Schulter said, adding that property values are stable and there are few foreclosures.

Of course, it helps that Schulter has $889,711 in his campaign account as he prepares for his 2011 reelection bid. He has one announced opponent: Ameya Pawar. Schulter won reelection in 2007 with 78.5 percent of the vote and in 2003 with 64.1 percent of the vote.

In Chicago's very noncontiguous 1st Ward, farther to the south, it's "diversity haven," but the political reality is the same: Recently appointed Alderman Proco "Joe" Moreno, like Schulter, is impregnable.

Encompassing all or part of Logan Square, Humboldt Park, Ukrainian Village, Wicker Park, East Bucktown and East Village, with 27 acres of public housing in the north end, the ward is a demographic hodgepodge: half upscale whites and half Hispanic. The ward is a U-shaped monstrosity, extending from Belmont Avenue south along Western Avenue to Chicago Avenue, east to Ashland Avenue, and north to North Avenue. Mexican Americans are replacing Puerto Ricans in the area west of Western Avenue.

Moreno, age 37, a printing company executive, is of Mexican heritage, and he fits the mold crafted by his predecessor, attorney Manny Flores, as an upscale Hispanic. Flores was elected in 2003, beating "Democratic Machine" incumbent Jesse Granato in the runoff by 5,290-3,717, with 58.7 percent of the vote. Flores was unopposed in 2007, getting 4,066 votes. In 2009 Governor Pat Quinn appointed the restive and ambitious Flores to a 5-year term as the $133,000-a-year chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission, the state body that regulates and sets rates for electricity, natural gas, telephone, water and sewer companies and interstate motor carriers and that inspects railroad crossings and tracks.

Flores is using the job to position himself for a future political run, making contacts that will fatten his future campaign war chest. He is aiming for Congress or countywide office in 2012 or 2014. Moreno was Flores' pick for his successor, and he had $55,855 in his campaign account as of June 30.

In 2008 Moreno ran for state senator in the North Side 2nd District, facing incumbent Willie Delgado, who was appointed to succeed Miguel del Valle after he was named city clerk by Mayor Rich Daley. All of the area's Puerto Rican Democratic committeemen backed Delgado, but Moreno still got 40.3 percent of the vote, won 28 of the 1st Ward's 31 precincts in the district, carried the 27th, 32nd and 35th wards, and raised and spent $250,000. Clearly, Moreno was a political comer.

Here's an analysis:

47th Ward: Since 1947 the ward has had only two aldermen, Republican John Hoellen and Schulter, who beat Hoellen in 1975. Schulter, who was a protege of Ed Kelly, ousted Kelly as the ward's Democratic committeeman in 2004.

Now the third most senior Chicago alderman, ranking behind Ed Burke (first elected in 1968) Berny Stone (1973), and equal to Dick Mell (1975), Schulter has grown neither complacent nor arrogant. He still has weekly ward "constituent nights" at his office. He has secured $185 million, including $35 million in federal "stimulus" funds, and $80 million in state Department of Transportation dollars, to rebuild 22 trestles and underpasses along Ravenswood Avenue from Addison Street to Balmoral Avenue over the next 4 years. At least $20 million in TIF funds will be used for Lawrence Avenue streetscaping, and a Sears-funded $50 million project is slated along the Metra tracks between Foster and Lawrence, including a grocery store and a health club and station improvements.

But Schulter cites three signature accomplishments:

First, as chairman of the City Council License Committee since 1990, he sponsored and got passed a citywide moratorium on the licensing of package liquor sales and taverns. "It sparked a renaissance," Schulter said. "It gave residents the ability to control their neighborhoods. Bars, drunkenness and disorderly conduct need not be tolerated."

Second, sounding much like a Republican, Schulter passed reforms to aid entrepreneurship. "There were over 300 separate business licenses," he said. "We reduced that to 70 to 75, assigned a 'manager' to each applicant, and made the city business-friendly. New businesses create jobs and generate taxes."

Finally, Schulter downzoned all of his ward's 52 precincts, an arduous process spanning two decades. "Virtually all the side streets in the ward, with 25-foot lots, were zoned R-4, dating back to the 1940s," Schulter said. "That meant every house could be razed and replaced with three- or four-unit condos, destroying any sense of livability and community."

Beginning in the early 1990s Schulter began block-by-block downzoning to R-2 and R-1. That necessitated community meetings, a formal rezoning filing, a hearing before the council's Zoning Committee and council approval. "All around, developers were buying knock-downs," he said. "In our ward, they couldn't. There are multi-unit buildings on most corners, some converted to condos, but we kept our single-family housing stock."

Politically, the ward is intensely liberal. Barack Obama carried the ward in 2008 by 24,343-4,636, getting 82.7 percent of the vote. Among the ward's residents are White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, county Commissioner Forrest Claypool, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and state Comptroller Dan Hynes. For decades, Schulter feuded with Ed Kelly, his erstwhile mentor, finally deposing him as Democratic committeeman in 2004.

The outlook: Schulter said that former 32nd Ward alderman Ted Matlak spent $800,000 in 2007 and lost. "I need to be prepared" for 2011, he said. Pawar is running on a "change" platform, calling for term limits. But residents of the 47th Ward are quite content with their own little paradise. They want no change, and they definitely don't want a new alderman.

1st Ward: Money is the mother's milk of politics, and Moreno knows a cow from a steer. By quickly raising $55,000 and being on a track to amass $200,000 through 2011, Moreno has intimidated all opposition.

The ward is about 45 percent owner-occupied, predominantly in the east end, and the huge 27-acre Lathrop Homes CHA project in the north end of the ward, near Diversey and Elston avenues, is being redeveloped. According to Moreno, a plethora of small businesses and boutiques are thriving along Milwaukee Avenue. The former Cooper Lamp factory, with $10 million in TIF funding, is being converted into 80 condominium units and retail space.

"The issue (for the election) is jobs and safety," said Moreno, who pays for a volunteer graffiti-removal team. "We cannot wait two weeks for the (city's) 'graffiti blasters.' We need the tagging removed immediately." Moreno said that almost a third of his office's calls involve gang issues.

The alderman also created a phone tree system, in which hundreds of ward residents call others, and eventually his office, to report suspicious activity. He has a "defuser" operation, under the Cease Fire program, to intervene in gang-related situations.

But Moreno's top priority is efficiency. "We simply must make the city run better and cheaper," he said, referring to the looming $650 million budget deficit. "There's no reason why sanitation and street cleaning should be by wards, not by grids. That would save seven to eight million dollars. Every alderman should have ideas to save money."

The outlook: Moreno's been an alderman since January. His office sends information on city services by text message, and it sends out 8,000 e-mail newsletters quarterly. To date, Moreno has no opposition, largely because the ward is so diffuse, so noncontiguous, and so difficult to organize. In 2003 Flores capitalized on anti-Granato sentiment in Wicker Park and split the Hispanic vote.

Moreno is really positioning himself for 2015, when the ward will be split and the Hispanic west end will be the core of a new ward. Does he follow his Logan Square/Humboldt Park Hispanic constituents into a new ward? Or does he stick with his affluent Wicker Park/Bucktown yuppies?

48th Ward (Edgewater): In a notable development, state Representative Harry Osterman (D-14) will run for the seat of retiring Alderman Mary Ann Smith, who succeeded his mother, the late Kathy Osterman, in 1989. In Chicago, being an alderman is the top of the food chain, and the family business always perseveres.