Rival Aldermanic Factions Agree On A Ward Map

It looks as thought African American and Hispanic aldermen have reached an agreement on a new ward map.

It’s (almost) all over but the shouting between black and Hispanic aldermen over their rival ward remapping proposals. A compromise has been reached on a new ward map that includes 18 majority black wards, 13 majority Hispanic wards, and two wards of Hispanic influence.

The City Council Black and Hispanic Caucuses have argued for weeks over the remapping process. Latino aldermen have stated a new ward map should reflect the gains in Chicago’s Hispanic population between the 2000 and 2010 Censuses. African American aldermen feared the decline in the city’s black population over that same time frame would cost them wards.

The compromise was reached after consultant Allan Lichtman, hired by City Council to help in the remap process, approved of the new map. 25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis, chair of the City Council Hispanic Caucus, said Lichtman’s approval was a key condition of the agreement between the two parties and that the map could be defended for deviating from the benchmark that every ward have 52,900 residents.

Solis said, “We need a clear and coherent narrative that, not only we understand but the public can understand of how this map will be defensible to a legal challenge. We just want him to have a further conversation with our attorney, Mike Kasper, since he went through this” when legislative and congressional maps were drawn to coincide with the 2010 U.S. Census.

Mayor Emanuel, who was hopeful an agreement would be reached, called a special City Council meeting today for public hearings on the new map. A vote could be held Thursday.

But the map doesn’t appease everyone. 23rd Ward Ald. Mike Zalewski is still opposed to the changes. His ward’s new boundaries would make it 60 percent Hispanic. 15th Ward Ald. Toni Foulkes and 16th Ward Ald. Joann Thompson would reside in the same ward, meaning only one of them would survive.

Other aldermen who could be endangered by the remap include Robert Fioretti (2nd); James Balcer (11th); Nicholas Sposato (36th).