That Other Ward

By Kevin Robinson in News on Feb 7, 2007 2:50PM

It seems like everyone is running for their old seat this year. Ambrosio Medrano in the 25th, Virgil Jones in the 15th Percy Giles in the 37th, and Wallace Davis Jr in the 2nd, all want their old jobs back. Add to that list former 35th Ward alderman Vilma Colom, (the only one, at least on this list), that didn't lose her job to a corruption conviction.

In a serious rematch with Rey Colon for her old seat, it seems that grudges in Chicago die hard. The story told by people that live there, people that remember when independent long-shot Colon took her seat away from her, is that Colom was the ultimate machine hack. Backed by the powers that be, she was everything you would come to expect from a Chicago hack: arrogant, over-confidant, unaccountable. A rallying point in that race back in '03 was what had been termed the "Abandominium", a monster development that was never completed, rife with zoning issues and developers trying to pull strings.

Not much has been written about this race, but the issues are still there. Like so many other ward races in communities that are making a come back, the direction of development is still an issue, and the face of the ward is a question many residents are still grappling with. Colon took some heat a while back over the Mega Mall at 2500 N. Milwaukee Ave, and whether or not the city would condemn it and redevelop the site. In a strange twist, the owner of the building invested some $2 million into bringing it up to code. This race isn't the first time Colon and Colom have gone head-to-head. no, this is a long-standing grudge match for power in the ward. With the past histories, Colom's very public mea culpas, and the similarity in names, this ward race is certainly a fun diversion.

photo via holgalicious