To inform voters and to help the baiduhai Editorial Board make endorsements, the board posed a series of questions to the candidates running for alderman. See their answers below. See how other candidates answered here.
Name: Nick Ward
Ward: 48th
Current job: Candidate for 48th Ward Alderman, previously Booking Manager at Young Chicago Authors
Previous political experience: Goudy Elementary Local School Council Community Representative
Education: Bachelor of Fine Arts, Miami University
Spouse’s occupation: My partner is a unionized flight attendant.
Sources of outside income: None
The rise in violent crime remains a top priority for City Hall. Homicides, shootings and carjackings are all unacceptably high. Tell us how city government can be innovative in combating crime, and explain what measures you would propose if elected.
Everyone deserves to feel safe in their home, school, workplace, and community. I believe that investing in care-based strategies that get to the roots of violence in our communities will improve public safety.
I support allocating funds towards community-led violence prevention initiatives, like the Peace Book Ordinance, and domestic violence and substance abuse programs. I also support reopening the public mental health clinics and establishing Treatment Not Trauma, which would create a non-police crisis response system for mental health related emergencies to better serve our neighbors and reduce their exposure to the criminal justice system. These strategies would not only provide a non-violent, dignified, and evidence-based model to treat people undergoing mental health crises, but also create hundreds of good-paying unionized city jobs. We also need to invest in expungement clinics and rehabilitation programs for formerly incarcerated people and work with federal, city, and state agencies to allow residents with criminal records to access employment, housing, and other social services.
As Alderman, I will work closely with newly-elected district council members, community organizations, district commanders, and 48th Ward residents to increase police accountability and public safety in our neighborhood. I believe that adding more lights in streets and alleyways and revitalizing commercial corridors like Bryn Mawr to garner more foot traffic will increase public safety as well. I believe tight-knit communities are safer, so I will expand community events like movies in the park, street festivals, and night markets that bring people together.
The CTA, one of the nation’s largest transit systems, remains a troubled agency grappling with issues ranging from violent crime and ghost buses and trains, to flagging ridership. Give us your thoughts on what specific measures CTA should take to make train and bus service safer, more reliable and more equitable for Chicagoans.
To increase reliability and frequency of service, Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago Department of Transportation need to hire more union workers and improve working conditions to increase service, reliability, and maintenance across the city. CTA needs to increase pay for transit operators and decrease the amount of time it takes to progress to a higher pay grade. CTA also needs better working conditions for transit operators, including establishing more flexible scheduling practices and reducing the number of responsibilities operators have on the road.
Increasing service on CTA and hiring more conductors and transit operators so no worker or transit rider is ever alone in a station, bus, or train will improve safety. I also support installing public restrooms at train stations and funding more cooling and heating centers across the city, so that people experiencing homelessness don’t have to rely on CTA as one of the only cheap climate-controlled places in Chicago.
Ten years ago, enrollment at Chicago Public Schools was 403,000 students. In September, enrollment stood at 322,000 students. Enrollment at CPS has dropped for 11 consecutive years. What specific measures should CPS undertake to reverse the trend of ever-dwindling enrollment?
When I joined the Local School Council at Goudy Elementary, I immediately formed a Housing and Enrollment Subcommittee to examine why so many students were leaving the school. I discovered that rising rents in the neighborhood have contributed to an enrollment decline at nearly double the rate of CPS as a whole. In one instance, the conversion of the Khan Building, an affordable building close to Goudy, to luxury studios led to 90 students leaving Goudy from 2017-21. This is a story similar to many public schools across Chicago. An article that came out recently showed CPS’s enrollment has declined about 3% each year for the past decade because Black and brown students are being forced out of the city because families can’t afford to live here. I believe City Council needs to act now to stop the displacement of Black, Latinx, and Asian families, reinvest in our public schools, and make sure families can afford to live in this great city.
We also need to make sure our neighborhood schools are fully funded. I support shifting from a punitive student-based budgeting model, which ties funding to enrollment, towards a model based on need and equity. As Alderman, it’s important to me that I work proactively with our neighborhood schools, including drastically increasing language access services for students and their families and working with State and Federal legislators to help find public funding for improvement projects, like a new playground at Swift and a new roof at Senn.
Disinvestment on the South and West sides is a decades-long problem with myriad causes. Give us at least one innovative idea that you believe could play a role in reversing South and West side disinvestment, and explain why the idea is realistic and feasible.
I believe investing in the South and West sides must be governed by equity, non-displacement, and reversing segregation. These investments must also be led by South and West side residents and community organizations, not outside corporations looking to make profits. I look to the work that leaders like Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor have accomplished in fighting for community benefits agreements to protect housing for long-time residents, secure jobs for local workers, and invest in local businesses and schools.
Do you support giving Chicagoans property tax relief? If yes, please explain how you would accomplish it. If no, please explain why not.
Yes, I support property tax relief. Working class Chicagoans are squeezed by rising inflation while their wages have stagnated. I support relief for working class residents and exploring progressive revenue solutions.
I will work with my colleagues in the ILGA to lift the bans on progressive taxation and pursue policies that make corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share, including a digital ad tax, LaSalle Street tax, and corporate head tax. At the same time, there are a number of very easy solutions within the annual city budget that could free up funding for more social programs and public health initiatives. These include canceling the ShotSpotter contract ($10 million) and treating our city’s ash trees rather than chopping them down (estimated $42 million could be saved). I will also pursue re-structuring the real estate transfer tax (RETT) to fund permanent supportive housing via the Bring Chicago Home ordinance. This would affect 4% of sales on properties over $1 million and provide an approximate $168 million annually.
Give us your take on the city’s use of tax increment financing districts. Do you feel they have been useful, or do you feel that the problems associated with them outweigh their usefulness? What if any reforms would you want to apply to the city’s usage of TIFs?
I believe the appropriate use of TIFs is for public good rather than private gain. TIF funds that are invested in public works projects in the 48th Ward—such as the Red and Purple Modernization Project and rehabilitation projects at local public schools—will benefit the entire community, increase traffic to local businesses, and ensure our students can learn in a safe environment.
We need to reform TIFs to be more accountable and transparent. This includes a higher frequency of public reporting, more aggressive sunsetting, more limited criteria to create TIFs, and City Council control or oversight. I look forward to working with other alderpeople, like Matt Martin, who have previously proposed TIF reform to more effectively deliver public community investment and increase transparency and accountability. We need to use those dollars for public investments that boost communities in need of critical development dollars, as TIFs were originally designed to do, and not extend the existing inequities of neighborhood financing in our city. For instance, I support using TIF funding for the Red Line expansion project on the South Side.
Lead in drinking water is a major health concern for the city. It is estimated that in Chicago there are roughly 400,000 homes and small apartment buildings with lead service lines. So far, the city has replaced less than 300 lead service lines. Do you feel the pace of lead service line replacement should be expedited, and if yes, what is the best, most feasible way to accomplish that?
Yes, I believe the pace of lead service line replacement needs to be rapidly expedited. While speaking with voters in the 48th Ward, I have found that many property owners find it difficult to access the city lead service line replacement subsidy program. I support vastly increasing public funding for lead pipe replacement for all homes regardless of income level.
If you are an incumbent, please explain what is it about your service on the City Council that makes you most qualified for the job. If you have never served on the council, please explain what is it about your background that makes you most qualified.
I believe my community service and policy experience have prepared me well to take over the job of 48th Ward Alderman. Prior to my decision to run for Alderman, I volunteered with the Uptown-Buena Park Solidarity Network. We delivered groceries to seniors, distributed direct cash payments to the recently unemployed, and gave out propane tanks to homeless residents during the Polar Vortex. Engaged in mutual aid organizing, I saw the needs of people in our community and how difficult it is for a small collection of volunteers to sustain this work without help from the government.
For the past four years, I worked at Young Chicago Authors (YCA), a thirty-year old arts organization that teaches creative writing to Chicago Public Schools students. YCA’s students and colleagues told me on many occasions how our work saved their lives. I believe that investing in more poetry, arts, athletics, robotics, chess programs, and more can have a profound impact on the life of a young person.
I worked in coalition over the past few years with many community organizations, like 48th Ward Neighbors for Justice, ONE Northside, and Northside Action for Justice, to fight for affordability, police accountability, equitable education, and environmental justice. Through these campaigns, I learned how a city budget is formed, how to analyze complex policy, and how decisions made in City Council affect residents living across Chicago. These experiences have prepared me to take on the role of legislator and pass policies that improve the lives of 48th Ward residents and all Chicagoans.
What is the most pressing issue facing the people of your ward, and how would you address it?
Affordability is the most pressing issue facing the people of the 48th Ward, from renters to owners to families and seniors. As Alderman, I will support expanding the Affordable Requirements Ordinance by raising the minimum affordability requirement and requiring more family-sized units to be built on site. I support the Just Cause Ordinance, which would eliminate no-cause evictions and protect families at risk of displacement. I also support preserving two- and three- flats near transit, which are among Chicago’s biggest sources of naturally-occurring affordable housing.
Sum up why should voters elect you and not your opponent(s)? (Please limit this to policy and approach, not a biography recitation.)
I announced my campaign for 48th Ward Alderperson in January of 2022 because I am confident that, with the right kind of leadership, we can better address the issues that affect us all: both the citywide priorities and the issues block by block in every neighborhood. The 48th Ward deserves an alderman who will champion compassionate, equitable ward services and understand and pass complex policies with strong values that support our most vulnerable neighbors. I believe I’m the only one who can bring all three of those pieces together.