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: Denali Dasgupta
Ward: 39th
Current job: Principal & Founder, Higher Ground Data
Previous political experience: No previous elected or appointed political positions
Education: B.A. in Linguistics from Yale University; Master of Urban Planning, Housing, and Economic Development from New York University
Spouse’s occupation: University of Chicago Parking and Transportation Coordinator
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.
I’m a childhood survivor of terrorism and violent gun crime and I deeply understand how the effects of violent crime can change a person’s life. My experience working as a researcher with youth development and violence prevention programs in Chicago’s most affected communities have also given me a close look at the ways that violence in a community is violence to a community.
Enacting violence prevention means we need to focus on identifying conflicts and safety threats before they escalate to violent crime.We need to repair trust and community connection, provide information, and begin to center survivors, not just those directly affected but the individuals and communities whose sense of safety is shattered by violent crime. We need greater community participation and oversight in public safety and policing, including ECPS and the Peace Book. We need community violence prevention initiatives that develop authentic and trusted community relationships to identify potential threats and intervene with individuals and families, such as Treatment Not Trauma and family crisis support for domestic violence and child abuse and those affected by violent crime.
It means investing in trained professionals and stronger response systems and expanded domestic violence supports instead of spending more on surveillance technology that compromises all of our safety and privacy or unreliable and expensive systems like Shotspotter. It means creating better networks of community information, engagement, and oversight, starting this year with the new ECPS District Commissioners. Our campaign has been talking and listening to neighbors about public safety and across the board people are eager to talk with their neighbors and not just worry on NextDoor or Citizen.
Reducing violent crime long term and sustainably means making long term commitments in making people well, whole, and safe. When I look at what people in my ward call 911 for I see a lot of mental health calls, well-being checks, and domestic disturbances are high on the list. Citywide, we also saw a spike in overdoses and substance related deaths. Along with violent crime these reveal despair and need that we cannot continue to ignore.
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.
I rely on public transit to get around during the day with my two youngest children and there are plenty of times we’ve been stranded in the freezing cold waiting for buses that keep disappearing from the tracker. It sounds obvious but when transit isn’t reliable people can’t rely on it. And when people can’t rely on it, they don’t use it. We can’t afford to let one of our greatest assets turn into a system of last resort.
One of the biggest projects I worked on as a policy analyst in the New York City Comptroller’s office was fighting the largest proposed cuts to the New York City Transit system up to that point. Doing that work I learned that maintaining a large system that covers communities of mixed density requires tremendous investment. To get the CTA’s fiscal house in order, I would recommend reducing the expected portion of farebox revenue and our system until ridership increases to system sustaining levels. I would also increase ridership by advocating for free CTA access for all CPS students.
Safety is a huge priority and making public transportation accessible and desirable makes our communities safer. In my experience on systems with dedicated transit police forces I have not felt substantially safer having experience both a violent attack and repeat searches and profiling. I would support conductor and ambassador programs to put more people trained in de-escalation and customer support in our public transit systems. I think these programs would also increase the accessibility and usability of our systems for residents and visitors alike.
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?
Rumors of the demise of Chicago Public Schools are greatly exaggerated. Each year we treat declining enrollment like a crisis when it’s been a 20 year demographic trend that we should be treating with community consultation and better planning. The narrative that declining enrollment is a sign of failing schools and a leading indicator of a fiscal death spiral for our schools, our city, and our tax base is simply not true. In fact, declining enrollment has, at least for the moment, provided a scenario where we could have more funding per student than we did before.
Earlier this year, I took on this issue with a group of researchers and advocates. What we found is that the single largest factor in the decline is the declining birth rate and in general smaller cohorts of children. We haven’t always noticed this steady downward trend when we look at shorter time periods because of the effects of immigration, the growth of immigrant and first generation families, and the expansion of preschool within CPS. The share of children in the city not attending CPS has been relatively constant as has the rate at which families with school-aged kids move out of the city.
And while I don’t happen to think enrollment is the vital sign that other folks do, I do think that Chicago could increase its school population by making itself into a more family friendly city. I have three kids, ages 17, 5, and 1. I’ve spent a decade all over this city talking to families, community leaders, and youth, and I could write you a huge list of the big and small ways that families are struggling with wages, housing cost and availability, childcare access and cost, street safety, transportation and stable, well-funded schools.
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.
When disinvestment is so severe that it affects the health, safety, wellbeing and even life expectancy of the people in our city, it becomes more than an economic development issue: it’s a matter of justice. For this reason, I’d look to work happening in the environmental justice space to think about how to comprehensively document and address the ways that public services have been hollowed out and people have been asked to individually navigate the challenges of everyday life.
TIFs are a tool for capturing and redirecting public investment and as such should be used in the service of justice to reverse historical disinvestment in our communities of Color. I think creating dedicated local revenue streams for underinvested communities, similar to how the TIF program works, would help keep money in communities. Instead of being handed to a corporation or a developer, the diverted taxes could be community-directed toward local investments in support services and small business (the federal Community Reinvestment Act provides a potential model). This would begin to repair the damage done by disinvestment and create a sense of autonomy in communities that have
In addition to thinking about economic and community development, we have to remember that investing in communities means investing in people so I think it’s also fair for some of these diverted taxes to be returned to residents in the form of direct income, either through tax credits or cash. My research on high-cost debt and my time as a volunteer income tax preparer have shaped my views on how we meet people’s urgent needs after their communities have been pummeled by slow and fast rolling crises.
Do you support giving Chicagoans property tax relief? If yes, please explain how you would accomplish it. If no, please explain why not.
Yes, but to be serious about this there have to be certain conditions in place. We cannot cut critical spending and investment during a large scale social and economic recovery to provide short term relief. Nor can we try to make the difference up with regressive measures like fines and usage fees. We can make the share of our budget that comes directly from property tax a comparatively smaller portion and we can make the distribution of who pays how much of the levy more fair.
We can also provide property tax relief by making our property tax system more progressive and redistributing some of the burden from homeowners and working families to those better able to pay. For starters, we need to generate enough revenue to both fully fund our public services and put desperately needed dollars back in people’s pockets. The time has come to create new, progressive revenue streams by making corporations and wealthy individuals pay their fair share. It’s not small money. As an example, if the Fair Tax had passed, we could have gotten something like $80 million from Ken Griffin alone (cited to ProPublica). The Better Government Association and WBEZ found that Amazon is getting $741 million in tax breaks on its Chicago warehouses. SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana and the Illinois Child Care for All coalition have made a compelling case about how major corporate tax breaks could fund essential services for their employees and working families all across the city and state. It’s not small money!
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?
When Chicago citizens and taxpayers think about TIFs, they should ask to see receipts. Tax Increment Financing is supposed to be a way of redirecting and recapturing property tax dollars to spur investment but over time the program has spun out of control. For TIF reform I think we need to ask who is reaping the benefits of this investment and weigh it against the many other potential uses for that money locally and citywide. Frequently, TIFs are a tax break for private corporations, a public sector cleanup of a privately created problem, or an economic development fund “free money” for politicians and developers. Right now the problems outweigh the benefits in part because the incentives for misuse are so great and there isn’t enough community oversight.
TIF reform should include greater transparency and local control around TIF disbursement spending. There needs to be a higher burden to demonstrate why public funds should be diverted. Along with having to provide information about why a TIF is economically useful, proposed TIFs should also have to make the case that the TIF offers reinvestment in the wake of disinvestment and demonstrates public engagement in the development process. Additionally, greater attention should be paid to TIF partnerships and campaign contributions to ensure that elected officials aren’t profiting off our tax dollars and our political power.
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?
The pace of lead service lines must be expedited. Lead in the water is a public health crisis most directly and severely affecting the development of young children. Infrastructure is a public sector concern and as the department that maintains the service lines, the City of Chicago needs to step up. However, the urgency, severity, and scale of the need might not be something the City can effectively handle right away. Historically, the federal government has provided funding for wastewater and safe drinking water under a variety of conditions for state and local matching. Additionally, in 2022 the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law put $50 billion towards improving drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater funding. In this case and in many others, the City doesn’t have to go it alone and can’t afford to leave any money on the table.
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.
At this moment, with so much need in our city but also so much potential and so much power being mobilized, a position of elected leadership is the place where I can deliver for my community and help bring about change for our city. I’ve held a variety of jobs in and around the public and human service sectors in research and advocacy but always with the clear goal of making systems work better for the public. I’ve conducted affordable housing research to help illuminate the extent of housing precarity, ensured that transit systems and public schools get their fair share of funding, and improving programming for young people in foster care and the justice system. As a researcher, I helped build the kind of practical and programmatic evidence base that I’m proud to see Chicago’s City Council drawing on when they look for creative and innovative ways to tackle complex problems.
Throughout my career, I’m most proud of the ways that I’ve brought the voices of affected people into policy, practice, and budgetary decisions. I’ve gravitated towards projects where I could work closely with children, youth, families, and frontline workers, hear their stories, and translate those insights into programmatic and policy changes. I think the stories and experiences of people in communities should be in the rooms where decisions are made and I believe that the only results and measurements that matter are the ones that meaningfully connect with people’s lives.
The work is also personal for me. The experiences I’ve had in my own life and both the hardship but also the incredible courage and strength in community that have affected the people in my life and those I’ve had the privilege to work with bring me to the table each day with renewed belief that we can do something each day to move towards a better, more just, and sustainable future.
What is the most pressing issue facing the people of your ward, and how would you address it?
My campaign is an ask to my community to expect more from its leaders: transparency, responsiveness, a commitment to justice, and an invitation to build our community together. It’s also an ask for every neighbor to show up and participate – to share their experiences, observations, and visions so we can create a ward that works for everyone.
When I’m talking to voters I like to say “Ask me about local government” because I think that people don’t often know what’s possible. We’ve had a tremendous awakening when it comes to recognizing the importance of politics and policy but people are still not quite sure what their local elected officials can do.
I believe that local government plays a critical role creating and stewarding inclusive communities where people work together to make a home. When people work in partnership with leaders who are accountable to their community and value active civic engagement, that’s when we have the power to make real change in our neighborhoods. It’s not something done to us or for us. It’s something we do together.
Sum up why should voters elect you and not your opponent(s)? (Please limit this to policy and approach, not a biography recitation.)
Our current challenges are urgent and complex. They require courage, compassion, and creativity. They require a willingness to take on systemic challenges and not just look for quick fixes. My 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Aronstein was a huge fan of President Kennedy and used to play his speeches for us. Kennedy said that we choose things “not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”
Today, at the crossroads of crisis and possibility, taking decisive and bold action can feel as daunting or improbable as trying to go to the moon, but we can do it. I’m so proud to run with this challenger class of organizers, advocates, educators, and activists. For my part, I’m bringing my own skills as a researcher, a budget enthusiast, and an experienced partner in turning experience into evidence and policy into action.
It’s exhausting to hear that every election is the most important election of our time but it’s also hopeful. This election we have the chance to repair and tend to our communities and institutions. We have the choice to do something today that can change the Chicago of tomorrow or we can return to business as usual, a strategy that wasn’t working now and that fails us a little more each day. I think that’s the choice the voters of the 39th ward will have on the ballot this February and I hope they’ll choose to build a better ward with my neighbors and me.