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: Cleopatra Draper
Ward: 9th
Current job: Phalanx Family Services September 2022 – Present Social Work Consultant, Midway Broadcasting Corporation March 2019-Present Radio Personality WVON 1690 AM Talk of Chicago as “Your Favorite Millennial”
Previous political experience: In 2019, I ran for Alderman, 9th ward. We earned 25% of the vote against Anthony Beale. At that time, he was a 20-year incumbent. Since then, we have remained committed to bringing roses to Roseland while demanding better leadership for the 9th Ward.
Education: I was born and raised in the City of Chicago. Uniquely, I have been to 4 public funded schools and institutions throughout my life. Deeply rooted in public education, I earned a Bachelor’s degree from Eastern Illinois University and a Masters in Social Work from Jane Addams College of Social Work at University of Illinois at Chicago.
Spouse’s occupation: Alumni Success Coach Lead Noble Network of Charter Schools
Sources of outside income: N/A
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.
Often, high crime is found among hyperconcentrated areas of poverty found across the west and south sides of Chicago. These regions are deserts of essentials, but home to hard working families fighting to overcome divestment. The City of Chicago needs to address the rooted causes of crime. Some urgent steps should be to rapidly provide equitable funding to improve school culture and climate, an influx of tangible resources for youth, and an increase in employment opportunities paying a livable wage. Lastly, incentivizing home ownership to stabilize wards of color, and small businesses to stimulate the local economy.
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.
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) should strongly consider activating a stand alone law enforcement or security to ensure passengers safety especially throughout oppressed wards that are plagued by mental illness, poverty, and violence. The physical presence would give passengers a sense of safety knowing someone is there to respond to their needs for support and help. It is my goal for our office to be a partner of sister agencies like CTA and others across the city to meet the needs of residents in the 9th Ward.
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?
CPS needs to invest equitably in schools, particularly those on the west, south, and southwest sides of chicago. 96% of non-selective schools are predominantly black and brown. Chicago Public Schools must increase desirability amongst our youth and parents. By doing so, equity looks like a Social Worker, Nurse, Psychiatrist on-call in every school. Along with cleanliness, well resourced, with faculty and staff.
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.
As a Community Organizer, the number one complaint from residents on the far south side of Chicago is that we’re not informed, properly communicated to or with, often “volun-told” businesses that will come and go, how our TIF is applied or not, and the absolute lack of transparency from leadership. This poor communication has been the ongoing historical building blocks of how the instability of the west and south side communities decades ago began to unfold. Enhancing the quality of life and climate of 9th ward will be my top priority and in order to be effective, I must streamline communication to ensure residents have an opportunity to participate in our local democracy. Ultimately, my realistic ideal is the same path that my team and I believe will bring us to victory, which is door knocking. The methodology it took to earn support, trust, and votes, must be applied to learn every resident and their preferred mode of communication, technological capability, immediate needs, and skill sets. As it stands today, that information is nonexistent, but if gathered and stored it could create a strong, intentional, communicative database that would be transformative. To do so, I desperately want to reinstate precinct captains and area coordinators to support the needs and vision of a better 9th ward.
Do you support giving Chicagoans property tax relief? If yes, please explain how you would accomplish it. If no, please explain why not.
When I am elected, I will invite the Cook County Treasurer’s office to the 9th Ward to work in partnership to provide tax relief to our most vulnerable residents to ensure they are taking advantage of the exemptions. This partnership is imperative to help residents save their homes. I support giving Chicagoans property tax relief. We must not sell another asset of the City of Chicago for relief. Instead, we must be innovative. The instability of our city has been reflective of those that have taken flight and corporations that relocated due to the increase in property taxes.
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?
TIF has a long and checkered history in our city, but has also funded significant public infrastructure projects. In order to manage TIF, I would make sure it is reformed to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not given to developers and private companies, but instead focused on public infrastructure, green-space, public schools, affordable housing and the incubation of small business districts.
For decades, my incumbent has abused TIF by hyper concentrating in one exclusive area of the 9th Ward. For the record, the resurrection of Pullman as the 1st National Monument in Chicago is a win for us all, but the collapse of Roseland and the surrounding communities has pushed Black families out of the city in record breaking numbers because of their poor quality of life as a result. Moving forward, the most important TIF district in my ward is Roseland, which is the nucleus of the far south region. The stabilization of Roseland will restore the necessary balance to better the 9th Ward. A new pivot is to include community in the oversight of the TIF commissioned independent of Aldermanic prerogative.
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 City of Chicago has more lead service lines than any other city in the country. Unfortunately, at our current pace, it would take a few hundred years to replace our service lines, and that’s unacceptable. We must put an aggressive plan in place. This opportunity could be a mega boom for training and employment for people of color and low-income communities. America is the richest country in the world, Chicago is the 3rd largest city in the country, and yet we struggle with innovative opportunities to reduce the environmental harm of an absolute basic survival need such as water. Lets us look no further than to our neighbors to the north, Evanston, prioritize their service line replacement, not only by the income of residents, but if the homes are located on blocks where the water main has previously been replaced and are within a low-to-moderate income area. They’re proactively reaching residents as opposed to waiting for them to apply like in Chicago.
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.
Not answered.
What is the most pressing issue facing the people of your ward, and how would you address it?
It is a cruel fact that some Black or African-American residents across the city of Chicago have a poor quality of life riddled with inequities across the spectrum. There is substantial data that indicates the lives of residents who live in my zip code, 60628, will be cut short due to the lack of investment in our communities. The most pressing issue facing the 9th ward residents is surviving a food desert. Geographically, my ward is one of the largest, and is home to more than 50,000 people and definitively we do not have 1 fresh produce grocery store. Big box stores have a historical pattern of abandoning African American wards. My plan is to welcome, support, and work across inter-government to help fund the stability of small owned and operated businesses that will increase fresh food and produce access. The incubation of “ma & pop” grocers is my safest investment. If we learned anything during the height of the global pandemic is that America’s economy is fueled by 50% or more small businesses and the 9th ward should considerably follow suit by enacting invest south/west and other financial supportive programs to meet our needs.
Sum up why should voters elect you and not your opponent(s)? (Please limit this to policy and approach, not a biography recitation.)
Simply put, my opponent was elected years before the most transformative device was ever invented, which is the iphone. On top of that, the worldwide social connector most famously known as, Facebook. These 2 entities changed the way the world operates forever. What this speaks to is time, rapid evolution, and how pertinent it is for our electoral politics to do the same. Ultimately, change is constant and inevitable.
For 24-years, the residents of the 9th have lived so far south that often we’re forgotten or clustered with the overarching reach of “south side,” which distinctly differs. Through the decades, my opponent was lock step with both the Daley and Emmanuel Administration, so much so, he voted in support of closing 50 public schools, some of whom were in the 9th ward, and many others across predominantly Black and Brown wards, chronicled silence during the attempted cover up of the murder of LaQuan McDonald and the payout to a number of Black Aldermen he being one. Not to mention his falsehood of supporting labor, but voting against the city’s most historical Major Project Labor Agreement (MPLA) to welcome Bally’s Casino, the first of its caliber in our city, that will increase livable wages for working families of color. Lastly, his tumultuous, unprofessional relationship with Mayor Lightfoot has borne no fruit for my ward or our residents. In fact, his hell bent relentless spirit to not work in partnership furthered his abuse of Aldermanic prerogative by blocking the Request For Proposal (RFP) to invest south/west in our Roseland business district. Through the decades of his tenure, he has been successful in overseeing crippling and destabilizing our local economy in Roseland. Furthermore, by blocking the RFP, demonstrated his cruelty to not work in the best interest of the residents of the 9th ward.
Frankly, in reflection of my commitment to serve as Alderperson, I am the new blood our residents have longed for, I possess the fighting spirit we need to revitalize, and the energy to build a structure of a better 9th ward we deserve. In 2019, I challenged the incumbent and we earned 25% of the vote. From that moment in time, our lives have not improved and aldermanic services are limited and were nonexistent during the height of the global pandemic. I, on the other hand, stepped up and founded Roses in Roseland 501(c) (3). My nonprofit quarterly held our “Give & Go” disbursement of essentials to residents such as: mask, hand sanitizer, body soap, diapers, feminine products, detergent, toothpaste, and toothbrushes. Surviving a food desert is challenging and our distribution of essentials is to help families overcome. Where I call home is destitute to more than 50,000 people and I am steadfast in eradicating decades of thorns by installing beds of roses. Bottom line, we need a leader that can work when times are tough, relationships strained, and resources are few, and I am stepping up again to serve the people of the 9th ward because I possess that and much more. Overall, I, along with many residents, believe it is time for new leadership in the 9th ward.