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: Franco Reyes
Ward: 38th
Current job: Software Engineering Manager – Provi
Previous political experience: None
Education: Bachelors in Computer Science – Northern Illinois University 09
Spouse’s occupation: Student
Sources of outside income: Salary from Provi
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.
In addition to ensuring that CPD has enough officers to patrol the city and have proper resources such as mental health services, and sane schedules. The city government can address issues that cause crime such as poverty, lack of mental health care, lack of educational and job opportunities. Another issue that needs to be addressed is building community trust in CPD by ensuring that officers that break the law are held accountable. One aspect that can also help build community trust is looking for ways to assist CPD in closing cases. We should investigate what blockers we face in this issue and find ways to address them. Do we not have enough detectives to investigate cases? Let’s potentially address the situation by hiring former detectives that are in good standing. Do we have an issue with witnesses not stepping forward? We should consider having a witness protection program or fund one properly and measure it’s effect on the situation.
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 CTA should begin by ramping up hiring of bus drivers to address the bus driver shortage. To address safety the CTA should introduce a method to allow people to report incidents silently in case they feel uncomfortable speaking up. This can be a text to a service that will allow a relevant agency to respond (homeless service for cases of homelessness on train, police to fine smokers or address other criminal activity).
To address scheduling the CTA needs to show which trains and buses are actually running on their trackers. If people see that scheduled buses and trains are not showing up they’ll lose faith in the system. Other steps that the CTA can take is to begin looking forward to seeing what steps can be taken to begin automating the train system to help increase the throughput of the system.
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?
The drop in enrollment is partially caused by families leaving the city. This needs to be addressed by ensuring families know that the city and CPS are safe and that CPS provides a great education.
To attract enrollment CPS should ensure that programs such as AP/IB classes are accessible to all students who are interested in them. Another measure CPS can take is increase the length of the school year to help make up for lost instruction time from the pandemic.
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.
One idea I have is for the city to address food deserts directly. If the city can not find a company to provide a grocery store then the city should create a co-op by recruiting community members with the relevant experience and having them run the store. The city will provide support by providing training and incentives to help get the store established.
I believe this is feasible since it shouldn’t be that hard to find people with experience working in retail. The city can also look for retail employees that want a chance of running their own store. The stores can also be a smaller format to limit startup costs. Once the stores get established the city can determine how to recoup its investment.
Do you support giving Chicagoans property tax relief? If yes, please explain how you would accomplish it. If no, please explain why not.
I would support giving tax relief in the form of exemptions for owner occupied units, seniors, and people with disabilities. My main focus on lowering the tax burden for Chicagoans will be laying the foundation in increasing the tax base by upzoning the city and allowing denser development. A lot of space in the city is wasted with drive-thrus or empty parking lots. Having more efficient use of the land will bring in more tax revenue per square foot which will allow easing of the tax burden on the average Chicagoan.
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 feel that the problems associated with TIFs outweigh their usefulness. However, I’m willing to consider TIFs if reforms address the process that determines if an area is “blighted”, lower the time frame in which funds are kept within a TIF, and make data available that allows us to determine if TIFs are effective in achieving their goal.
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?
I feel that the process can be expedited. One way to do this is to simplify the application form and find ways to reduce the time it takes for an application to be completed. Another step that can be taken is investigating the cycle time of the current process and addressing processes that are causing delays.
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 experience in working with internal departments, regulators and outside vendors in my current and past roles provides me the skills to navigate the many relations and rules an alderman would experience. Also my experience in running software teams by utilizing metrics to achieve product goals efficiently would be beneficial in providing city services.
What is the most pressing issue facing the people of your ward, and how would you address it?
Pressing issues that the ward currently faces is public safety. The ward is part of the 16th district which recently has seen a reduced number of officers patrolling the area. I will work with CPD to address this issue by encouraging the hiring of more officers, and find ways to reduce deskwork so that officers can spend more time on patrol.
Another pressing issue is the rising cost of living. The way I plan to tackle this is by allowing denser developments in our ward to make it more walkable. This provides multiple benefits such as decreasing car dependence by having amenities closer to people reducing the need for a car, an increase in tax base due to more efficient use of land putting less of a tax burden on residents, and increasing the housing supply which will help keep housing affordable.
Sum up why should voters elect you and not your opponent(s)? (Please limit this to policy and approach, not a biography recitation.)
Voters should elect me if they’re looking for an alderman that takes into account the long term development of the ward and city. A lot of the ward is car oriented which makes it harder to access amenities and services without a car. Car oriented developments are also a poor use of land and cost the city in missed tax revenues which results in higher taxes for us. A recent missed opportunity was in Sposato allowing a Starbucks drive-thru to be built by Harlem and Addison. This drive-thru will bring in less property tax revenue than a storefront with apartments were built in place and will further contribute to traffic on Harlem.
Another reason to vote for me is that I would work to address issues in a humane manner. We have a homeless person at Merrimac park. Sposato’s solution to the issue has been to remove the bus shelter they were residing in. A better solution would be to work with homeless services so that they could look for housing or family the person could stay with. In the end removing the bus stand didn’t help the homeless person and now residents using the bus stop in the future will be without a bus shelter.