Old Idea Revisited
A comment that we fully supported....and took action on fifteen years ago:
- Isn't it time to downsize city government?
Do we really need "50" aldermen? How about cut it down to 22. The same number as police districts. Use those same boundaries as Wards.
Long time readers will recall that we ran a petition drive to halve the city council. We had printable petitions up on the site, emailed them to anyone asking and posted at desks across the city in all twenty-five police districts, five detective areas and numerous special units. Our intent was a ballot initiative for the voters to have a voice.
Retired Sergeant John Northen (RIP) agreed to be our stalking horse. To file the petitions and have it appear on the ballot, the signatures had to be collected, attested to, and if we recall, bound into sheaves of 100 pages each. We needed in the neighborhood of 110,000 signatures of registered voters.
After a month or two, in a Department of what was then around 12,000 individuals with access to spouses, parents, brothers, sisters, other city employees at firehouses, ward yards, etc,. and we barely got 11,000 signatures....11% if we recall.
So while it's a good idea, it wasn't feasible without a concerted effort by full-time petition collectors going door-to-door, setting up at grocery stores, transportation hubs (CTA, Metra stations) and high foot traffic locations downtown. That would have cost about $150K at early 2000 prices.
And that wouldn't even guarantee our initiative a spot on the ballot. Only three initiatives are permitted on the ballot and the Machine keeps a few nonsense ideas on the back burner to crowd out something serious. One election had a question about plastic straws/fast food packaging if we remember.
The fix is always in.
Labels: elections
posted by SCC at 12:05 AM
24 Comments:
The 50 grifters, and their many co-horts, would never allow this to happen, not even while they imagine fewer grifters = bigger graft pie pieces.
A den of thieves would be more open to reducing the number of thieves in the den.
To be the illusionary big fish/hog amongst other fish/hogs is their shared desire.
Kindred spirits of the grift.
The rational reason, honest rational, is the more wards/aldertwats, the fewer residents dwelling in each ward and the greater possibilty of a sufficient portion of a ward's residents could influence city government policies.
Not here, of course, as the flim flam of generations is the rule.
Johnny Northside was a rebel, intelligent, eccentric, self confident, audacious, unconventional, kind-hearted, and extremely hilarious. Stories of his escapades will last thru time.
Did Detroit ever down size their city government when over half the city moved out??
I bet the answer is no.
Back in year 2000 most people were willing to do something. Now the do something is moving out.
There are a few alderpersons who are outspoken but the majority are non verbal. The majority say nothing about the migrant crisis, the homicides, the shootings, the drag racing, the decline and loss of the business community, the financial crisis hanging over the city to name a few. Read their emails and flyers, they don’t address those problems. Instead they push mush about donating to the migrants, flu shot events, shredding events, real estate tax events, commemoration of heritage months and identity recognitions. More useless wokeness.
Address the pressing problems, reveal your position, and your plan of action to attack these problems.
So we now have some restaurants giving paper straws that are wrapped in plastic imagine that
It’s long overdue……
Put it on the referendum asap
They do nothing over/under on how long before this place closes alongside many small businesses:
Violent crime spurs immediate changes at popular Chicago bar
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/violent-crime-spurs-immediate-changes-chicago-west-side-bar
"I never would've left my entire life. In the past three months, my wife and I have been arguing every day about how quickly we can move to the suburbs, and a lot of it comes down to the crime," said Bill Cronin, West Town resident.
“Welcome to the nightmare!” People taking “special precautions,” Brandon to the border how about building a wall here on our borders then evict the felons make chicago great again!
Termination resignation demanded from all failed elected aldermen mayor governor state’s attorney all the rest the citizens would appreciate it thank you
It's a great idea.
Its the same as voting, you will get a majority of cpd, cfd and other city workers always voting D.
We need to downsize it by 2/3rd's IMHO...
The more you reduce the number of elected representatives, more you increase the chance of a small faction seizing absolute control over an elected body. James Madison talked on factionalism in Federalist 10. If you reduce the number of aldermen to 15 or 20, you make it even easier for one faction (socialists, BLM, etc.) to gain an absolute, iron clad majority over the City Council. What we have now is far from prefect, but it is much preferred to what is being proposed.
What we need is more democratic involvement by the populous. More people need to vote. Better people need to run for office, who are more interested in serving the public good rather than their egos.
Citizens need to vent their anger at the ballot box and stop whining. I am tired of hear about people saying they are going to leave the city ASAP. There is no Shangri La out there, and the grass is always greener on the other side. You never achieve any kind of victory by running away when things get difficult. Battles are won by standing your ground and fighting, even if that means some sacrifice.
When you get to your imagined paradise out of Chicago and things get bad there, are you going to get up and run again? Are men today that soft, fat, and weak? Stand up and do what is right, what is difficult, what is hard, at home, at work, at the ballot box.
We don't even need 22 Alder Creatures
50 thieves just another way to steal, it's the Chicago way. Look at how many council/alder-rats LA and Houston have. Why do they need 50, they don't but never get that reduced. Should be able to recall the mayor too, but...
Would a swine stop himself from overeating?
Old Guy posting:
Adapting an old saying:
"The machine (house) always wins."
the few independent alderman should help get required signatures and eliminate 28 aldermen from budget
The laws in this state are not for the benefit of the citizens but for the benefit of the elected officials. They put a lot of roadblocks to any type of reform ( for them).
Asking the City Council to eliminate their cushy jobs is like expecting US Senators and US Reps to pass term limit legislation. Never gonna happen.
1. We used to have 70 aldermen, 35 wards & two per ward.
2. Los Angeles, with twice the area & over a million & a half more people has just 15 council members.
3. Los Angeles County, over 4,000 square miles & 10 million people, the largest county in the US, with C[r]ook the second largest in population with a bit over 5 million people, has just 5 supervisors elected to run it, while the C[r]ook County Board has 17 members.
Even worse, C[r]ook County Board originally only had 15 members, 10 at large from the city & 5 at large from the suburbs. But the suburbs sued & a judge ordered 2 extra members to be added to the suburbs. But when they went to single member districts, did they cut loose those two extra members? Of course not!
Chicago should have a city council of just 15 members!
These fks only care when it’s election time ask fat Taliaferro ex police but now a hater and a backstabbing bastard . Get rid of all of them
.....Chicago should have a city council of just 15 members!
10/06/2023 08:40:00 PM
As has been previously explained, fewer legislative bodies equals easier to ignore citizens complaints.
Those 70 aldermutts/35 wards were about the natural clustering of people to common cultures, religions, customs and ancestory.
Any big city is functionally a clustering of small towns, seperated here and there a bit by landmarks, natural or man made, aka rivers, railroads, expressways, etc., so to arbitrarily impose ward boundries is in conflict with human natures. Birds of a feather yearn to flock together, despite the insane insistance of delusionals to the contrary.
And to reduce the number of wards, by imposing boundaries that increase the area, and thus the number of residents to each remaining aldermutt, is moronic, at best, and insidious scheming at worst.
Increase the number of wards, which decreases the density of residents in each ward, and cut the pay of each aldermutt in half.
Fewer ward residents = more concentrated effect upon that ward's aldermutt.
The math of human nature is not difficult.
22 is too much. 11 is more like it.
the few independent alderman should help get required signatures and eliminate 28 aldermen from budget
10/06/2023 02:11:00 PM
This has got to be a bait comment, as the totality of dumbass in this one sentence is impressive.
Now, pull my finger and ditto me.....
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