May 17, 2022

For Immediate Release

For all inquiries, please contact: 
Chaundra Van Dyk
Chicago Project Manager
cvandyk@changeil.org

   Council members map another decade of broken government and politics

CHICAGO, IL – City Council members turned their backs on the people of Chicago in more backroom, closed-door secret meetings to guarantee the re-election of 41 members through a broken ward remap process that was designed from the start to deny residents’ input.

Instead, their ward drawing was built to protect enough incumbents to rob voters of the ability to choose their own futures. Incumbents reduced people and communities to numbers, trading them back and forth between ward boundaries for the purpose of preserving their re-election chances. These council members completely disregarded what the people wanted. They completely disregarded any attempt at keeping communities whole and to provide communities their voting rights. 

Many of the council members who voted for the map previously spoke of the broken system of the past, but when the opportunity arose for them to stop that system and chart a better path, they sided with a process focused on power and self preservation. 

In the wake of this secret backroom map deal, alders that previously stood up publicly for an independent commission must start work today to make it a reality. Chicagoans need their leadership if we are going to break the cycle of communities being sacrificed for political gains. The people of Chicago deserve no less. 

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