Earlier this week, the City Council passed two significant pieces of legislation – Alderman Martin’s Complete Streets ordinance as well as a Labor Peace Agreement covering the city’s delegate agencies. Delegate agencies are nonprofit organizations that contract with the city, receive public funding, and carry out services. Many of these services were once carried out by the public sector itself. Many frontline nonprofit workers, particularly in social services, work under extremely difficult conditions for very low pay. Over the last few years, there has been a wave of organizing among many nonprofit workers working at organizations that contract with theContinue

Runoff Election Day for mayoral candidates is Tuesday, April 4th. Early voting begins on Monday, March 20th and 33rd Ward residents can cast their vote at the American Indian Center (3401 W. Ainslie St.) or at the early voting supersites downtown (191 N. Clark & 69 W. Washington). On April 4th you will be able to vote at your assigned polling place and you can check that here. Early voting polling site hours are as followed: Weekdays: 9:00am - 6:00pm Saturday: 9:00am - 5:00pm Sunday: 10:00am - 4:00pm April 4th Polling hours are from 6:00am to 7:00 pm. Vote byContinue

I’m delighted that I will get to continue being your Alderwoman and representing our 33rd Ward community. I want you to know that our office is right back to work. Today, the Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety voted on 47th Ward Alderman Matt Martin’s Complete Streets ordinance. I’m proud to be one of the very first co-sponsors of Alderman Martin’s ordinance along with 1st Ward Alderman Daniel La Spata, and I was proud to vote to move this ordinance forward.  The ordinance directs the Chicago Department of Transportation to incorporate improvements benefiting pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders into anyContinue

This year the 33rd Ward had its highest turnout yet for participatory budget! More than 1300 eligible neighbors voted about how our 33rd Ward office should spend its menu budget – an all-time record. We couldn’t have gotten that many people without the tireless efforts of our Neighborhood Services Director, Stacy Erenberg, motivated and tireless volunteers, and so many students throughout the ward to name just a few. I’m so proud of the community participation that we’ve been able to foster through Participatory Budgeting these last four years – we vowed to bring democratic decision making to the ward andContinue

Property taxes are on everyone’s mind.This year the 33rd Ward had the sixth’s highest increase for residential properties in the city. The increases are being felt particularly hard here in the 33rd Ward for a multitude of different reasons (the Cook County Treasurer’s Office has a really thorough study of the reasons why which I recommend reading). Many of these causes are beyond the ability of any single Alderperson to control. For example, I’ve voted against every single property tax increase on homeowners since I came into office, yet all my ‘no’ votes haven’t stopped the high increases.  In termsContinue

Happy Valentine's Day to all who celebrate! If you're looking for some last minute gift or date ideas, please consider our local, small businesses in the ward. This week we were able to visit some of them in the ward and we've listed them below. Give the gift of green to someone you love! Green Spaces has everything you need to spread some green love and care for your plants. Bokeh is a prefect spot for a date right in the heart of Albany Park! Bring your valentine and share some beautiful cocktails together! La Plazita Bakery has all theContinue

Earlier this week, the Mayor proposed a new franchise agreement between the City of Chicago and Commonwealth Edison – the private company that the city has contracted to be the city’s power utility since at least 1992. This new proposed agreement would last a minimum of 15 years and prevent the city from running the power system on its own (the way that cities like Los Angeles, Nashville, Seattle, and many across Illinois do) for at least the next five years. So far the Mayor has touted that ComEd’s private shareholders would donate $100 million to an as of yet uncreated nonprofitContinue

Since Roe V. Wade was overturned last summer, I’ve been leading the charge to make Chicago a sanctuary city for gender-affirming care and reproductive healthcare. Working with my colleagues in the 35th Ward, 47th Ward, 49th Ward, the Legislative Reference Bureau, and the Mayor, we passed the Bodily Autonomy Ordinance last year. Currently, every city agency is revising its policies and procedures to come into compliance with the Bodily Autonomy Ordinance. At the last Council meeting, we passed an ordinance that now makes it illegal for employers and landlords to discriminate against Chicagoans and people coming to Chicago seeking gender-affirmingContinue

We are happy to announce that the Maria Elena Sifuentes Apartment Building on Central Park Ave & Lawrence Ave will have an application event on Saturday, January 28th, 2023 at Roosevelt High School (3436 W Wilson Ave). The applications will be provided on a first come first serve basis and up to 250 applications will be accepted. This was made possible through TIFF funding and low-income housing tax credits through (LIHTC). Thank you, Communities United, for your tireless advocacy to make this a reality, and to Celadon Partners for developing this much-needed affordable housing site! If you need more information,Continue

Our Participatory Budgeting process for 2023 is almost to a close. We opened the voting process on December 12, 2022 and today we have reached over 1,000 votes! We are so grateful for everyone who has volunteered, voted, or spread the word about this process. In this final week of voting we are asking you to continue to help us reach our goal of 2,000 votes. Click here to view the projects our volunteers have agreed upon. The final day to cast your vote is Friday, January 20th. You are able to vote online using this link. If you preferContinue