The Good News Community Church was the first site in a series of debates between candidates running in the election for alderman in Chicago's 49th ward, a district that includes Loyola's Lake Shore campus and surrounding Rogers Park neighborhood.
The event was sponsored by community activist organization Northside POWER (People Organized to Work, Educate and Restore), "to promote citizen participation and legislative accountability through dialogue with the people of Rogers Park." The four candidates, former newspaper columnist and journalist Chris Adams, Jim Ginderske, Loyola alumnus Don Gordon ('86) and incumbent Alderman Joe Moore, discussed issues such as poverty, gentrification, crime and education in the hour-long question and answer session.
Moore has had a virtual stranglehold over the office for the last 16 years and boasted that in that time span he helped revitalize the area by attracting businesses and introducing inventive measures helping to drastically reduce crime.
The alderman's opponents charge, among other things, that he has allowed Rogers Park to cave into pressure from outside developers and businesses, pushing local residents and neighborhood business out.
"The quality, affordable housing that has made Rogers Park attractive and what has given it its character is disappearing and deteriorating," Gordon said at the end of his two-minute opening statement.
His sentiments were more or less shared by the other candidates, especially Ginderske, who was strongly against the Big Box (or "Living Wage") proposal that brought Joe Moore so much publicity last year. The Living Wage ordinance required corporate retailers in the city to pay their workers a minimum of $10 an hour and was eventually passed. Ginderske came out against the measure back in the fall of 2006 because he felt it would allow huge corporate retailers to crush local business and that a citywide minimum wage needed to be introduced for all retailers.
"This idea of Joe Moore as a warrior for the little guy is ridiculous because he's not supporting small business," Ginderske's campaign chair Tom Westgard told the Phoenix in November of 2006.
In Moore's opening statement, he acknowledged the tough decisions facing Rogers Park but made them out to be a result of the revitalization and positive change his administration has accomplished over his four terms in office.
"Because of the fact that we have done such a good job ... we have a lot of additional pressures, [there is] a lot of interest in the development community of investing here and it's causing a lot of concern about whether we're going to maintain our diversity," Moore told the small crowd inside the tiny church. He promised, however, to focus his efforts on keeping housing affordable for residents of all income levels.
The candidates answered questions from the representatives of Northside POWER and pre-written audience forms about housing, crime, education and health care with each candidate's main concerns and strongest selling points revealing themselves as the debate went on. Moore, for example, pointed to his accomplishments in the neighborhood and assured the audience that he would find a way to strike a balance between developing Rogers Park commercially and keeping housing affordable. Jim Ginderske repeatedly stressed after-school programs and job training as a means of easing poverty and reducing crime.
"We have to offer an alternative [to delinquency] or else we will lose control over the kids in our neighborhood," he said after discussing his plan to bring a Boys and Girls Club to Rogers Park.
Chris Adams complained of the lack of accountability and responsiveness from the alderman's office and stressed the need to improve the neighborhood's five public schools.
"You should be able to walk into the alderman's office and have your questions answered … Accountability begins and ends at [the alderman's] desk."
Alderman Moore and Don Gordon took time out of their limited response times to take shots at each other.
"I found Mr. Gordon's comment about supporting good-paying jobs an interesting one since he is opposed to the Big Box living wage ordinance I fought so hard for," Moore said after answering a question about affordable housing from the panel.
"My contention is not that we don't need a Living Wage ordinance, it is that I don't agree with how it was done," Gordon responded before answering the next question.
"I would be happy to hear from Mr. Gordon that he supports an expansion of the living wage ordinance to include all businesses in the city of Chicago," Moore said after another round of questioning. He went on to say, "I would guess not since he's vying for the support of the Chamber of Commerce," referring back to the chamber's opposition of the ordinance, although he did not expand on its connections to Gordon.
"Here we go again," Gordon said when his time to answer came. "I can tell you I will probably not get the Chamber's endorsement because I responded against the wishes of my staff, exactly as Mr. Moore just stated, which is why I suggested that we expand the Living Wage ordinance into the entire community [outside of Big Box retailers]."
Gordon went on to complain in his closing statement that he was being portrayed falsely as a "white, rich, old suburban banker," by his opponents and that he held the rights of working class people in as much value as the other candidates.
Loyola was mentioned briefly in the debate by candidates, who all hoped to see more participation in the community from the school. One of the major issues of the debate was a lack of sufficient healthcare facilities in the 49th ward. Adams mentioned Loyola's proposal to bring the first two years of its medical school program to the Lake Shore campus, allowing the possibility of opening a clinic to serve Rogers Park and Edgewater, which he said was "an opportunity worth exploring for the alderman's office and for the community as a whole."
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