Always in motion is the future: Yoda
An interesting take on the future, courtesy (again) of Toni. And some more cogent points:
49th Ward (Rogers Park): When a well known, outspoken, supposedly "independent" 16-year alderman squeaks to victory by 247 votes, getting just 50.9 percent of the votes cast, it's hospice time. The condition is terminal, so bring on the morphine and plan the funeral.
Joe Moore postures as an anti-Daley independent and eagerly takes obligatory liberal stances: against the Iraq war, for banning foi gras and patronage hiring, and for the "big box" living wage ordinance. But chaos reigns in his ward: Crime, relentless condominium conversions (more than 6,000 apartments converted in the past 5 years) and poor city services have created a deep pool of hostility toward Moore.
Don Gordon, a retired banker who has lived in the ward for 30 years but who never was politically active, built an impressive anti-Moore coalition, composed of home owners who perceive Moore as being in the pocket of condo developers and disgruntled new condo buyers who thought Rogers Park would be the next Lincoln Park. Moore's vote trajectory is in a stall, but not yet a free fall, due to the transient nature of the ward and the nonparticipation of new residents.
Moore raised $507,213 in the past 2 years, with half from developers who are engaged in condo conversions. He may be a "reformer" in citywide politics, but he's seen as part of the problem in the 49th Ward: ineffectual, compromised and inattentive. The anger level is rising, and it eventually will be Moore's demise.
In 2003 Moore was re-elected with a tepid 54.7 percent of the vote, getting 3,693 votes in a turnout of 6,746. In a ward with 66,000 residents and 22,435 registered voters, his vote was just 5.5 percent of the population and just 16.4 percent of the registration. In 1999 he won with 4,122 votes, down from 4,368 in 1995 and 5,842 in 1991. Compared to 2003, Moore got 36 fewer votes on Feb. 27, but he managed to increase his vote by 205 from the municipal election to April 17. Gordon got 2,162 votes (30.2 percent of the total) on Feb. 27 in a turnout of 7,414 and in a field of four candidates. He got 3,724 votes in the runoff, with a turnout of 7,586, meaning that virtually all the Feb. 27 anti-Moore vote (3,757) went to him.
Gordon doesn't want to run in 2011. He wants to run next week. He has filed a lawsuit alleging that Moore's workers procured fraudulent votes from vacant lots and nursing homes and asking for a rerun of the election. It won't happen.
As Gordon looks toward the next election, he must concoct a tripartite strategy: appeal to the condo buyers, who are convinced that Rogers Park is a slum and getting worse, appeal to the ward's less affluent renters, who are convinced that the ward is gentrifying, that housing is getting too expensive and that they're being pushed out, and appeal to home owners, who feel that condo conversion is out of control. Alternatively, he can just let Humpty Dumpty Moore fall off the wall.
Personally, I think I could run as effectively as Don in 2011, but we'll see where V.O.T.E.R. is headed first.
2 comments:
I wondered when Russ Stewart would weigh in on RP. Interesting to see how information gets filtered...
It's interesting how the information gets interpreted.
I never heard of homeowners being opposed to condo conversions. They seem to be embracing them, actually, as a final solution of problem-prone buildings.
I can understand the frustration with the crime and blight we can't seem to make go away, even with the conversions, but I don't see how local homeowners could oppose them.
The only problem with them is the way tenants' rights are violated in the process.
Of all the problems RP has, though, conversions rank way down there, as "not a problem".
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