By Steve Rhodes
With the announcement this week that Ald. Helen Shiller would not run for re-election, I headed for my Chicago bookshelf. Here’s what I found – interspersed with comments from her interview with Carol Marin on Chicago Tonight last night.
Book: Chicago Politics Ward By Ward
Author: David Fremon
Date: 1988
Excerpt:
“Uptown over the years has seen both glamour and destitution, sometimes within blocks of each other. The rich and the poor live here, and it is uncertain which group will dominate the area over the next decade . . .
“Poor people abound in Uptown. The area has been a port of entry and home for transients ever since the first apartment hotels appeared in the 1920s. Conversion of single-family homes to rooming houses during World War II furthered the low-income population. They have been joined by Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, marielito Cubans, blacks (from America, the Caribbean, and Africa), Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Hmong from Laos, among others . . .
“Traditionally, the 46th Ward has been the scene of the closest fights in the city between regulars and independents. That tradition was continued in the 1987 aldermanic race, considered by many a class struggle as much as an election. Helen Shiller, co-owner of a graphics company and a close Slim Coleman ally, won that election by less than 500 votes over incumbent Jerome Orbach. Shiller became the first independent alderman elected from the 46th Ward. Previous ones came from the Regular Democratic Organization, although they at times showed maverick tendencies.
“One such alderman was Chris Cohen, handpicked choice of longtime (1922-72) committeman Joseph Gill. Cohen, first elected in 1971, never officially broke off from the regulars. However Finance Committee chairman Tom Keane and other party leaders criticized him for leaving the council floor on several important roll calls.
“He made his mark as a legislator, most notably in day-labor regulation. He also made a hobby of removing archaic ordinances from the municipal code. Thanks to Chris Cohen, Chicago no longer has laws outlawing kite flying, flagpole sitting, or marathon dancing; prohibiting women from tending bar or from wearing hatpins on public transportation; barring vehicles in tunnels which are under city streets; and banning ugly persons from walking the streets.
“Cohen won reelection in 1975 over former street gang member ‘Cha Cha’ Jimenez but retired in midterm for a federal administrative job. Ralph Axelrod, who had assumed the committeeman position after Gill’s death, slated himself in the ensuing special election. One of his opponents was Shiller, who then edited a leftist magazine called Keep Strong. Axelrod beat her by 1,000 votes. The two met again along with others in 1979. This time, Shiller outpolled him, 46 to 40 percent. But Axelrod mustered enough support in the runoff to win by 247 votes.
“Axelrod had a weak organization, and his ward secretary was willing to exploit that vulnerability. Jerome Orbach ran against his mentor for committeeman in 1980, losing only by four votes. Orbach never stopped running, and Mayor Jane Byrne gave him strong support. But Axelrod showed no signs of stepping down. Party regulars feared a split that would throw the aldermanic seat to an independent.
“Party chairman Vrdolyak stepped in to quell the impasse. Axelrod quit the council to take a sheriff’s office job just before the 1983 election. In turn, Orbach promised to respect Axelrod’s position as committeeman.
“Once again it was close. Community activist Charlotte Newfeld forced Orbach into a runoff, which he won by only sixty-six votes. The following year Orbach ran for committeeman despite any promises he might have made to Vrdolyak. He defeated Newfeld’s campaign coordinator, former union official Paul Waterhouse.
“Orbach’s record as alderman was in many ways impressive. He cosponsored Wrigley Field no-lights legislation, obtained a lighted schoolhouse program for Uptown, and successfully proposed a rebate of garbage fees for condominium owners. He backed the ward’s influential gay population by assuring funding for AIDS research in the city budget and proposing vacated Henrotin Hospital for an AIDS research and care facility. Orbach and 44th Ward Alderman Bernard Hansen were the only two anti-Washington aldermen to vote for the gay rights measure.
“Despite this record, Orbach’s Council Wars stance assured him vehement opposition. No alderman tried harder than Jerry Orbach to portray himself on all sides of the political fence – to the point of passing out brochures of himself with Harold Washington in black precincts while vocally supporting Republican mayoral candidate Bernard Epton in white ones. Nevertheless, he sided with the council’s Vrdolyak bloc on every significant issue. Washington made no secret of the fact that Orbach was the alderman he targeted for extinction more than any other.
“Opposition to Orbach came from two sides in 1987: Shiller and attorney Nancy Kaszak, best known for her work in barring lights from Wrigley Field. A follower of political cult leader Lyndon LaRouche also entered the race.
“Kaszak early on gained important endorsements: the IVI-IPO, National Organization of Women, AFSCME, Charlotte Newfeld, former aldermen Bill Singer and Dick Simpson. Shiller, however, gained two endorsements or greater value: those of Slim Coleman and Harold Washington. Orbach received not only the regular Democratic but also the regular Republican endorsement.
“The intense dislike between Shiller and Kaszak became obvious during the campaign. Shiller accused Kaszak of being a last-minute intruder into ward politics. Kaszak charged that Shiller was a radical who could not obtain widespread ward support. After Kaszak was eliminated from the runoff, she eventually gave Shiller an endorsement, although many of her followers worked for Orbach.
“Unlike many of the aldermanic runoffs, the 46th Ward race provided a true difference in philosophies. Orbach contended that every vacant building in his ward was either renovated or scheduled for rehabilitation. Shiller countered that Orbach was attempting to drivve out low-income people and senior citizens and charged that most of his campaign donations were coming from large developers and regular Democrats from outside the wad. Orbach prided himself on his efforts to vote precincts ‘dry.’ Shiller argued that the bars affected were those that were social centers for poor people, and that troublesome bars could be regulated by other actions.
“In the end, it might have been an unusual constituency which decided the election. Jesus People U.S.A., a religious group with many members living in the ward, supported Orbach throughout his career. They suddenly switched to Helen Shiller in the runoff. Orbach supporters charged that a city official had offered the Jesus People’s construction firm city contracts if Shiller was elected – a charge the group denies.
“Orbach retained his edge in the Lakefront and Jewish areas. Shiller captured the Uptown vote between Broadway and Clark, plus enough of the Kaszak vote to win 9,751 to 9,253.
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“How important could a few Uptown votes be? Consider that Shiller defeated Orbach in 1987 by a handful of votes. Had Orbach won that election, he most likely would have sided with fellow Vrdolyak-bloc aldermen in determining Washington’s successor. That additional vote could have meant that Richard Mell, not Eugene Sawyer, would be mayor today.”
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From Chicago Tonight:
SHILLER: I came in to be Harold’s 26th vote . . I don’t really like politics . . .
MARIN: You ran two times before you got in that third time.
SHILLER: Totally . . . I said I won’t do it, I’m not running in ’83 . . . I don’t like politics . . . When he said to me, You can be the 26th vote . . . How could I say no?
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Book: Rogues, Rebels and Rubber Stamps
Author: Dick Simpson
Date: 2001
Excerpt: “In fifty-nine key divided roll call votes between 1995 and 1999 only two aldermen, Shiller and Shaw, voted less than 50 percent of the time with Mayor Daley’s floor leader; overall, all aldermen voted with the mayor’s administration an average of 84 percent of the time.”
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From Chicago Tonight:
MARIN: Daley comes in and he doesn’t want you to be the alderman of the 46th Ward . . . Very often you were the one vote against the budget . . . But somewhere along the line you’ve been voting with Daley . . . The critics say, Where’s Helen Shiller?
SHILLER: The real question is what are the issues . . . a single vote is symbolic . . . I have a strong commitment to problem-solving . . . The biggest one has clearly been affordability and is it possible for development without displacement.
MARIN: Where did it turn?
SHILLER: The issue is the budget . . . in the last several years I was voting no because I was having trouble getting answers on the budget . . . I now get all the answers . . . I have to understand how to deliver services in the ward and how to impact policy . . . my arguments [for voting against Daley’s budgets] rang a little hollow; I don’t do things symbolically.
MARIN: You wanted Wilson Yard . . .
SHILLER: The truth is there’s no question that the mayor was very supportive.
MARIN: Do you like Mayor Daley?
SHILLER: I agree with him on some things, I disagree with him on others . . . You have to understand where someone is coming from . . . If you disagree, that should be an honest disagreement.
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Book: Beyond Segregation: Multiracial and multiethnic neighborhoods in the United States
Author: Michael T. Maly
Date:
Excerpt: “Just having people of different races or classes is not enough. Helen Shiller, alderman of the Forty-sixth Ward in Uptown, captured this notion very well in our July 15, 1996, interview:
“‘The truth of the matter is that the stability of the community is not defined by what percentage of people are different ethnic or racial or socioeconomic backgrounds. The real test of the strength of the community is its own process of struggle, its own collective struggle to define itself. To what extent . . . do people join together on the basis of respect? With respect being a key part of it, that we are respecting people as human beings. So that if there are collective structures in the community that allow [people] to be able to struggle to change the basic things that are not fair or not functional in terms of the development of their children, their development of their families, et cetera. It is when you have the opportunity to realize the potential in the community.’
“Shiller is suggesting that demographics are not enough. Racial diversity is not integration if you never talk to your neighbors. Thus, the test of stable integration is not the percentage of groups, but in the community’s process to join different groups in such a way that there is respect and a sharing of power. This is difficult to measure. And this difficulty illustrates the complexity of integration and the need to broaden our discussion of integration.”
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From Chicago Tonight:
MARIN: But you’ve got a ward that’s got class warfare going on. Mike Royko once wrote: “One of the most depressing sections of Chicago is the Uptown area on the North Side. Shabby apartment buildings, vacant stores, wino bars, littered vacant lots, junkies, muggers, and career down-and-outers. It also has a new alderman, Helen Shiller, and she has a vision of what that seedy old neighborhood should be in the future. And apparently her vision is that Uptown should remain a seedy old neighborhood.”
SHILLER: That was a cynical argument.
MARIN: But you cast your luck with the poorest parts of Uptown.
SHILLER: It’s just not true. You’re reading the blogs, but you’re not reading the election results . . . I brought resources into the community – it’s a double-edged sword; made it attractive to developers . . . It wasn’t acceptable to me that people stay in housing that was decrepit or substandard
MARIN: Are you a mellow Marxist now?
SHILLER: Helen Shiller in 1987 said we should be able to make sure that everyone has a place in the city, and when we do development . . . we should make sure that the people who are here today will be here when that is complete . . . my most singular perspective was g to prove that that is possible . … we have to have a city that is not just inclusive about our diversity but is serious and honest about makin sure that everyone has a place here . . .
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Comments welcome.
Posted on August 3, 2010