Aldermanic Prerogative Fuels Segregation and Violates Black, Latino Chicagoans’ Civil Rights: Federal Officials – WTTW (Chicago)

“The practice appears to be a blunt tool that blocks and deters integrative affordable housing while going well beyond what is necessary to provide a forum for local concerns – in other words, precisely the sort of ‘artificial, arbitrary and unnecessary barrier’” prohibited by the U.S. Supreme Court when it upheld the Fair Housing Act, according to the Oct. 24 letter from Lon Meltesen, the director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s region that includes Chicago.
3 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Dave Hardy
2 years ago

Federal government would never go after gerrymandering.. but this!

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Dave Hardy

Federal government go after gerrymandering. The Supreme Court decided several years back that gerrymandering was a entirely political activity and shouldn’t be regulated by the courts.

debtsor
2 years ago

This is HUGE and I’m surprised there are no comments on this yet. The Federal government believes that giving a democratically elected alderman the right to approve or disapprove of development in his or her ward is systemically racist and causes segregation. Yes, aldermanic prerogative has its problems, and encourages alderman to take petty $500 campaign donations to approve zoning changes for developers to build three flats instead of two flats and such. But at it’s core, it also gives the people a direct line to their alderman to say “we don’t want this in our neighborhood, send it somewhere… Read more »

SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER

Home Page Signup
First
Last
Check what you would like to receive:

FOLLOW US

 

WIREPOINTS ORIGINAL STORIES

Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades

Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.

Read More »

WE’RE A NONPROFIT AND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS ARE DEDUCTIBLE.

SEARCH ALL HISTORY

CONTACT / TERMS OF USE