Organizer Carlos Ramirez-Rosa has been, since September, working to unseat longtime 35th Ward Ald. Rey Colon. Ramirez-Rosa is the first openly gay Latino candidate in the city's history.
He's running on a platform emphasizing transparency, accountability and open neighborhood engagement, and further maintains that serious financial reforms will alleviate Chicago's money woes better than property tax increases and service cuts.
Windy City Times recently spoke with Ramirez-Rosa about his ideas for the ward, which encompasses areas of Logan Square, Avondale, Irving Park, Albany Park and Hermosa, and what it's like to be an openly gay candidate. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Windy City Times: How the campaign been going?
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa: Things are going really, really well. We've knocked on over 10,000 doors and overwhelmingly people in the 35th Ward, whether it's the old part or the new part, are telling me that they're ready for change, and they're ready for an alderman who'll work side-by-side with families to put our neighborhoods first.
WCT: What made you decide to run?
CR: I love Chicago and I'm tired of the direction that we're going in. We have $8.9 billion in City Hall and it's time that we spend that money in our neighborhoods, not as handouts to corporations and not as sweetheart contracts to well-connected campaign contributors. We're going to see fully-funded public schools, we're going to see potholes being fixed. We're going to see the police that we need on our streets to keep us safe, and we're going to have the money that we need to invest in our neighborhoods.
WCT: You call yourself an "organizing alderman"—what does that really mean?
CR: It means I'm going to knock on doors year-round, not just around election time. After I win Feb. 24, I'm not going to stop knocking on doors. I'm going to be talking to my neighbors year-round, block-to-block, and making sure that I engaging every single person and be transparent in my work. It also means I'm going to create spaces where neighbors come together and play an extremely important role in deciding the direction of the neighborhood. I'm going to have participatory budgeting where neighbors and ward residents will get to decide how to spend $1.3 million in ward-infrastructure funds. It also means I'm going to have community-driven development, where it's not campaign contributors that are determining what zoning and development changes are made in the ward, but rather its ward residents, that are going to be affected, that are telling the alderman what it is that they want to see and what they want built in the community.
WCT: What are your thoughts on housing issues in the ward right now?
CR: Rahm Emanuel said that property taxes were either going to have to double or we're going to have to have major cuts in order for our city to meet its pension liability. One of the starkest contrasts between my opponent and myself is that I have taken property tax increases off the table. My opponent has refused to do the same thing. We might very well see, if Mr. Colon is re-elected, that there will be property tax increases coming down the line. I think that makes housing unaffordable for a lot of families in my community. We cannot afford to double property taxes. We need to make sure we're taxing big corporations the same way that we're being taxed.
WCT: Do you see corporate taxes as your main solution, then? City services is a major concern of yours. If property taxes are off the table, would that mean service cuts?
CR: I think two-thirds of Illinois corporations do not pay property taxes. That's ridiculous. Illinois is in the one-third of states that does not have a graduated income tax. Two thirds of states ask corporations and super-wealthy people to pay more in taxes than regular people like you and me. So what I'm saying is, in the state of Illinois, we need a fair, graduated income tax that lifts the tax burden off working people and asks the corporations to pay their fair share. So what I'm saying is, let's close corporate tax loopholes. Let's generate that revenue by asking everyone to pay taxes like the rest of us. Lastly, let's stop the corporate handouts. That's why TIF reform is very important to me. That combination of revenue-generating proposals and also being fiscally responsible—saying, "We don't have money to give to these private corporations when we can't even fix potholes on our streets." Doing those things will have the revenue that we need not to just maintain city services but really improve up to the level that our constituents deserve.
WCT: You're the first openly gay Latino aldermanic candidate in the city. What does that mean for you?
CR: Growing up as a closeted young man, I never thought we would be at point in time where not only could I be open, but I could also be asking my neighbors to support me in an election and at the same time be openly gay. I think because of the work that has been done over the past decades, pre-Stonewall and post-Stonewall, because of the millions of people who have come out of the closet, we're at a point where I can say, "I'm running for alderman and I'm a proud, openly gay Latino man." It's a wonderful thing. I feel so grateful to the generations of people that have done that work. But I also feel responsible about continuing to move that forward. The city of New York recently elected two openly gay Latino men. We're in the "second city" so I think it's time that it happens here.
WCT: What do you see as the most pertinent issues for the LGBT community, both on your ward and in the city?
CR: I think it would be unjust of me to say that there is one pertinent issue. I think that the city needs to continue being a partner in LGBT health. There's a lot more that can be done around HIV care and prevention, particularly in the use of PrEP [pre-exposure prophylaxis]. There's more the city can do to make sure that young people, particularly queer men of color, are familiar with it, and expanding access.
I also think the city has to do more to create open and affirming spaces and communities. Having Boystown is not enough, and sometimes Boystown is not open and affirming to all members of the of the LGBTQ community, so one of my commitments is to make sure that, in the neighborhood for whom I'm alderman, I'm working actively to create those open and affirming places—in workplaces, schools, libraries and on the street.
WCT: What kind of engagement have you had with LGBT youth, working on their issues?
CR: When I was at the University of Illinois, we championed and were able to pass a referendum that said that LGBT programming, meaning speakers and seminars, would receive funding from student fees. So there was funding for Latino programs, Native American programs, African American programs, but no funding for LGBTQ and women's programs. I led a coalition that collected the signatures and got a majority of the student body to vote in favor of creating funding for LGBTQ programs. That allowed us to get speakers on campus to speak on issues for young LGBTQ folks. But I've been a mentor and a tutor to Chicago Public School students. Some of them have also been gay. My working with those students, and their seeing me as a young professional who's out of the closet is a good example for them.
WCT: A disproportionate number of homeless youth are LGBT. Have you done any work around that issue?
CR: I've been an advocate for BYC [Broadway Youth Center]. I know BYC has faced some tough fights in Lake View, and I've been by BYC's side, saying, "We need to have a home for LGBTQ youth in the "gayborhood" of Chicago. I would hope that one day in the 35th Ward, when I'm alderman, we'll have a similar space for LGBTQ youth here. There's one in the 26th Ward on Paseo Boricua on Division Street and I see no reason why we can't have one in the 35th Ward too. I would commit myself to work to make that a reality here.
See carlosrosa.org .
