Business attorney Amy Crawford, an openly gay partner with the Chicago firm Kirkland & Ellis, is mounting a campaign to unseat incumbent Ald. James Cappleman, also openly gay, in the February 24th municipal election.
Among the issues Crawford sees as being key to the race are public safety, economic development and sustaining affordable housing in the Ward, where Crawford lives with her partner and their adopted son. Crawford recently discussed her candidacy with Windy City TImes. The remarks were edited for length and clarity.
Windy City Times: Why did you decide to run?
Amy Crawford: We've lived in Uptown because we love the diversity here and we love the cultural opportunities here. Being in a same-sex couple and having adopted a biracial baby boy a year ago, this is where we want to be. We think this has the potential to be the best neighborhood in Chicago. We continue to be concerned about the continued violent crime in our neighborhood as well as some of the lack of development—empty storefronts—here. In being an observer of our politics over the better part of the last decade, I've been distressed that there is a really damaging divide, mostly about the issue of affordable housing.
That's been a wedge issue for the community, and I think [the divide is] just unnecessary at this point. I think we all agree that the crime is a problem, that we need more development, that we want to preserve our diversity, but he have an alderman who's gotten bogged down in a lot of distractions like pigeons and taking on the Salvation Army. To me, it's about having priorities and focusing on the big picture things so we all agree. That's what a leader should do.
WCT: How is the campaign going so far?
Amy Crawford: I think the campaign has gathered a lot of steam in the few short months since I entered the race. We've raised a lot of money. At the end of the fourth quarter we reported having raised around $150,000, with about $120,000 on hand. We've had dozens and dozens of volunteers helping out with our campaign, and people contacting us every day who want to help out, because they see the need for new leadership. We've also picked up key endorsements from groups like the Fraternal Order of Police, the Chicago Chapter of the National Organization for Women, IVI-IPO, Reclaim Chicago and others. We're feeling really good with where we're at with over four weeks left in the campaign.
WCT: What do you think the ward most urgently needs to address at this point?
Amy Crawford: Certainly, housing has been a wedge issue for the neighborhood. The tone has been needlessly divisive. There have been some common principles we all agree on—that diversity is a huge neighborhood strength. That's one of the reason people move here. People generally agree that part of that diversity is economic diversity. So the question becomes, how do we balance all of these interests to do both small business development and improve retail in the ward while also not being hostile to a certain group of people?
WCT: How do you bring about that balance?
Amy Crawford: The alderman has a "mini-mayor"'s role and needs to be the loudest voice and biggest booster for businesses in the community. They can partner with the chamber and let businesses know what funds are available to improve their businesses so our retail corridors are more walkable. That means being somebody pro-active in building business in the ward. For me, it's not just about being someone who can help connect businesses with city services and help them cut through the city bureaucracy, but also being a booster for the neighborhood—identifying what businesses we want and going out and getting them, rather than only serving the existing community.
Safety is a huge part of that equation. People come into the ward and they leave quickly because they don't have the confidence that they're going to be safe here. I think we need safer streets and as alderman, I'd walk the streets block by block with the commanders. I also think we need more youth engagement. We can be partnering with the city to be offering programs to engage that youth.
I think in addition to crime and small business development, we just need to be rigorously focused on providing excellent constituent services. We have major pothole issues and various safety issues that [residents] see lingering that haven't been addressed.
WCT: What are your thoughts on the crime rate in the ward?
Amy Crawford: It's come up a lot as the one concern of almost all of the voters I've talked to. Something I want to point out is that we've lost more than 20 percent of our officers in the 19th Police District in the last four years. That's not just the result of routine budget cuts that are happening citywide. That's because of the merger of the 19th and 23rd police districts. The 19th District has seen a bigger cut of police than any other district in the city. There's a case of misallocation. It's not just "We need more cops citywide." It's "Why are we getting short-shrifted here?"
The blog Crime in Wrigleyville and Boystown is excellent in compiling crime data. If you look at Tribune data, murders and shootings are up over the last year in Uptown and the 19th police district has seen an increase in murders by more than 50 percent, shootings more than 40 percent. We're one of the only police districts in that category. Most of the other police districts have seen a decrease over the past year. We've had more murders in the las four years in Uptown than the prior four. I know that the alderman is talking a lot about crime going down, but the violent crime is what scares people.
WCT: What kind of work will you do to make sure there's more affordable housing in the ward?
Amy Crawford: Many people in the ward feel we have too much and I've actually talked to people who are in affordable housing who say we actually have the right balance now, and they're not looking to add much more. The fact is, we have lost units of affordable housing over the last four years, and that's a concern for me. What we need to focus on is preserving the affordable housing that we have, and if there are problems with certain units that we address them proactively and forcefully. For me, it's about preserving what we've got, not demonizing people living in affordable housing as a group, and making sure that we're embracing them in the community.
Something else is that affordable housing means a whole range of things. What I think people react to most in this neighborhood—when they say they don't want more "affordable housing"—is that they want to not see more homeless shelters or facilities in the Ward for folks living with mental illness. They feel like we have had more in the way of social services than other wards across the city for a long time, but I think there's more willingness to embrace affordable housing for working folks and for seniors. When you tear down an SRO that has maybe 200 units of affordable housing, you're not going to be able to replace those 200 units in one shot somewhere else, so the likelihood that we're going to be able to just rebuild all of that affordable housing is really low. What I would be open to as alderman would be adding some affordable units for working people and seniors, particularly a mixed-income building, to replace what we've lost.
WCT: A disproportionate number of homeless and displaced youth are LGBT. What can be done to help them?
Amy Crawford: It's something that hits home for a lot of Lake View residents. Lake View makes up about a third of the Ward but I think that the current alderman has been primarily focused on Uptown and is blind to the neighborhood's needs down in Lake View. That's something that I'm hearing a lot from Lake View residents. Those youth are spending a lot of time in Lake View, for obvious reasons. In my early twenties, I moved to Chicago and I moved to Lake View because it was a haven for LGBT people. I think it's important that it remain that way. We want to preserve the diverse nature of our community and be a welcoming community. I was just talking to some folks in Lake View about this today, who had concerns about kids hanging out on corners there, and they are likely homeless kids with no other place to go. I think we've some good organizations in place to deal with these issues, but they need to have more support. Among them I would include Howard brown's Broadway Youth Center as well as the Center on Halsted. I know that UCAN [Uhlich Children's Advantage Network] has an LGBT host-home program as well
WCT: Is there anything you would like to add?
Amy Crawford: That I would be a full-time alderman if elected. A lot of people ask me about that and I want to make sure it's clear. A lot of people ask how I would be a full-time partner at Kirkland & Ellis and alderman at the same time. My answer is, There is no way I could possibly do that, and I won't even try.
See www.amyfor46.org .
