William "Dock" Walls is no stranger to the campaign trail.
This is his third try at running for mayor of Chicago, having run unsuccessfully against both Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2007 and Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011. He also attempted to unseat U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush. His political involvement goes back decades, having been active in the administration of Mayor Harold Washington.
It's a tough road for Walls—according to the Chicago Tribune, his war chest is about $45,000, most of it funded himself—but he's determined to win on a platform he says focuses on Chicago's "99 percent," not the rich or their special interests.
Windy City Times: How has the campaign been going?
William "Dock" Walls: It's going exceptionally well. I've been involved in quite a few campaigns and this has been the best one yet.
WCT: What makes you the best choice to be Chicago's mayor?
William "Dock" Walls: I'm passionate about our community, and no one is fighting for us. For example, in this election, the other candidates represent the one-percent. They stand for everybody except the 99 percent. They balance their budgets on the backs of the poor. They have programs that are good for people who are investment bankers and huge corporate types, but not for the average person.
WCT: What do you think the needed paradigm shift is? How would you represent the 99 percent?
William "Dock" Walls: The very first thing that we need to do is recognize that the homeless need representation, and that disaffected and disadvantaged youth need representation. Our seniors—Rahm Emanuel, Willie Wilson and Chuy [Garcia] are running commercials, but none of them mention our senior citizens. You also have to picture that those persons who live check to check are included in those equations, as well who are "just in the 99 percent." So we have programs to rebuild our communities and our neighborhoods. If you go to our website, we have two jobs programs, for example, and those jobs programs are legitimate and real, with specificity and great detail. It indicates that we need to eliminate our food deserts and tells exactly how, and where the money is going to come from, step by step.
Then we have another program that utilizes capital improvement funds to seed businesses in our community—1,000 businesses that are industry- and geographically diverse. It features a million dollar grant specifically for job creation and for the development of products and expansion of the market, so they put goods and services into the stream of the national and global economies. So we have very specific programs that are designed to empower the average Chicagoan.
WCT: How would you address the imminent difficulties the city will likely face with pensions next year?
William "Dock" Walls: That's where I differ from the others. The others quickly say they wouldn't raise taxes under any circumstance, which is not necessarily true. But I want to increase taxes, particularly property taxes, on those persons who have homes or structures that are worth more than a half million dollars. I don't want to increase taxes on the average person, because the average person has already given more than their fair share. But I am willing to increase taxes on those persons who are the one percent, who are able to give a little bit more, because otherwise, we're going to contend with this pension issue over and over again. I want to put that behind us—it's a waste of time and energy.
WCT: Would you be in favor of service cuts?
William "Dock" Walls: Yeah, we've identified plenty of service cuts—inefficiencies—we'd put into place at the end of the day. We know that there is more required. For example, we want to make sure that we have efficient, lighting, heating and cooling in all of the city's buildings. We're going to use technology to manage that. We also want to make certain that we are increasing the number of people who can bid on contracts in the city of Chicago. The way that we do that is we unbundle the contracts—make them smaller—so more people can provide bonding and insurance, which contractors need. We then allow them to lease equipment, rather than own equipment. Finally, we provide access to capital loans, specifically so they can pay their equipment rental as well as their first few weeks of payroll, so they can bid on projects.
WCT: One of the previous candidates, Amara Enyia, who has since dropped out, advocated for a public bank, similar to the bank of North Dakota. Has that been something you would give consideration to?
William "Dock" Walls: That's interesting because I was actually the first person that came up with that concept. So that is something I would be interested in. I'm also interested in providing insurance for the public. I'm interested in banking, as well as insurance, for the residents of the Chicago. Geico is Government Employees Insurance Corporation. That's why I'm saying, we'll provide access to capital loans—the city will provide that. It would be a bank providing those loans without red tape, or things that ordinarily defeat an application.
WCT: What steps can the mayor take to stem economic disparities in the city?
WDW The first thing we have to do, without equivocation, is end racial segregation in the city of Chicago. Most of our ills stem from racial segregation. Ninety percent of Blacks live in just 22 of Chicago's 77 communities. … We're as racially segregated as you can be. Consequently, you have five times the number of potholes on the South and West sides. You have 44 percent of the people in the Black community living below the poverty line. You have 30 percent unemployment in the Black community, only three percent unemployment in the white community. You have one shooting per 100,000 people in the white community, and 54 per 100,000 people in the Black community. …You have on the North Side, nearly zero vacant lots. On the South and West Sides you have 13,500 vacant lots. So, you have racial segregation as the result of a lot of problems.
When Rahm [Emanuel] closed the 50 schools, 90 percent of the people negative affected were Black. The reason he gave for closing them was under-enrollment—that because of those vacant lots. The lots that used to be houses and have children in them no longer exist. Officially he said they were underperforming. Well, he's been the mayor for four years, so he was responsible for the performance of those schools.
As mayor, I would never sink to engineer the migration or assimilation of Blacks into the white community. That would only destabilize those communities. Then you'd have white flight. We will stabilize and economically empower the current residents in the Black communities, particularly the ones who are underserved—the ones who have food deserts and vacant lots, ones where they've closed schools. We'll restore those communities for their children with a commitment to diversity, inclusion and mixed-income communities. We'd make certain also that we have a diverse and stable housing stock that's affordable throughout the entire city of Chicago, at all levels. … We also have to make sure that we have economic development in those communities that are underserved. We have an initiative to create grocery stores that are owned and operated in those communities. That would result in 50,000 jobs. The money is there for spending, at the discretion of the mayor.
WCT: Where do you stand on issues of immigration, particularly with issues affecting undocumented Chicagoans?
William "Dock" Walls: I support state ID for those persons who are undocumented. I support their right to come into the city and live, without ICE prying into their business. I don't support police officers asking people their immigration status when they respond to a call. I think that that's something the president has addressed very effectively and we'll certainly support the law when it comes to that. We'll make certain our police officers are sensitive to that in every regard. We will not have people afraid to call the police or seek out medical services, or any city services, because of their immigration status.
WCT: How safe do you perceive Chicago to be?
William "Dock" Walls: Very, very, very unsafe, and it's getting worse day by day. For example, we had incidents down in Navy Pier, which is usually very safe area. Tourists are there. We had incidents where people came and "wilded it out" down there, and started attacking people and fighting. We have it down on Michigan Avenue now and its creeping throughout the entire city of Chicago. We've had people robbed in both the South and North Loop areas. That's something people aren't accustomed to. We've seen that, because Chicago is so racially divided, and because you have people who are destitute and desperate, and living below the poverty lines, they're willing to do whatever it takes to eat and feed their families. Chicago is unsafe because you have a lot of desperate people. Not because you have people who are inherently sinister, but they're desperate, and Rahm has created that desperation.
WCT: You have mentioned why you are in favor of an elected school board. Why?
William "Dock" Walls: I favor an elected school board because you have elected school boards in every other school district in the state of Illinois. An elected school board would have no incentive to put business first. They aren't connected to just one individual. Right now all the school board members have one thing in common: They were appointed by a mayor who essentially gave them instructions. Even if you've got corporate types who were elected to the school board, they wouldn't have a central focus. So each of them would be individuals who would have to put education first. Otherwise, they'd never get re-elected.
What I want to do is make sure we have eight central school districts, with members elected in those districts and a president elected at-large, and then, most importantly, you'd have to make certain you have campaign finance restrictions. You'd have to make sure that an average person has an equal opportunity to become a school board member. You don't want that election to be hijacked by the unions, corporations, high education institutions, people with an axe to grind, PACs [political-action committees] or other organizations with a hidden agenda. You want to make sure that every person as an equal opportunity.
WCT: On your platform, you state that the Bible should be taught in Chicago Public Schools. That's a position many progressives might be uncomfortable with. Why do you think that?
William "Dock" Walls: Because the Bible is the foundation of Western civilization. Our dollar says, "In God We Trust." When you go in to court to testify, you're asked to put your hand on the Bible, and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. When you're sworn into office, you put your hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the constitution of the state, the United States or the municipality. So it's important, as far as I'm concerned, for our children to understand why they're asked to do those things. Why does the dollar say, "In God We Trust?'
The Bible is taught in municipalities and school districts all across America. Accordingly, the constitution says you can teach it, not preach it. We teach Egyptian hieroglyphics, which is based on their religion. We teach Greek mythology, based on Greek religion and their relationship with their gods. It's taught in a fashion to convince or endear anybody with those concepts, but simply from a historical perspective so that everybody understands. It's important to me because many of our students are encouraged to go on to higher learning, and they will sit in classrooms with other students who've learned the Bible—about the Bible [itself], not about "God and his influence, not an attempt to convince someone that he exists or is real—just why the Bible is part of the development of western civilization. If our students don't understand those things, they're at a disadvantage. I'm not opposed to other religions being taught in schools, I'm just speaking about the Bible because the constitution says the Bible can be taught.
WCT: What engagement have you had with the LGBT community? What work have you done with them in the past, and how would you reach out to them should you be elected?
William "Dock" Walls: That's a very important point. Oftentimes we have LGBT studies in our schools, and clubs in our schools. That runs hand-in-hand with people saying, "Hey, we can also have the Bible." Nobody's asking anyone, or forcing anyone, to appreciate what the LGBT community does, but we certainly want to recognize that it's real. We want to educate people, so we become sensitive to people's challenges and concerns. That's critical.
I've been the director of the Committee for a Better Chicago. We have people of all persuasions, all sexual orientations, as part of our organization. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder with people to fight for human rights and human dignity, and the right for people to just be themselves, and for the right to be appreciated despite any difference they have. Our outreach to the LGBT community has been consistent over a number of years. We know many members of the community, and respect them, and we have respect and reciprocity.
WCT: What do you see as some key issues for Chicago's LGBT community right now?
William "Dock" Walls: Hate crimes—people who engage in hate crimes against the LGBT community. We have employers who still discriminate. We still have housing discrimination in areas. We still have people who don't fully include or fully respect them, and we will fight that. We will make sure that everybody is respected and treated equally, irrespective of their sexual orientation, or if they're transgender. We want to make sure that everybody in Chicago is treated the same. The reason that's important is that we're living in a global economy. It's highly competitive, and, as a city, we have to recognize that we are one basically competing against the rest of the world, and, under Rahm Emanuel, we have not reached the pre-recession levels yet in employment and GDP.
So it's important that we have everybody involved in this process, and that people focus on moving Chicago forward, and not be focused on just defending their rights or justifying their existence. I want to make sure that everybody is sensitive to everybody else's concerns, and that government is doing its part to make sure that people are treated fairly and that they don't have to just fend for themselves—that when something happens, people just don't turn a blind eye to the situation. People are getting engaged and making it happen. I'm talking about making sure that our tax dollars are working for everyone.
WCT: You earlier brought up the issue of homelessness. About 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBT. What can be done to address it?
William "Dock" Walls: My 2007 race for mayor was almost completely focused on homelessness, including within the LGBT community. Oftentimes you have family members who don't understand the LGBT community. They're ashamed, or they just don't get it. So they force them out of the house at an early age. Those people are often left on the street, and they're not comfortable in certain homeless centers or shelters. We want to make sure that there are homeless centers and shelters that are sensitive to the specific needs of young LGBT community members. We want to make certain that employers are sensitive to their needs and that there is a willingness to hire them and give them a chance, just like they do everyone, so, when economically empowered, they can pay for their housing, so that they're not relying on charity to get by. We want to make certain that members of the LGBT community have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else, and we certainly will deal with the homelessness issue across the board. We want to make sure that everybody in Chicago has prosperity.
WCT: Transgender individuals often face a disproportionate of economic hardships—about 90 percent of them live in poverty—as well as safety issues, both in relation to police and other members of the public. What might you do to help them?
William "Dock" Walls: We're going to have sensitivity training for our police officers. We're going to make certain that everybody's rights have to be respected equally—and that this mayor will not tolerate abuse of authority, or abuse of any individual. They will not be allowed to ignore complaints or minimize those complaints, or make people uncomfortable when they come in to complain. Every complaint will be taken seriously and acted upon …We'll also make certain that we decentralize city government, so that people in various communities can go in and talk to somebody within walking distance, who may be a member of their community, and who will understand their issues and protect their rights.
We think that's critical—decentralizing and making sure that we have people throughout city government who are sensitive to those issues, and we are going to make sure that we have members of the LGBT community in policymaking and decision making positions in Chicago city government.
WCT: You've had several campaigns. What did you learn form those?
William "Dock" Walls: Each election has been different. There are five parts of a campaign: management, message, money, media and manpower, in that order. In the first election, we ran a well-rounded campaign and got almost 10 percent of the vote against Daley, which was good, despite the fact the machines were miscalibrated—if you punched for me, the "X" would jump up in Daley's box. So we learned to make sure that we check and double-check the Board of Elections. We also learned that you have to get out here and engage people early on.
Last time, we spent our time downstairs at the Board of Elections trying to knock Rahm off the ballot. That our quest, because we knew that if he got on the ballot—with the support of the Clintons, Obamas, the unions, the Daleys, Black preachers, Black politicians, white businessmen, Latino businessmen—he would be unbeatable. That proved to be true. So once he got on the ballot, we didn't go to people and ask them for their money. I couldn't tell people in good faith and all honesty that I was going to beat Rahm given all the circumstances.
This election, we went full-tilt. We didn't challenge anybody, and we didn't spend any time down at the Board of Elections. We took care of our offensive mission and, as a result, we participated in debates, something that we didn't really do last time. We got the kind of exposure that's necessary. Plus we separated ourselves from the other candidates, the fact that we are representative of the 99 percent while the other candidates represent the 1 percent. They have clout—they're clout-heavy individuals—and they use it to benefit their family and friends, and big business. We think we've done a pretty effective job of doing that. We've increased our name recognition twenty-fold, and people are gravitating towards this campaign. We're on a winning track. we know what our path to victory looks like. We know we don't need 100 percent, or 50 percent, or even 40 percent. We need somewhere in the 25-to-30-percent range to ensure a spot in the runoff.
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