Chicago Sun-Times

MORE ON THE MAP

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North Side, Calabrese said.

“You have to draw wards that are compact. The 36th Ward goes from almost downtown to almost O’Hare,” Calabrese said.

“We think it’s funny. But imagine actually living in that ward. … It just doesn’t make any sense. There’s absolutely no community. Your ward is like a block wide. It’s impossible really to be an effective alderman. At least the 2nd Ward, which is currently an ugly ward, is kind of based in a general area. The 36th Ward … is like a block wide in a lot of areas. How can you be an alderman of someone when everything around them is in a different ward?”

Although the compromise map now includes 14 majority-Latino wards, Calabrese warned that the future for Hispanic political empowermen­t is bleak.

“If you use raw Latino numbers, there are 14. But, if you count citizen voting-age population, which is the voting share of the ward, there’s only 10 wards that are above 50%. There’s 10 now. So, even though the Latino population has grown, they didn’t really increase any,” Calabrese said.

“Not only are they treading water. They’re given wards that are gonna be much more rapidly gentrified. … Latinos are moving out of Logan Square and young white people are moving in. The same thing with West Town. … By the 2023 election, Latino voting power in those two wards will be possibly below 40%. Under this map, it could be very well likely that Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and Gil Villegas are the last Latino aldermen for those two wards.”

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