Good morning everyone. Let me just start this post by saying that last night's elections were such a big disappointment to me. A huge, huge disappointment. I am not happy whatsoever about the outcome, and there are many reasons why, both on the mayoral and aldermanic side of things.
First, I want to begin with the mayoral elections. As we all know, Rahm Emanuel won his bid for mayor to 55%, with Gery Chico at 24%, and Miguel Del Valle and Carol Moseley Braun at 9%. That does not sit well with me, especially with Rahm winning. I am not a Rahm supporter and have not been since he bidded for mayor. The candidate I personally wanted to win was Gery Chico. Before him it was Carol Moseley Braun, but since she made that crazy comment of hers towards Patrica Van Pelt Watkins, I turned to Gery. My reasons for supporting Gery was mainly because of his word to get at least 10,000 more Police Officers on our streets and was one of the first to say he would oust Jody Weis from his position. Also, Gery had my support because I believe he knows the city well enough. I mean, look at his record. He's been in charge of Chicago Public Schools and other various departments in the city.
Where's Rahm been? In Washington D.C., being Obama's puppet (I'm not an Obama supporter either, and I have my reasons for that too). To me, Rahm only ran for mayor because he wants to serve only people like himself and because he has clout in D.C. Just look at the facts. Rahm does NOT live in Chicago, only has a residency here. But yet he was able to remain on the ballot? That's insane if you ask me. No, but if someone like Gery Chico or Carol Moseley Braun didn't live in Chicago and were on the ballot, they would've been removed from it a long time ago. But because it's Rahm, he stays. To me, that's a main reason why he does not make a good mayor. He's not in touch with Chicago if you ask me. Also, I think everyone voted for Rahm just because he's associated with Obama, and if that's the case, the people in the city really don't have brains in my opinion. But if one good thing is to come from Rahm being our new mayor, it is that Jody Weis will be gone. In fact, EVERY mayoral candidate (the major ones, at least) said they'd get rid of him without hesitation.
Moving on to the aldermanic elections, I am hugely disappointed with those also. I'll start off with my Ward, the 30th, where Ariel Reboyras is the alderman. Personally, I was hoping that he would not win re-election, but none of his opponents made theirselves known at any point of the race, so voting for Reboyras was a no-brainer to most of you, I think. He's a familiar face. Though, I was hoping he'd lose because he hasn't done much to address growing crime issues in our community, especially with gang tensions growing on certain blocks like mine. Hell, the first time I heard from and met Reboyras was at a CAPS meeting last January, in 2010. Before then, it was like he never existed. In particular, the one experience I always like to share is an e-mail I sent to his office in 2008 regarding shootings right by my block and asking him to respond to it personally, but who responds to me? Why, 25th District CAPS Sergeant Tim Weiglein of course. Now, in 2011, I just hope that Reboyras does a lot more for this Ward, and that he stays involved.
In the 26th Ward, you had incumbent Roberto Maldonado against Devon Reid, an 18-year-old college student. To me, this race was interesting and a bit personal. You see, I went to school with Devon Reid for a short time, and from what I know about him, he was a good student, and would have been an excellent alderman for the 26th. My main thing about Devon was the fact he was the youngest candidate to run for alderman ever I think. You don't get many 18-year-olds who want to improve their community. Also, about Maldonado, I know that he was just elected a year or so ago, but, it seems that he has done nothing but make things worse in the 26th than when Billy Ocasico was the alderman.
As for the 35th Ward, Nancy Schiavone had my support. Why? Because not only is she a regular reader of this blog and supports what I do, but because she is involved with the community, unlike Rey Colon. Rey is not involved for the most part and seems to only come out when it benefits him. As for Miguel Sotomayor, although he did not really make himself known at all, he seemed like a good candidate. I also know Miguel Sotomayor from school, but this was from when I was attending Monroe a few years ago. I never talked to him personally, but he has done so much for Monroe and that immediate community, that he would've made a good alderman.
As for the 1st and 32nd Wards, Scott Waguespack and Proco "Joe" Moreno seem like good alderman, especially Scott. From what I know about him, he has done quite a bit for this Ward. And, as for the 31st and 33rd Wards, Ray Suarez and Richard Mell ran unopposed, so no comment on them.
This is just my personal insights, you've got every right to disagree with me, constructively of course. We can all disagree, but one thing that I won't tolerate on this post is personal attacks and flame wars. We're all adults (or young adults), we should know how to disagree maturely. Calling someone names is stupid and irrelevant, and if you haven't learned that, seriously go back to Kindergarten.
9 comments:
Gery was spitting bs about hiring 10,000 cops. If they keep firing cops, You think they have 400 million dollars for the first year of hiring 10,000 cops, after that year their going to need 600 million dollars because every cops gets a raise after their first year. Del Valle was honest to say 250 cops would get hired, but believing 10,000 would get hired is stupid.
It was never 10,000 cops it was 2,000. Rahm promised 1,000. We will see. At least he is going to take six of them from Ed Burke, Chico's man. Watch out Eddie you picked the wrong guy. Go back to your law firm before you get what is coming politically. Tim you are a smart guy and I have always supported you on this site but you did not do your homework on this one.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-ormsby/budget-trick-can-gery-chi_b_814889.html
http://policelink.monster.com/news/articles/148977-rahm-emanuels-promise-1000-more-cops-on-the-street
Thanks to everyone for providing their opinions, whether I agree with them or not. It shows that we are all interested with the way things turn out now that Rahm will be our new mayor.
Anonymous 4:47, the reason why I believed Chico when he said he would have 10,000 officers hired is because of his good long-track record of serving our city and the different things he has done to help improve things. It seems to me he's done more for Chicago than Rahm has. But I guess I was stupid for believing Chico. Oh well. It's over now, we have Rahm.
Anonymous 7:29, I happened to see the 10,000 number on the different ads Chico had out there (on TV mainly), promoting that. Unless I saw it wrong or something. But I did see that Rahm had promised us more Police Officers also.
As I have said, and I will say it again, I do wish Rahm the best of luck on his new job. He wasn't the person I wanted in office, but if he can keep his promises, then I will be more than happy to support him in four years for his re-election (I'll get to vote this time too).
Hi Timmy, I totaly agree with you 110%. I was too disappointed especially with Colon being re-elected. You are right about him, he only comes out when its to his benifit. I sure do miss William Colon. I had a long conversation with Nancy and I had mentioned to her about your blog and she did say see reads your blogs and is proud to have someone like you putting in so much time into this, I want to thank you for all you do. Thanks Timmy,
I agree with you 100 % Timmy . I thought the sameway you did about voting outcome. I think Rahm is fake ! I thought it should've been Chico. Braun would've been nice if she was elected but her mouth got her in trouble. Her aggressive approach turned on her. It was very unprofessional of her. God if there was 10,000 extra police on the street it would feel like " martial law " . I think that's a little to many but I do think we need more police on the streets definitely. Maybe like 1,500 ? De Valle needed more backbone.
The worst part about Reboyras is the way in which he treats the office like a true Machine politician. For the past three years he has provided little to no service to this ward.
Four months ago, in order to get on the ballot, he started promising pothole repair and other basic services in our area if people would sign a petition to put him on the ballot. Reboyras decides to do his job when he is facing reelection - not when he is in office.
Even worse, last week his campaign workers went door to door asking to post his signs. They were conveniently at each door on the street along with 3 large police vehicles. While it is illegal for Chicago Police to campaign, it is "OK" for them to write parking tickets at the same time that campaign workers hold Reboyras signs and ask for support. This is dirty campaigning and intimidation of residents.
Hire more cops? Why not make the ones they have do some work. Just go to the Shell station at Milwaukee and Belmont. The cops just hang out reading news papers instead of patrolling or going after the crooks.
And you should know that most of the aldermen are just in it for the money (part time work, over $100 grand a year)
What ever happened to Vilma Colon? Does she still live in the area?
Anonymous 9:10, thank you for your support. And no problem in regards to me providing the service I provide. I enjoy providing this service for the community. But who is William Colon?
Anonymous 12:34, I agree with you about Braun. Her mouth did get her in trouble, and she was very unprofessional. Regarding your comment about 10,000 officers being hired, maybe it's just me, but I would support 10,000 being hired. We're not going to see that, though, because Chico wasn't elected. We're going to get more officers, but not enough, I feel.
Anonymous 9:42, did you call the Board Of Elections about that? I agree that is dirty campaigning and intimidating. It's probably a good thing my building has a gate that you can't unlock without a specific key, or otherwise he would've done the same thing to us. But regarding his workers, it wasn't illegal for them to ask people to put up their signs. Though, I think it is illegal for them to have used the CPD to harass people into voting for Reboyras. Also, I agree with you, the only time it seems like he's around is when he needs to be re-elected. As I said, I didn't hear from him until last year before the elections earlier this week.
Luke, if those cops are doing that during the day (7am-3pm-ish), I think they're there to keep an eye on the day laborers who loiter in large numbers there. But if it's more than one cop or squad car, I would obtain their Beat number on top of their car to report them for not patrolling or responding to calls. And yeah, I know that the alderman are just in it for the money, which they shouldn't be. They should also be here to provide service to our communities. Regarding Vilma, I have no idea.
Post a Comment