Trib article that shows some promising signs of emergent pro-TOD candidates in the aldermanic elections:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...l=chi-news-hed
Rivals seeking notch in the Bungalow Belt
2 incumbents defending development in their wards
By Dan Mihalopoulos
Tribune staff reporter
Published February 2, 2007
The bungalow-lined streets of the Northwest and Southwest Sides are among the city's most popular for families, but two veteran aldermen in those areas face tough campaigns from challengers who say development is coming too slow to the tranquil neighborhoods.
City Council incumbents Virginia Rugai (19th) and Patrick Levar (45th) are strong allies of Mayor Richard Daley and are supported by two of the few Democratic ward organizations that remain vibrant. Yet both are opposed by candidates from within their own political organizations.
Terry Boyke, a former top aide to Levar, blames the alderman for vacant lots near Milwaukee and Lawrence Avenues, once a popular shopping destination.
Boyke was a lifelong precinct worker with the 45th Ward Democrats and was on Levar's staff for eight years before quitting last summer. Levar speaks of Boyke's defection as a personal betrayal.
"I treated Terry like he was a member of the family," Levar said. "He told me he was leaving to become a developer and a builder. We had a party for him and gave him Cubs stuff."
Boyke soon began running to unseat his old boss. He said Levar told him that he plans to bequeath his job to his eldest son, which the alderman denies.
Boyke said Levar doesn't work hard enough, citing as one example that the alderman has only attended a handful of more than 40 Police and Fire Committee meetings at City Hall in the last four years.
"Is that the kind of dedication that you want in your local public official?" Boyke asked.
The incumbent counters that he is "just a neighborhood guy" who focuses most intently on local issues and would rather be in his ward than at City Hall. His proudest accomplishments include new streetlights near the ward's Catholic churches and a Jewel grocery store at the faded Six Corners shopping area, where Milwaukee, Cicero Avenue and Irving Park Road cross.
Levar said he is in discussions with Starbucks for the chain's first outlet in the ward, on Cicero.
He defended his 2005 decision to oppose a condominium and commercial project near the Jefferson Park CTA terminal, saying he always defers to residents within 250 to 300 feet of a proposed development.
"This is the Bungalow Belt," said Levar, who wore a Bears cap and sweatshirt to an interview at a diner on Milwaukee this week. "This is a great place to raise a family."
Boyke said the neighborhood should offer more pedestrian-friendly amenities near the CTA train and bus stations, which are used by thousands of commuters each weekday.
"We have to give them a reason to stay," he said. "We are not a destination. We are a place to pass through."
Boyke said he envisions the area near the Jefferson Park CTA terminal becoming more like the nearby Lincoln Square neighborhood, where condos and shops have sprouted near train stops.
Also opposing Levar are real estate agents Anna Klocek and Robert A. Bank.
Across Chicago, in the 19th Ward, Rugai's opponents do not dispute that the Beverly and Mt. Greenwood neighborhoods are popular with families. But they say Rugai has not done enough to encourage development near the ward's eight Metra stations and along Western Avenue and 95th Street.
Rugai points to the first, newly opened Starbucks in Beverly and other projects as signs of progress.
"It takes more time than we all would like, but it's happening," she said.
Challenger John Somerville is a third-generation Democratic precinct captain in the ward, with close ties to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. One of Somerville's brothers testified during last year's City Hall corruption trial, alleging he owed his city promotion to doing political work for the Daley machine.
Somerville, an assistant Cook County state's attorney, acknowledged that the ward is "real stable and a great community."
"The tougher challenge is getting to the next level, like the Bulls did after their first [NBA] championship," he said. "You know it can be done because you see it happening in other places in the city."
Somerville's campaign fliers feature photos of boarded-up buildings in the ward. "Is this Ginger Rugai's idea of good development?" the ads read, using the alderman's nickname.
Rugai countered that the photos are of buildings owned by a local property owner who backs Somerville.
Rugai's other re-election foe is Timothy Sheehan, a real estate agent and political neophyte who is relying largely on members of his large family who live in the ward. Sheehan also could benefit from voters who confuse him with former sheriff Michael Sheahan and his politically powerful, Southwest Side clan.
Sheehan said he realized that there was a thirst for change in the ward when he saw Somerville win 41 percent of the vote against Rugai four years ago.
"There is a building boom throughout the city and in nearby suburbs, which are reinventing themselves around train hubs," Sheehan said. "Let the marketplace come in."
The 19th Ward is a bastion of South Side Irish political power, perhaps second in influence only to the Daley family's Bridgeport base.
Rugai was an aide to state Sen. Jeremiah Joyce, a Southwest Side Democrat and top mayoral strategist, before she became alderman in 1991. Her daughter and the mayor's eldest daughter are friends.
The alderman rebuts her rivals by noting the recent construction of a Borders bookstore, a Panera Bread restaurant and a Chipotle Mexican Grill near 95th and Western. The intersection is slated to get a new Starbucks, a Jamba Juice and a Potbelly Sandwich Works shop in the fall.
"This community has changed for the better in the past 16 years and there is more to come," she said. "The housing values have never been higher, and that doesn't happen by luck."
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