West Loop resident concerned with aldermen's gerrymandering actions

WEST LOOP – West Loop resident Moshe Tamssot blasted Chicago aldermen for allegedly gerrymandering ward maps and called for a new group of leaders to distribute fair zoning practices in office in a Facebook post made recently.

“Approximately 20,000 residents are unevenly spread across four wards, governed by four separate aldermen, and misrepresented by three unelected neighborhood groups,” Tamssot said in his post. “A neighborhood divided.”

Tamssot referred to the four current aldermen: Walter Burnett Jr. (D, 27th), Byron Sigcho Lopez (D, 25th), Brendan Reilly, (D, 42nd) and Jason C. Ervin (D, 28th) as a corrupt system of politicians who each privately mapped out the locations of groups that have financially supported them before community meetings.

He referred to a Better Government Association article where former Chicago Ald. Robert Fioretti (D, 2nd) admitted the political maps were designed in the interests of Chicago aldermen instead of the public. Fioretti did not name any individuals in the interview.

In 2011, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other aldermen remapped the second ward, which left Fioretti without any powers.

Tamssot, the current managing partner at The Innovation Center, also mentioned the “Library Deal,” in which Burnett replaced the Chicago McDonald’s headquarters with a community library despite nearly no support from the West Loop community.

He also referenced how former Alderman Daniel Solis (D, 25th) was forced to leave the position after it was found he was trading sexual favors for development favors. Solis at one point went missing and now currently works as an FBI informant.

The Chicago Tribune has previously reported on the secret actions that many aldermen have engaged in over the years. The article references how aldermen have overextended their use of power to influence the approval of many projects during zoning decisions. This includes one alderman voting on tearing down Near West Side houses to build three-story condos in their places.

Tamssot claimed that aldermen are provided political cover from unelected neighborhood groups who support their developments in exchange for financial support on their own projects. He hopes to see real change in the system after the next alderman election in 2023.

“Anything is better than what we currently have, which is not democracy,” Tamssot said.