To inform voters and to help the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board make endorsements, the board posed a series of questions to the candidates running for alderman. See their answers below. See how other candidates answered here.
Name: Ambria Taylor
Ward: 11th
Current job: Substitute Teacher, School District 102.
Previous political experience: None
Education: Liberal Arts BA at Shimer College; MA in Teaching, University of Chicago
Spouse’s occupation: N/A
Sources of outside income: None
The rise in violent crime remains a top priority for City Hall. Homicides, shootings and carjackings are all unacceptably high. Tell us how city government can be innovative in combating crime, and explain what measures you would propose if elected.
Violent crime is a signal that the city government is failing to provide the foundation needed to have a peaceful society. Chicago features large homeless encampments, people with mental illnesses having a crises in public, and a very high cost of living and lack of affordable housing. Our public systems like public transportation and our city’s law department are breaking down. In short – we are in chaos. A broken society with a high rate of poverty will have a high rate of violent crime.
Our city government needs to stop cutting services and then expecting the police to pick up the slack. We need to do our part and get homeless people in housing, have more affordable housing so people are less desperate and have economic opportunities, and treat mental illness and drug addiction. We need jobs programs and investment in South Side neighborhoods. We know what causes crime. Scientific studies have told us the answer over and over: poverty. If your rates of poverty are high, your rates of crime are high. As alderman I will work hard locally to connect people who are struggling with resources that get them off of the streets, such as getting a special exception so they can get an identification card without a home address – not having an identification card holds many homeless people back from being able to get a job.
On the city level, I support an ordinance called “The Peacebook Ordinance” to help reduce violence. We need to build communities where people know each other and look out for each other – and neighborhood watch is not enough. We must cooperate throughout different neighborhoods, because many people travel from other places in the city and commit crimes. There is also the “Treatment Not Trauma Ordinance,” that provides social workers to respond to mental health calls so that police officers are more available for other types of calls where they are most needed.
The CTA, one of the nation’s largest transit systems, remains a troubled agency grappling with issues ranging from violent crime and ghost buses and trains, to flagging ridership. Give us your thoughts on what specific measures CTA should take to make train and bus service safer, more reliable and more equitable for Chicagoans.
CTA staffing and funding problems have created an unstable and unreliable public transportation system that deeply impacts all of us – but most of all the most vulnerable who rely on it as their only means of getting to work, getting groceries, and going to the doctor.
City Council should have a transparent investigation and hearings on the scheduling issues plaguing the CTA in order to find solutions.
Like all city departments, the hiring and management practices of CTA need to be overhauled. I want to work on improving Chicago’s city job application and hiring process and fight to make sure that city jobs are good jobs. Investigate staffing cuts that removed extra conductors from supervising stations to make sure there is employee presence on train platforms.
Meet and collaborate with CTA worker’s union ATU Local 241 to gain more insight on potential improvements.
Ten years ago, enrollment at Chicago Public Schools was 403,000 students. In September, enrollment stood at 322,000 students. Enrollment at CPS has dropped for 11 consecutive years. What specific measures should CPS undertake to reverse the trend of ever-dwindling enrollment?
The Chicago Teacher’s Union has done an endless amount of research into problems with our schools and has made many specific requests of the city that would improve our schools and improve retention. The first step is to ask the workers on the ground and families what needs to be done – and both have been making their thoughts known for a long time: fully staff schools with nurses and librarians, fix dilapidated school buildings, invest in high quality and union run custodial services, improve the food we feed kids, and fund schools equitably across the city. On the local level I will also be active in attending local school council meetings, building relationships with admin and staff at schools, and working with local union delegates to collaborate and connect families and schools with resources.
Disinvestment on the South and West sides is a decades-long problem with myriad causes. Give us at least one innovative idea that you believe could play a role in reversing South and West side disinvestment, and explain why the idea is realistic and feasible.
Fix the TIF program so it does what it is actually supposed to do. TIF collects local property taxes into a district so that they can be used for local improvements in “blighted areas.” And yet, there is no real definition for a “blighted area” and rich areas downtown have created TIF districts that pull large amount of tax money out of city use – which could be used in improvements in infrastructure and development on the South and West sides to raise property values. If we can overhaul TIF by defining “blighted” tightly and investing TIF money heavily in the South and West sides, we could make a huge impact very quickly.
Do you support giving Chicagoans property tax relief? If yes, please explain how you would accomplish it. If no, please explain why not.
I do. I want our tax system to be fair for our middle class residents and those living in poverty. Our assessor’s office has recently made big strides in addressing the problem of lower-value properties being consistently overvalued while high value properties are under-valued. Unfortunately the review board, where you can appeal your assessment, still favors the rich and powerful and allows wealthy people to get out of paying their fair share. We really need to reform the review board. We also need to do a better job getting people the exemptions they qualify for that lowers their tax costs – I would fight to make the system more automatic.
Give us your take on the city’s use of tax increment financing districts. Do you feel they have been useful, or do you feel that the problems associated with them outweigh their usefulness? What if any reforms would you want to apply to the city’s usage of TIFs?
So far, the problems have outweighed their usefulness, but I think that could change with major reforms. There needs to be more rigid rules about what areas can make a TIF district, and there needs to be more tracking and regulation around how the money is used – and how money gets moved between TIF districts that touch. The way decisions that are made for how to use TIF money should be more democratic.
Lead in drinking water is a major health concern for the city. It is estimated that in Chicago there are roughly 400,000 homes and small apartment buildings with lead service lines. So far, the city has replaced less than 300 lead service lines. Do you feel the pace of lead service line replacement should be expedited, and if yes, what is the best, most feasible way to accomplish that?
Yes, it should be expedited. As always, the answer is to do a better job hiring people to oversee and implement projects that we have already secured funding, legislation, etc. for.
If you are an incumbent, please explain what is it about your service on the City Council that makes you most qualified for the job. If you have never served on the council, please explain what is it about your background that makes you most qualified.
I have been very active in local civics for over a decade, and was a middle school social studies teacher here in the the 11th Ward. I served as a CTU delegate in my school building, working together with teachers to address issues in our school – it taught me a lot about problem solving together across the political spectrum. In addition, my team and I have been campaigning for over a year since we launched in October 2021, have knocked tens of thousands of doors, hosted multiple community meetings all over the ward to discuss issues in Chicago and in our neighborhoods, and hosted unifying events like a big block party and diaper giveaway to families in need. I have deep relationships here that are rooted in community activity and service.
What is the most pressing issue facing the people of your ward, and how would you address it?
As we have canvassed this past year, what has come up most is traffic safety, basic maitenance of our public infrastructure, and dysfunctional city services for lights, trees, and rodent control. These are all the most baseline functions that the ward office is supposed to fulfill. Although there are issues at the city level that I want to work on addressing when it comes to funding and staffing our city departments, I think we could do a lot more on the local level. That includes: streamlining and systematizing how we respond to service calls to our office, enrolling residents in better communications, providing better multilingual services, proactively surveying and tracking our infrastructure (streets, sidewalks, alleys) for deficiencies instead of only waiting for calls, and creating democratic procedures for collaborating with residents for use of TIF dollars, menu money, grants, and the ward-level budget.
Sum up why should voters elect you and not your opponent(s)? (Please limit this to policy and approach, not a biography recitation.)
The 11th Ward is at a crossroads. We can keep doing what we have done in the past, or we can become more creative and resourceful about getting things done. None of the other candidates are committed to creating formal structures for democratic input from resident representatives. None of the other candidates will commit to saying “no” to new developments that place more heavy industry pollution in our already over-burdened area. None of the other candidates have thoroughly designated their political positions like I have on my website. I am completely up front about what I stand for and I am the only one who will create a transparent, proactive, and resident-centered ward office.
