Amy Mui, a 63-year-old Bridgeport resident, said she doesn’t know much about her current alderman, Patrick Daley Thompson. But she does know that she is increasingly worried about recent crime in the neighborhood and reports of anti-Asian attacks throughout the U.S.
“You feel unsafe here and then you feel nobody care about the Chinese society, and then we want to say something,” Mui said. “We need somebody to represent us.”
That’s why Mui attended a Saturday afternoon rally with Asian American community leaders in Chicago demanding the next map drafted by the City Council include the city’s first-ever Asian majority ward, one that would encompass her neighborhood.
About 50 people attended the event, at Chinatown Square, 2154 S. Archer Ave.
Organizing groups, which say such a ward is decades overdue and put forward the proposed map, include Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, Chinese American Service League, Pui Tak Center and Midwest Asian Health Association.
These Chinatown leaders say the storied cultural hub deserves its own ward amid City Council’s decennial redistricting process. Advocates argue the needs of the area’s residents are underrepresented in City Hall, where there has only been one Asian American alderman: Ameya Pawar, who represented the majority-white North Side 47th Ward for two terms.
As a result, they say, the largely immigrant population that mainly speaks Mandarin and Cantonese is struggling to be heard.
Currently, Chinatown is split between the 25th ward of Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez and the 11th ward of indicted Ald. Daley Thompson. The latter ward also includes Bridgeport and chunks of McKinley Park, home to a fast-growing population of Asian Americans.
All three of those neighborhoods would unify under a proposal by the Asian community groups. Its triangular map shows the south branch of the Chicago river bounding the ward on the northwest, with a jagged southern border that stretches as far as West Pershing Road from South California Avenue to the Dan Ryan Expressway.
The demographics of the potential ward would be 51% Asian, 24% Latino, 20% white and 3% Black. Supporters say such a ward is long overdue, especially after the 2020 Census found Asians were the fasting growing population in Chicago, making up 7% of the population. They also now make up the largest racial group in Bridgeport, according to a 2021 analysis by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
The City Council is the body tasked with trying to pass a new map. If fewer than 41 aldermen agree on a single version, then any 10 aldermen can try to force a ballot referendum by backing a different proposal.
The head of the Latino caucus has signaled support for an Asian-majority ward in his remap proposals. Chairman Ald. Gilbert Villegas on Friday said the caucus would update its map proposal to make the 11th Ward that stretches from Bridgeport into Chinatown an Asian-majority ward in the remap.
“I felt it would be hypocritical of us, as we try to get fair representation, to not also fight for a group that has grown and has done its part for the city of Chicago to get its fair representation as well,” said Villegas, 36th.
And Black Caucus Chairman Ald. Jason Ervin said Saturday that his caucus is “fully on board” with making the 11th Ward an Asian-majority ward including Chinatown. The Black Caucus has not yet released its full remap proposal.
An independent group has also put out “The People’s Map” that includes Chinatown in its own ward. For that to be viable, at least 10 aldermen would need to support that version after voting against the official remap plan presented by aldermen to City Council, triggering a referendum.
At Saturday’s event, several leaders in Chicago’s Chinese American communities spoke out against currently having no Asian American representation in City Council. They chanted in Mandarin and English, “We want representation. We want rights. ... We do not want to be second-class citizens.”
“The last time we had a rally here in March, we were fighting against anti-Asian hate,” Grace Chan McKibben, executive director of CBCAC, said. “This time ... we have the opportunity to stand up for ourselves in a different way. We have the opportunity to unite the Chinese American community.”
ayin@chicagotribune.com
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
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November 14, 2021 at 04:32AM
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Residents, community leaders rally in support of creating Chicago’s first-ever Asian-majority ward in Chinatown - Chicago Tribune
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