by BRIAN NADIG
Public security, homelessness and different points have been mentioned at a Jan. 19 discussion board for the 2 thirty ninth Ward aldermanic candidates, incumbent Samantha Nugent and Denali Dasgupta.
“It’s the primary concern throughout the town,” Nugent mentioned of public security.
Crime can have a adverse impression on the financial system as a result of fewer individuals will go to the central enterprise district if they don’t really feel sale. “This cash helps us,” she mentioned, including that tax income from retail gross sales and lodge stays helps fund many security and social packages.
As alderperson, Nugent mentioned that she has advocated for extra law enforcement officials within the sixteenth (Jefferson Park) and seventeenth (Albany Park) police districts and sought funding for technological sources, together with the set up of police commentary gadget cameras and license plate readers.
Nugent mentioned that in January each districts obtained eight further officers and that over the past two years POD cameras have been put in on the Milwaukee-Elston, Cicero-Peterson and Pulaski-Bryn Mawr intersections.
Nugent mentioned that her and her workers commonly attend police beat conferences.
Nugent added that she has supported budgets which embrace elevated funding for psychological well being companies and co-sponsored an ordinance calling for extra break day between shifts for overworked officers.
Dagupta mentioned that a number of the surveillance expertise getting used to addresses crime raises problems with “civil liberties”.
“I don’t assume the way in which to maintain us protected is to deal with us all like criminals,” Dasgupta mentioned. On her web site, Dasgupta requires the cancellation of the town’s contract for ShotSpotter expertise and the elimination of the gang database.
Dasgupta mentioned that whereas police sources are being “stretched skinny,” the “true prices of policing” should be examined, together with the value of lawsuit settlements. She mentioned that she helps the “Therapy, Not Trauma” marketing campaign, which requires a citywide emergency disaster, non-police intervention mannequin.
Dasgupta mentioned that she herself is a sufferer of violence and that connecting individuals to the neighborhood can assist victims and make for safer neighborhoods.
Nugent mentioned that she launched “participatory budgeting” to the ward and that this system has funded quite a lot of infrastructure initiatives, together with murals, faculty and park enhancements, and pollinator gardens. She mentioned mentioned that it’s a democratic decision-making course of as a result of residents provide you with the funding proposals and selected the winners via a neighborhood vote.
Nugent allocates $500,000 of the ward’s annual $1.5 million in discretionary funds towards participatory budgeting. The remaining $1 million is reserved for side-street resurfacing and emergency restore initiatives.
Dasgupta mentioned that as alderperson the entire ward’s discretionary funds could be a part of the participatory budgeting course of.
Dasgupta criticized Nugent for not attending a particular Metropolis Council assembly on the proposed “Deliver Chicago House” plan, which requires rising the true property switch tax on properties value greater than $1 million to fund packages for the homeless. The assembly was one council member wanting a quorum.
Nugent mentioned that below the plan the switch tax would improve by 253 %, from $3.75 for each $500 of the sale value to $13.25 for each $500, calling it a “large” improve for particular person dwelling and business property homeowners.
As alderperson, Nugent mentioned, “There isn’t any function I received’t do. …. I get up each morning to serve the residents of the thirty ninth Ward.”
Whether or not bringing a meal to a resident who simply misplaced a liked one or listening to residents at a block occasion concerning the crumbling infrastructure of their alley, Nugent she and her workers attend quite a lot of conferences and neighborhood occasions all through the ward along with holding “open ward nights” to remain higher related with residents.
Dasgupta mentioned that if the ward’s present administration was extra collaborative and clear, “I’d be working for the alderman as a substitute of working in opposition to her.”
Dasgupta mentioned that Nugent’s document “speaks for itself” and that she hopes the ward’s constituents will vote for change on Feb. 28.
The occasion was co-sponsored by the Brynford Park Neighborhood Affiliation, the Forest Glen Neighborhood Membership, the Hollywood-North Park Neighborhood Affiliation, the Mayfair Civic Affiliation, the North Mayfair Enchancment Affiliation, the North River Fee, the Previous Irving Park Affiliation, the Sauganash Neighborhood Affiliation, the Sauganash Park Neighborhood Affiliation and the West Walker Civic Affiliation.
