Shiller’s critics praise her motives even as they turn up the heat

Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood has changed a lot over the last few years.

For more than two decades, Helen Shiller has served the 46th ward as alderman, but many residents question whether she has been able to keep up with those changes or adequately respond to the demands of her constituency.

Uptown has long been a refuge for the poor and less fortunate. A major port of entry, the neighborhood welcomed new immigrants and continues to be one of the city’s most diverse communities.

Shiller began working in the neighborhood in the 1970s, helping to found the Heart of Uptown Coalition, a group that worked with the neighborhood’s poor.

When she started her political career in the 1980s, she began to build a coalition with other groups, such as Jesus People USA, an evangelical Christian group active in the community.

That group, deeming her too liberal and reactionary, was wary at first about supporting her first candidacy, said Jon Trott, a deacon and teacher with the group. In that first run, Shiller lost.

However, in 1986, as many members of Uptown’s sizable Cambodian community were being evicted or priced out of the area, Shiller and Trott worked together to find housing for the displaced community, leading to her first aldermanic victory in 1987.

“One reason we backed Helen as a community,” Trott said, “is an unwavering commitment not to those who have, but to those who have less or nothing.”

However, in recent years, the community has changed – with an influx of middle-income condo owners – yet many residents say they feel the alderman has stubbornly refused to address their concerns.

Though praising her intentions, many critics accuse the alderman of going too far in offering social services for the poor, which has created a concentration of poverty in the ward that does more to hurt than to help.

“I think the alderman has very good intentions and she has a good heart,” said Jonathon Irpino, a member of the Uptown Neighborhood Council, an advocacy group frequently at odds with Shiller. Irpino also owns an apartment building in the neighborhood. “The people she feels she is speaking for and doing things for, they need a voice. I give her a lot of credit for it. It’s just that what she’s doing is very detrimental in the end.”

James Cappleman, her opponent in the last election, echos these sentiments.

“I’m a social worker. I’ve worked with people who are chronically homeless, and this goes directly counter to what is actually helping them,” Cappleman said, adding the community needs to seek a better balance between the upscale and the downtrodden.

Many also complain that the alderman has done little to address the problem of violence and crime in Uptown. In May, a Ghanian engineering student, Francis Oduro, was gunned down outside the Wilson el stop. Police believe the Truman College student was caught in the cross-fire of a gang shooting.

However, Shiller’s supporters say that, compared to many Chicago neighborhoods, Uptown is safe and these fears are unfounded.

“My own opinion is that people act out of fear. They are afraid,” said Sandy Ramsey, who heads a shelter in the neighborhood.

A look at crime reports shows that Uptown’s reputation as a dangerous community is not totally unfounded, but is somewhat overblown.

According to Chicago Police Department statistics from 2006, Uptown, with a rate of 5.7 violent crimes per 1,000 people, does have a slightly higher rate of violent crime than neighboring communities such as Edgewater (4.2), Lake View (4.1) and Irving Park (4.6), but it lags behind Rogers Park (7.8).

While concern with crime is an issue for many residents, they say their frustration with Shiller goes deeper. They accuse the alderman of ignoring dissent, saying she only listens to her supporters and shuts her door to complaints.

“I’m a 17-year resident and have never been asked an opinion,” said Cindi Anderson, a board member of the Uptown Chicago Commission, a neighborhood group that is often critical of Shiller.

Unable to get the alderman to listen to their concerns, some residents have taken to blogging. In the last year, a number of community blogs such as the Uptown Update and the Uptown Crime Blotter have emerged as critical voices in the community, opposing Shiller’s policies.

Additionally, single-issue sites such as StopLaborReady.com, a site dedicated to stopping a planned day-labor operation that Shiller supports, have used the Web to raise money and spread their message.

These Web sites have allowed people to organize and communicate in ways they never have been able to before, speaking out on topics like a housing project planned for Wilson Yard, violence in the neighborhood, and disagreements over zoning.

Mention this criticism to her chief of staff, Denise Davis, and she immediately becomes irate, lashing out at Shiller’s critics and dismissing them as no more than a handful of chronically unhappy residents.

However, 47 percent of the voters in the ward cast their vote for Cappleman in the last election, a margin that amounted to 700 votes, Shiller’s closest battle in years.

Despite the criticism Shiller has garnered recently, she and her allies continue to fight for the things they believe in, including her core mission of ensuring that the less fortunate will always have a place to live in Uptown.

“The neighborhood is just being inundated with many, many condos,” Ramsey said. “You could, in the earlier days, find housing in this neighborhood. You cannot really find housing for families nowadays. That has been a great loss.”

Shiller and her critics will have to learn to live with each other – at least until the next election, in 2011. However, they will also have to find a way to address the challenges Uptown faces, a point Ramsey drives home.

“We’re all pretty fragile human beings and that’s why we can’t rise above each other,” Ramsey said. “We have to lock arms.”

Shiller, through her chief of staff, refused to comment for this piece: “If she has to pick and choose who she talks to, it won’t be Medill students.”