Rebrand Season
If you weren’t paying attention until now, pull up a chair. Our intrepid 44th Ward Alderman Lawson is in the midst of rebranding himself as “a longtime supporter of CARE”. Plot twist! Since we have been down this road of vague statements of support followed by a shameful voting record before, we need to be clear on how we got here and what to do next.
What actually happened before and after the North East Treatment Not Trauma Townhall that was held on July 28th, 2026?
As a newly rebranded “longtime supporter of CARE”, 44th Ward Alderman Lawson acted as follows:
Voted for the Alternative Budget stripping TNT of the Community Safety Surcharge /‘head tax’ funding. Refused to share community feedback; multiple FOIA’s to get community feedback were denied.
Refused to include CARE in his newsletter, even after the May 13, 2026 CARE expansion announcement that included our ward.
Walked out of the May 13th 19th PDC meeting (the first and last appearance this year so far) after only 15 minutes, after we asked him to confirm that supporting CARE means VOTING to fund it.
On July 22nd, held a shaky “public safety townhall”. After kicking out an NBC5 videographer, spent 90 min hiding behind police and a prosecutor, and refused to mention CARE, even after we asked.
Did not include CARE in his weekly newsletter even after his bizarre “public safety townhall”.
Refused to show up to the July 28 TNT townhall that was hosted in his ward, and was attended by all other neighboring alders - literally left an empty chair for everyone to see.
Finally, after relentless pressure from the community, he managed to include one sentence and CARE slide in his July 30th newsletter, while claiming to be “a longtime supporter of CARE”.
WHY DOES THIS HISTORY MATTER?
44th Alderman Lawson and the rest of the 44th ward electeds are getting away with their anti-democratic behavior, pro-corporate voting record, and general tomfoolery thanks to the lack of transparency, where even the very basic elements of public accountability are broken or missing completely:
No public meetings!
Private HOAs provide illusion of access
Corporate media complacency
Non-profits maintaining safe distance
Urbanist/Abundance/Transit non-profit organizations only care about narrow sets of issues and conflate access with impact
Issue organizing historically has had limited reach
and finally,
Constituent apathy
What’s next?
Which brings us to the next steps. With the municipal elections kicking off, there is a chance for a temporary improvement in responsiveness and, (gasp!) maybe even better voting behavior from our aldermen. Why? Because people are paying attention during elections. At the end of the day, all of us are toiling in this attention economy, and the election season is when we are supposed to be paying attention to the people whose names are on our ballots. Election season is when the likes of our alderman, who somehow manages to spend serious money on a PR company and stay virtually invisible, have to say SOMETHING. What does Ald. Lawson have to brag about besides the ADUs?
Blocking the sub-minimum wage increase for tipped workers
Defunding mental health emergency response
Rolling back renter’s rights to the pre-1980s level
All three of these issues hit our LGBTQIA+ neighbors the hardest. Block Club Chicago covered the topic of Chicago becoming a magnet for LGBTQIA+ people from across the country, When Queer folx arrive here, they want to live in a community where they feel welcome and included. Boystown has been that safe space, even as it was becoming more corporate for the past 40+ years, thanks to state enforced segregation, followed by the continuous concentration of corporate money and power. These days we find ourselves living in a place where large corporate sports venues and teams, large corporate hospitals, corporate housing, corporate storefronts, corporate hospitality, corporate restaurant chains, corporate developers, and corporate real estate operators have placed their bets. Their investments must be protected at all costs, which is why we have an alderman whose only job is to protect their property and their feelings. Even if it means skyrocketing rents, apartheid style policing, defunding of public services, displacement of safe communities for LGBTQIA+ people, all in service of almighty corporate interests, or as he lovingly calls them the ‘business community’.
What can you do?
Good news! In Chicago we always have people working year around on important issues. Anyone can and should join these issue organizing campaign. It’s the best way to get involved, learn, share and find your organizing community.
Treatment Not Trauma - JCUA, OneNorthside, CCW
Alternative Response - 44th Ward Action, CCPSA, 19th PDC
2027 Chicago Budget - Grassroots Collaborative, sign up here
Funding our Public Schools! - IFPS
Join the Fight for Fair Elections in Chicago
***We need as many people as possible to show up for the Northside CCPSA Listening Session on September 2nd . Unraveled Press wrote about the state of the CCPSA. It’s a great read to set the context as to why community pressure is so important right now. Share with your friends and neighbors who are not as involved with local organizing. Maybe realizing how precarious our situation is right now will help mobilize folks.
Check our actions calendar for activations, teach-ins, meetings, opportunities to learn and jump into action here.
Elections come and go, but our organizing power is what makes a difference in the long run.
If we don’t fight, we don’t get to win!
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