Via NBC Chicago

To Uptown’s “Anybody But Helen” crowd, Alderman Helen Shiller was a would-be commissar of the Uptown Soviet Socialist Republic who was determined to keep the neighborhood poor so she could keep herding winos and welfare moms to the polls to guarantee her narrow election victory.

To those who love her -- and everyone in the 46th Ward either loves or hates Shiller -- she was the only line of defense against an economic cleansing that threatened to sweep out low-income renters so the yuppie hordes could move north from Lake View.

Shiller, who plans to announce her retirement, did begin her political career on the far left. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1969, the New York native moved to Uptown to work with the poor in what was then a neighborhood populated by hillbillies, American Indians and mental patients. She was elected to the City Council in 1987, as one of Harold Washington’s few white allies.

Mayor Daley couldn’t stand her. Maybe because she never lost her New York accent -- she described her office as “awl-duh-man” -- and the way she clung to her New York abrasiveness, but more likely because Shiller made an annual practice of voting against his budgets, ensuring they only passed 49-1. He tried to beat her on several occasions, every one of them comic failures. In one election, beefy Southwest Siders in White Sox jackets handed out palm cards for Shiller’s opponent. Shiller’s supporters stood alongside them, wearing buttons that read “I Live in the 46th Ward.”

A fire helped changed Shiller’s politics. In 1996, a CTA maintenance building just south of the Wilson "EL" stop burned down. Redeveloping the vacant land it left behind became Shiller’s passion. As a result, she reached a rapprochement with Mayor Daley. She supported his budgets, and he supported her Wilson Yards campaign. In 2006, she even stood with Daley against the big box ordinance, fearing it would scare away the Target that is now the centerpiece of the new development.

That Target opened this spring, so Shiller may have felt that her work in Uptown was finally done. You rarely hear anyone accuse Shiller of holding back the neighborhood anymore. A dozen years ago, real estate agents wouldn’t even use the word “Uptown” in ads, fearing it would call up images of a newly released mental patient panhandling in front of a redneck bar. They came up with such euphemisms as “East Ravenswood” and “Lincoln Park North.”

Uptown isn’t as funky as it used to be -- young white families feel comfortable there these days -- but it still makes room for SROs and halfway houses. Shiller was always adamant that both the poor and the wealthy would always have a place in Uptown -- the Wilson Yards project included 80 units of affordable housing. On the other hand, the Clarendon Park neighborhood has some of the finest mansions in the city. Jim Thompson lived there when he was governor.

Holding together a mixed-income ward was a tough job, but for 24 years, Helen Shiller did it.

Via the Sun-Times

 LAURA WASHINGTON

An alderman no more. After a long guessing game among enemies and allies alike, Helen Shiller is hanging it up. Shiller, who has represented Uptown's 46th Ward since 1987, tells me she will not run for re-election.

It's a landmark moment for the most controversial, provocative and misunderstood member of the Chicago City Council. In nearly a quarter century in office, Shiller moved from radical activist/provocateur to budget expert par excellence.

The news will unleash political aspirations and expose true colors. There are already four candidates officially angling for her seat in the 2011 aldermanic elections -- and maybe more to come.

The Richard M. Daley-haters despise Shiller for her accommodationist ways. After years of fighting City Hall, she had an epiphany. She learned she could get more for her constituents by working with the mayor, rather than hurling brickbats from the peanut gallery.

"When I became alderman, this was an area that was totally disinvested in every way you can imagine," she recalled over coffee on a sultry afternoon at Cafe Descartes, a funky caffeine haven in the Loop. "We had one of the worst sewer systems in the city. You couldn't walk down almost any sidewalk. We had potholes everywhere."

On July 20, her beloved Wilson Yards development was inaugurated, after 12 years of dogged infighting and economic calamity. The public/private partnership includes a new Target store, a $32.3 million affordable-housing development for senior citizens, and another 80 units of affordable family housing. The project was boosted by $52 million in tax increment financing funds, a sore point for Shiller critics.

Shiller is a TIF booster. "Let's deal with how we find new revenues to deal with these problems," she said. "Whether it's education, or it's affordable housing, or it's safety and security. We are in a period of diminishing resources because of the economy. ... [It's] the only growth area."

She claims a legacy of preserving 5,000 housing units, improving the local schools, opening the city budgeting process, recycling and infrastructure improvements.

Most Chicagoans just want their aldermen to get the garbage toted, make the street lights work and plug the potholes. Opponents say her ward services were suspect, yet Shiller's grit and gumption got her elected six times.

Shiller is a wonk with a heart. Her longtime mission (which she has always struggled to communicate) is to protect the least powerful. She is guided by "a sense of justice," she said.

"You get to it by putting yourself in other people's shoes and figuring out how to have the broadest impact," she said, "and to impact the problems from an institutional point of view."

Many of the shoes in the 46th have morphed from Hi-Tops, dusty work boots and frayed flip-flops to shiny loafers and designer pumps.

Not every Uptowner is guilty, but some are looking only to boost their property values. Shiller has stood in the way of the capitalist, Not-in-My-Backyard crowd. The NIMBYs don't like it.

Shiller, 62, argued that her decision to retire from the City Council does not signal a surrender to the shrill, demonizing and obstructionist politics that has been the ward's calling card for far too long. She plans to continue her role as a budget and policy maven and champion of people on the margins. She will write books and pursue neighborhood and education advocacy projects.

She is done with the grind of everyday governing.

My sources tell me that as many as seven Council members will not stand for re-election. Shiller may not be the only one headed for the door.

In A New Light: What Makes A Neighborhood Well?

Temporary Public Art Project Planning Charettes

The Sheridan Road Task Force, Temporary Public Art Committee would like to invite you to participate in a series of community planning charettes. These charettes are a series of intense planning workshops. There will be two workshops where we will develop ideas for art projects that address the topic 'In A New Light: What Makes A Neighborhood Well?'. Everyone is invited to participate in the workshops. No prior art making experience is needed, although artists who would like to be project leads are encouraged to participate. Just bring a smile and a good attitude.

The artworks planned in these workshops are slated to be installed Summer 2011, on Sheridan Road between Lawrence Avenue and Foster Avenue.

Please note that we will not be making any art during the planning charettes, just developing ideas for art projects.

The charettes are sponsored and supported by Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th Ward), Ald. Helen Shiller (46th Ward), Sheridan Road Task Force and Uptown United.

First Workshop

Date: Saturday, August 7th, 2010
Hours: 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Place: Margate Park Field House, 4921 N. Marine Dr. Chicago , IL. 60640 (312) 742-7522

Second Workshop

Date: Saturday, August 21st, 2010
Hours: 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Place: Margate Park Field House, 4921 N. Marine Dr. Chicago , IL. 60640 (312) 742-7522

To RSVP for one or both workshops or if you have questions, please contact  This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
 
Sheridan Rd. Task Force
Temporary Public Art Committee