Bucktown Politics: Hot coffee, cold aldermanic elections

Four days before Feb. 27's 32nd Ward alderman election, incumbent Ted Matlak and top challenger Scott Waguespack are approaching the home stretch to pick up last minute undecided votes. Have they persuaded Bucktown voters of Generations X and Y to check their names on the ballot? Apparently not.

"I don't know anything about aldermen."

"I don't really care."

"If I knew some of the issues, I'd definitely vote, but I don't know what I'm voting on."

"I don't know what ward I'm in."

"I was not aware of the alderman elections until yesterday."

"I have no clue."

Confusion and apathy dominated the political mindsets of 20- and 30-something Bucktown residents in two popular coffee shops next to the Damen Avenue Blue Line El stop Friday afternoon. Any "buzz" surrounding the alderman elections was decidedly absent among Bucktown residents enjoying lunch at Filter, 1585 N. Milwaukee Ave., and Half & Half, 1560 N. Damen Ave.

Numerous potential voters said they felt removed from local politics because they did not have family living in the neighborhood. Several said they believed rising property taxes and improving public schools were important issues"just not to them.

"At this point, I'm an abstraction away from the impact of city politics because I don't have kids, and I'm a student in a school not in this area," said Eon McLeary, 32, a law student at the University of Chicago.

"It would probably be of greater interest if I felt like a more permanent part of the neighborhood or if I was directly impacted by any of the alderman's decisions," said Lisa Obradovich, 26. "But maybe that's a stupid statement because I don't know what the issues are anyway."

With the election only days away, Waguespack, a 36-year-old Bucktown resident, has been knocking on doors and passing out literature at subway stations on a daily basis. During the past two weeks, Waguespack's campaign has picked up steam after receiving endorsements from the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Journal. However, he admits it is difficult to get younger voters interested in the political process.

"It's really hard to get a hold of younger people because they tend to be at school during the day," Waguespack said. "But young people use the CTA, so we try to get them there."

Waguespack has centered his campaign around zoning issues, which he says should be important to younger voters because rising rents are directly tied to property values. If elected, Waguespack plans to build a 32nd Ward Web site that will cater to a younger audience.

"We just met a woman who told me, "I don't know where my ward is." And if you look on the current alderman's Web site, there's a little blob of a map," Waguespack said. "There needs to be information on the Web site that says, "Here's where we are, and here's what we stand for.""

Confusion over where wards begin and end was rampant among coffee shop customers"and perhaps aldermanic candidates, themselves. Kristen Backstreet, 23, works as a nanny in the 1st Ward, which borders the 32nd. She remembered overhearing a phone call a few weeks ago from an aldermanic candidate at the house where she works.

"The family told him he had made a mistake'they weren't in his district," Backstreet said. "He wasn't a candidate in their ward." Manny Flores, the 1st Ward alderman, is running unopposed.

Most respondents claimed not to know, or care, about the job of an alderman.

"They create scandals?" guessed Kelly Hrajnoha, 23, on an alderman's role in local government. "Maybe if there was more publicity about how they get elected, when we vote, and what their goals are . . . maybe then I'd vote."

Matlak, who did not return several phone calls, and Waguespack may be hindered in reaching youthful voters because of the character of Bucktown's neighborhood. Drugs, crime and prostitution are no longer major concerns to residents in the area.

"Unless they're going to shut down the bars, I'm not going to vote," McLeary said.

One resident, however, was at least concerned with neighborhood politics. Mason Dixon, 31, does not want to see Bucktown go the way of Lincoln Park.

"If Filter, the toy store and the Occult Book Store [at 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave.] go out of business, this area will turn into a wasteland," Dixon said. "The character of the neighborhood is very important to me."

But will he vote on Feb. 27?

"Probably not," Dixon said.