What Gerrymandering Does to Neighborhoods: The Story of Englewood

No Chicago neighborhood has suffered more from municipal gerrymandering than Englewood.

The largely African American community on the South Side has been divided among six wards since the 1970s and has never had a single alderman. Parts of Englewood are in the 20th Ward, considered Woodlawn’s ward; the 6th, dominated by Chatham; the 17th, based in Chicago Lawn; and the 3rd and 15th Wards, both split among multiple neighborhoods. Only one ward, the 16th, is based wholly in Englewood. 

“When we think about economic development and a large, comprehensive plan for Englewood, it’s difficult to have one vision when we’re so carved up,” said Asiaha Butler, director of the Residents Association of Greater Englewood. “That was one of the reasons R.A.G.E. started in 2010. Even though we are divided into so many wards, we are one community.”

Recalling an aldermanic candidates’ forum R.A.G.E. held when it started out, Butler said, “A lot of people were confused about which ward they were in. You can find two or three different wards on the same block.”

In a two-part series in 2019, South Side Weekly examined the impact on political power when Englewood residents are confused about who represents them or have to lobby up to six aldermen. 

“Huge industrial development projects, like the expansion of the Norfolk Southern railyard, move forward with the public support of just one alderman, while huge commercial development projects, like the revitalization of 63rd and Halsted Streets, remain in stasis for years—partially, at least, because it’s unclear whose ward would benefit more, and who would get the most credit,” wrote reporter Sam Stecklow.

“When people look at the Englewood community and all the challenges that we deal with and how we’re portrayed in the news media, the one thing that they don’t know is that we’re split up politically, and that lends itself to some of the dysfunction that we have,” state Rep. Sonya Harper told Stecklow. Previously the head of nonprofit Grow Greater Englewood, she now represents Englewood and surrounding areas in the Illinois House of Representatives.

The expansion of the Norfolk Southern railyard, from 47th Street south into a residential corner of Englewood, is a good example of a project that a less-fragmented Englewood might have been able to influence, Butler noted. Residents who would be displaced attended a community meeting to voice their objections. The only alderman who showed up, then-15th Ward Ald. Toni Foulkes, told attendees that she wasn’t the alderman they needed to talk to. Then-20th Ward Ald. Willie Cochran, who wasn’t there, supported the project, which the City Council gave a go-ahead in 2013.

In another example, Butler said that discussions about creating promotional corridors, such as a Halsted corridor between 56th and 76th Streets, are complicated by having to get four of five aldermen on the same page. 

Five aldermen representing parts of Englewood have acknowledged that gerrymandering has hurt the community. They held a townhall meeting last year to try to better coordinate Englewood-related matters and a virtual townhall meeting this January. 

“They’re now looking at Englewood as one community,” Butler said. Although that pleases her, she still hopes the upcoming remapping will put Englewood in one ward or at most two. 

Ironically, the population of Englewood and West Englewood, 56,818 in 2016, is similar to the last remap’s target size of a Chicago ward. If the ward map were drawn to represent communities instead of politicians’ interests, Englewood is the right size for a ward of its own.