Campaign Q&A

ICE is a serious, ongoing threat in our community right now. If you listen to people within the Department of Defense, it's not a matter of if they ramp up their operations, but when. As a community, our best defense is standing together and actively resisting. A sign in every window, a rapid-response hotline to call when things get scary—these are concrete actions we can take today. We must work on a national level to fix this mess, but local resistance happens now. A few years ago, my handyman ended up in a holding cell during a sweep. He told me he was an American citizen. It made my blood boil. Screaming at a brick wall won't fix it; actively organizing our neighborhoods, standing up for our vulnerable residents, and committing to making this ward a hostile environment for ICE operations will.

Honestly? An alderperson has very little direct power against ICE. Much like a congressperson, I am not running for the executive branch—in Chicago, that’s the mayor's job. I support Mayor Johnson in a lot of areas, and this is a big one. As Mayor, he has the executive authority to strictly enforce the Welcoming City Ordinance, ensure CPD completely cuts off any database sharing or logistical cooperation with federal agents, and explicitly deny ICE access to city facilities. Giving him the backing to harness his law enforcement arm in CPD to protect our residents—rather than assist federal sweeps—is something we should have locked down yesterday. If elected, I'll absolutely vote to make sure we do it next time.

We’ve been dealing with these types of cameras since the Daley days, starting with the red light cameras. Let's be real, they're a money grab. I’ve long been a proponent of the 4-to-5-second yellow light, unlike the 3-second yellow we’ve had in this city for way too long (which I've personally funded through multiple $60 tickets). As an alderperson, I’ll have the ability to introduce ordinances to restrict their use by CPD and, ultimately, ban them. Policing should be done by people—the beat cops who actually live in our neighborhoods. Not by some weird, apocalyptic robot out of a Terminator movie.

It really depends on the development, and as a council member, I’ll have the opportunity to weigh in on most of them. When my grandma used to visit this ward for the amusement park by the river, the neighborhoods were filled with carnival workers. There’s a saying down in the southern part of the ward: "Keep Roscoe Village Weird." I fully intend to keep it that way. Developers aren't automatically the enemy—another word for developer is "builder." But we have a gentrification problem that has already swallowed Lincoln Park whole and is aggressively creeping west. We need to make sure our ward remains a place for everyone to live, work, play, and just exist without needing a trust fund.

My term is four years, so my primary goals are long-term. In the immediate 6-to-12-month timeline, my main focus will be seamlessly continuing the strong, foundational policies set by our current alderperson to ensure stability and reliable service in the ward. But honestly, thinking strictly in a short-term timeline kind of defeats the true purpose of public office. I often take solace in my Catholic upbringing—the Church thinks in terms of centuries. In government, we should at least be thinking in terms of generations, building on the good work of today so our kids can grow up just a little bit better off than we did.

Well, in five years, my first term would be just about over. To quote my dad: I want to leave the ward better than I found it. To me, that means more housing, more ADUs, more block parties, and way fewer vacant storefronts. I have this wild goal to get the storefront vacancy rate under 1%. Can I actually pull that off in four years? Probably not. Am I going to try like hell anyway? Yes.

I’ve been a politics nerd my whole life. I blame my parents for watching way too much West Wing on Wednesday nights, or maybe the lifelong-Democrat grandma who raised me. Honestly, I didn't set out to run for office. My Plan B is literally "become a kindergarten teacher." But I look around at our city and our country, and no one seems to be stepping up with realistic ideas. Everything has devolved into who can yell the loudest on the internet. I used to work on "K Street" in D.C. It gets a bad rap, but back then, it was a place where people actually spoke to one another instead of just performing for a TikTok algorithm. You'd walk into our bullpen, look left and see a bunch of Republicans in cubes, look right and see a bunch of Democrats. They figured it out and wrote the laws we live by. I care because that kind of real debate should be happening out in the open at City Hall, not just behind closed doors. There’s an old Polish saying: if no one else will do it, I’ll just do it myself. So here I am.

Baseball.

My kids. And then baseball.

I moved here in 2015. My mom lives here. I started my family here. A better question is, why not?

Overall, I want to continue the policies of the current alderman. I campaigned for him when he first got elected in 2019. He's done great things for the Ward. But in 2023 he ran unopposed. That is unacceptable and disappointed me. Every politician should have an opponent. That's what makes our democracy a democracy. Two terms is long enough for a politician to stay in a job. Turnover brings fresh ideas and a renewed sense of purpose to the office which, if elected, is what I intend to bring. If you have any more policy questions, give me a call! I’d be more than happy to chat.