Goals

Community organizations and good government advocates in the city are creating a Chicago Ward Advisory Redistricting Commission. We believe residents of Chicago should shape their own wards to improve representation and delivery of city services.

Our goal is to create and support a community-led-and-driven ward remap process that will strive to keep neighborhoods whole as much as possible. Through this process, Chicago’s advisory commission will be a model upholding racial equity and engagement, as well as best practices for independent redistricting nationwide.

We aim to build a people-powered ward map for Chicago, by Chicagoans.

What else do you need to know?

We will support the creation of a resident commission, give it independent redistricting principles to follow and best practices’ training, hire a mapper/demographer, and support a hearing process that is done openly and centered on Chicagoans. The commission will be made up of 13 people who will be tasked with producing a map that reduces the splintering of neighborhoods as much as possible, engages communities historically marginalized and upholds accepted independent mapping principles, including maximizing opportunities for communities of color to elect aldermen of their choosing. 

The commission’s map could be introduced into the City Council. If 10 alders support it, then it and other maps that win at least that much support will go before voters in a special election next spring.