Chicago City Wire

A group of Jefferson Park area residents have formed a political action committee in hopes of unseating Ward 45 Alderman John Arena in 2019.

Organizers of Citizens Against John Arena filed paperwork with the IRS recently that enables them to raise funds to mount a challenge.

Arena, a two-term alderman, alienated many constituents by throwing his weight behind a subsidized housing plan that would double the number of Section 8 dwellers in the neighborhood and then hurling insults at those who oppose the plan.  

“We want to do something that goes beyond just protesting,” Matt Podgorski, one of the PAC’s leaders, told the Chicago City Wire. “We want to send the alderman a message and at the same time set up a candidate to run against him in 2019.”

Podgorski said the group is hoping that by starting now it will be able to field a high-quality candidate come election time. He pledged that the money raised will be dedicated to the yet-to-be-identified candidate's campaign and also anticipates the group being involved in other forms of protest against Arena, particularly related to the Jefferson Park development.

“Some people might be hesitant to declare because running for alderman can be so expensive,” he said. “With the money we’re able to raise, we’re hoping that changes. We’ve already had some potential candidates step forward to express a possible interest.”  

Since publicly endorsing the seven-story, 100-unit, low-income subsidized housing project planned for the corner of Northwest Highway and Milwaukee Avenue, Arena has seen opposition grow and crowds of protesters gather regularly outside his ward office. Podgorski, a member of the Northwest Side GOP club, claims Arena has misled the group by telling them the development would be limited to four stories.

Like Podgorski, many of the protestors expressed fears that crime will increase and property values will suffer as a result of the influx of low-income residents into the neighborhood. He insisted his official position as a Republican committeeman has no impact on his taking a stance for his neighborhood.

"First of all, as a representative of the 39th ward, the 5150 development and other schemes by Arena affect my ward, which borders the 45th," he said. "I live less than one mile from the 5150 development. It is also in my capacity as chair of the GOP club that I am getting involved. Somebody needs to represent the thousands of Northwest Side Republicans, who are totally ignored under the Dems."

Arena has shown no signs of compromise. Instead, he blasted his critics in Facebook posts as being heartless, ignorant and racist.

“Go ahead... Move to Indiana and live in a third-world economy,” he chided one constituent during a recent Facebook exchange about the city’s spate of tax increases. “(Expletive) schools and low wages. And read a newspaper or something...Rail against everything but offer no ideas and think only of yourself. Time to grow up and be part of society.”

In another Facebook post, Arena declared: “I am not ready to cead (sic) this country to the racist, classist, knuckle-dragging and generally subhuman puddle of DNA that makes up the base of (President Donald) Trump supporters. We have made too much progress since scrubbing the (George) Bush idiocy from the Oval Office.”

Podgorski insisted that residents have heard too much of it all before.

“He has a bad pattern of showing contempt toward those who don’t agree with him,” he said. “He doesn’t respect his constituents, and standing behind the Jefferson Park project is just the thing that put everything over the top for a lot of people.”

Arena garnered 53 percent of the vote in defeating Chicago Police Lt. John Garrido for alderman in 2015.