Chicago City Wire

 Brian Lapinski wants to see uniformity in his Hyde Park neighborhood.

 “I don't think it makes sense for 53rd Street, the heart of Hyde Park neighborhood commercial strip to be divided directly down the center between the 4th Ward to the north and the 5th Ward to the south,” Lapinski recently told the Chicago Advisory Redistricting Committee during a public comments hearing. “I think all of Hyde Park’s commercial areas should be in the same ward so that the community can work with just one alderperson in order to enact changes. Either the 5th Ward should be extended north to 51st Street or the 4th Ward should be extended south to 56th Street on both sides of the railroad viaduct.”

Lapinski thinks it’s only sensible that residents of the community have more of a say in its look and direction.

“I don’t think East Hyde Park (east of the viaduct) is that different from Hyde Park where it needs to be in a different ward,” he added.

Lapinski’s views have the support of the nonpartisan group CHANGE Illinois, which Chicago Project Manager Chaundra Van Dyk said now has 13 commissioners, all of whom were selected to represent the city

Van Dyk added their primary goal will be drawing a map that’s “by the people and for the people,” based on census data combined with community input.

“It’s typically done in a back room, closed process where residents don’t really have a voice in the process in how their communities are drawn,” she said of redistctiring. “The decisions are made and then they’re made public and people just have to live with the decisions that have been made in their communities. We believe this should be an independent process where residents have some power, some voice.”

She said the goal is to have a draft map completed over the next several months that will be ready to be reviewed by the public and receive feedback from the community.

The Chicago Advisory Redistricting Committee is completely separate from the City Council and recently began holding its own public hearings.