Chicago City Wire

Justin Kerr has been direct and to the point when it comes to expressing what he thinks his McKinley Park neighborhood should look like.

“I publish the McKinley Park News … and this spring I authored an opinion/editorial titled, “McKinley Park deserves to be in a single ward,” Kerr told the Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission during public comments.

Kerr expanded on his views in the recent editorial.

“This year, one of the most consequential civic decisions will befall the McKinley Park neighborhood and communities across the country: political redistricting based on the upcoming counts from the 2020 U.S. Census,” he wrote. “At our neighborhood level, this impacts McKinley Park’s access to and standing within Chicago city government, deciding who will represent us within the 50 wards into which Chicago is divided under edict of state law.”

Kerr said the neighborhood mostly lies in the 12th Ward, with a chunk of industrial area south of West 35th Street and east of South Ashland Avenue falling into the 11th Ward. Segments of the ward also extend as far as Hoyne Park and occupy the Target store, the Ashland El stop, and other blocks on the north end of the neighborhood.

“The Chicago skyline peeks over the corner of one of the vacant warehouse buildings of the Central Manufacturing District,” Kerr said in his editorial. “McKinley Park clearly comprises its own, distinct community of interest, for a host of reasons. We are one of Chicago’s 77 official community areas, with over 100 years of history behind our identity and our namesake park. We are one of the most geographically distinct neighborhoods in Chicago, with natural and man-made impasses defining borders on all sides and supporting just a handful of routes into and out of our neighborhood.”

The recently formed Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission — which is completely separate from the City Council —  began holding public hearings in June.

Residents like Kerr are hoping to have more of a voice in what their neighborhoods come to look like as the Chicago City Council takes on the job of drafting new boundaries.

Kerr’s views are aligned with the nonpartisan group CHANGE Illinois, with Chicago Project Manager Chaundra Van Dyk recently sharing the primary goal of the group’s 13 commissioners will be drawing a map that’s “by the people and for the people,” based on census data combined with community input.

Van Dyk said the group hopes to have a draft map completed over the next several months that will be ready to be viewed by the public and receive feedback from the community