For over a decade plenty of activists and independents in Lakeview pleaded with restaurateur Tom Tunney to run for alderman of the 44th Ward. And last month Tunney, the popular owner of the Ann Sather restaurants, finally agreed. But instead of cheers from his old friends and allies, Tunney’s getting brickbats.
Last summer many residents decided they’d had enough. They said the ward was too congested. There was no place to park. Condo owners in the complexes that had sprung up on commercial strips such as Halsted were complaining about the noise coming from long-established gay and lesbian bars. “Development was out of control,” says Rick Ingram, a leading independent in the ward who’s now running against Tunney. “We had to run someone against Bernie.”
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So last summer Ingram, an openly gay lawyer who specializes in real estate transactions, quietly went around picking up support to run against Hansen. Though not as charismatic as Tunney, Ingram too seemed a natural choice. He’d settled in Lakeview after graduating from law school in 1981, and he’s been active in his church, Holy Covenant Methodist on Diversey, as well as the Lakeview Citizens Council and the Lakeview Action Coalition. He helped build community support for Reverend Greg Dell, the Methodist minister suspended in 1998 by church higher-ups for sanctioning gay marriages. When a small but vocal group of antigay extremists came to town to protest at Dell’s church, Ingram helped organize a counterdemonstration of more than 1,000 residents. He also used his influence to persuade the Chicago Police Department to establish bike patrols in Lakeview in 2000, which he credits for a drop in hate crimes and burglaries. And he led the fight to preserve the Rienzi Place apartments for low-income tenants.
Ingram vows to put the brakes on development in the ward and to speak out in the City Council. “My whole campaign is about being an independent voice for Lakeview,” he says. “I think the mayor has done some good things, but I think there are some issues that have to be addressed. There are so many examples–Soldier Field, Millennium Park, the bus enclosures on Michigan Avenue–in which the city council has allowed Mayor Daley to basically throw away millions of dollars in city revenues as a result of inside deals or bungled management. Have you heard one alderman say a thing about it? No. They have their mouths taped shut. I have been speaking up.”
If Daley had hoped to be praised for naming the council’s first openly gay alderman, he was disappointed. This wasn’t progress, many activists said, it was deceit. Daley wasn’t trying to empower gays so much as use them as weapons against independents.
Everyone seems to have a theory about what went on in the backrooms of City Hall. “I don’t think Tom’s candidacy’s all a part of some conspiracy engineered by Daley,” says Lee Neubecker, who originally wanted Tunney to run but now backs Ingram. “I think Daley wants an alderman whose support he can absolutely depend on, but I don’t think Daley had a willful intent to screw over the gay community.”
According to Tunney, he met with Hansen soon after the alderman announced he wasn’t running for reelection; he’s not sure about the date. “When Bernie decided not to run for health reasons I went into his office and said, ‘I’m considering running,’” he says. “He didn’t embrace me. He said, ‘Let met think about it.’”
