New Life for Aldermanic Petition?

One of the things that was lacking last time was a big media push. Yes, there was other stuff, like an organization that could go door-to-door, volunteers to go to store and mall locations to collect signatures, multiple collection points, etc. But to really get people interested, the media is probably going to have to be on board. Here's one media outlet that might be interested:

• Too often, discussions of Chicago's budget deficit focus on selling civic assets: With the Skyway and parking meters leased, perhaps the water system is next.

  This is precisely backward. We have finite infrastructure, so instead of leasing its assets for generations to come, Chicago should cut its liabilities and unload its excess. What does the city have way more of than it needs?

  Aldermen. And alderwomen.

  Half of the City Council should be eliminated.

  Not literally, of course. But if Chicago wants to save tens of millions of dollars a year, one strategy is dead obvious: Go from 50 wards to 25.

Bill Savage gives a pretty decent overview of how cutting the number of aldercreatures makes tremendous business sense eliminating redundant middle management, consolidates ward operations, and even reduces the FBI corruption task forces by reducing targets. And evidently, he reads the blog:

• This idea is not solely mine: A local blog, Second City Cop, rallied its readers to petition for a non-binding referendum on this topic in the 2010 primary, and its volunteers got more than 11,000 signatures — in about three weeks. And there is a Facebook page dedicated to "Reduce Chicago Alderman," and they don't mean a healthy diet and regular exercise.

  Such a change would require the state Legislature to amend Section 21-26 of the Revised Cities and Villages Act of 1941, which set our current number of wards, but it could be done.

If you want to read the whole article, the link is here:

• CLICK HERE!

You may need a user name and password to get in. Here's one from a nifty little site called "BugMeNot.com:"

• User Name: librewonk@doodyge.net
• Password: makefree4

We may need to restart the petition drive if we can find enough backing to truly publicize the effort and get some power behind it.