Elect Stephen "Andy" Schneider for Alderperson of Chicago's First Ward

My first priority will be to represent you, the residents of the 1st Ward. We have had 8 years of an Alderman who represented his political self-interest, and now 4 years of an Alderman who represents his personal agenda. You deserve better. We have a diverse Ward with diverse issues, but I have a history of meeting with neighbors, listening to them, finding compromises, and advocating for my community. I will always put you first.

Specifically:

• I will have proactive community engagement on development, traffic, infrastructure, and menu money.
• I will promote affordability and stability. I will safeguard the interests of renters and homeowners.
• I will fight crime by promoting collaboration between communities and the police. I will ensure that the 1st Ward gets its fair share of law enforcement resources in order to address the issues of policing and the root causes of crime.
• I will promote public transit, biking, car traffic without using a zero-sum logic between different the different modes I will reduce confrontation and increase safety.
• I will work to increase the availability and access to open/green space, recreation, sports.

And finally, I ask you to look at the News tab in this Website. You will see that I have been working on these priorities in my community for the last 12 years. Look what I have done for my community. I don't just talk; I do. Help me do the same in the new 1st Ward

Stephen “Andy” Schneider moved to Logan Square immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001. He quickly became an involved volunteer in the community, organizing Logan Square Preservation's annual House and Garden Walk, working on zoning and development review while also helping with tree planting and neighborhood clean-ups.

Andy was elected president of Logan Square Preservation (LSP) in 2012. He grew the membership and the focus of the organization beyond historic preservation to advocating for the neighborhood and the diverse group of people who live here.

Professionally, Andy spent ten years as a reporter, at both the Sun-Times Group and later leading the editorial department of a group of independent suburban weeklies. Since then he's been the editor of Screen Magazine, a niche publication covering Chicago's film and commercial production industries, and has authored several books on Chicago area history. His experience buying his home, a traditional Chicago two-flat, in 2011, and interest in community development led him to join a real estate brokerage, where he brings a strong neighborhood and preservation focus to rapidly gentrifying areas.

Community Housing and Safety Highlights:

• Helped negotiate with developers large and small on over 1,000 new housing units, including the trailblazing Lucy Gonzalez Parsons Apartments on Emmett Street --- an all-affordable housing development.
• He has been a fierce advocate for safer streets, developing proposals for a bike and pedestrian priority network along the city’s historic boulevard system. Among the first projects he championed was the installation of speed tables to slow traffic on Palmer Square. He was deeply involved with the safety-focused redesign of Logan Square's historic but dangerous traffic circle, sitting on the Project Steering Committee, and advocated successfully for a deployment of “Safe Streets” infrastructure on Logan Square’s boulevards in 2021.

Public Spaces and Recreation Highlights:

• Andy's focus on public spaces and recreation helped secure state funds and city approval for a new “Food Truck Triangle” on a formerly blighted city-owned parcel near Milwaukee Avenue.
• Andy also successfully secured approval for city funding to refurbish an underutilized gym and classroom annex at Grace Church to offer expanded programming and community space together with nearby Unity Park.
• When the local Boys & Girls Club decided to close, Andy successfully fought to save the building and ensure a new public park was created as part of the re-development, at no cost to the neighborhood or taxpayers.
• He led a fight against a billboard company that was blighting the old Grace’s Furniture building on the square at the center of the neighborhood, facing down a $750,000 nuisance lawsuit.
• His focus on the culture and history of Chicago neighborhoods led him to develop historic exhibits, save the St. John Berchmans’ bell, restore the historic Norwegian Minnekirken, and more.

Andy can rival just about anyone when it comes to Star Wars and Marvel nerdery, he loves a good conversation over craft beer, and can be seen walking his rescue pup Loki around the neighborhood. He and his wife Katie have been married for 14 years, and are raising their three children in a classic Chicago two-flat.

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1st Ward Neighborhoods

Logan Square, West Town, Wicker Park, Bucktown, Humboldt Park, Ukrainian Village, and East Village

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Affordable Housing

We must implement a diversified strategy for affordable housing that will secure and expand naturally occurring affordable housing in our small multi-unit buildings, leveraging city assets to help owner occupants build accessory dwelling units, and city assets to create new affordable developments.

I have worked hard to help address individual property tax issues for our residents but addressing our convoluted and regressive property tax system remains a challenge to and primary engine of displacement. I have also worked to find every opportunity on a local level to build and expand affordable housing. As a lead advocate for the ground-breaking Lucy Gonzalez Parsons all-affordable development in Logan Square, I know the challenges that new affordable housing faces while being well-equipped to identify those opportunities across our ward to add to our affordable housing stock. As a ward with excellent job opportunities, services like our CTA Blue Line and great amenities, I will protect existing residents' ability to remain in their neighborhood while expanding the opportunities for new residents of all income levels. This also includes supporting the Bring Chicago Home Referendum, and facilitating relationships between landlords, the city, and our unhoused neighbors for subsidized housing.

Public Safety

Public safety is a priority that we need to address swiftly with a holistic approach that will both address infrastructure challenges that contribute to both localized and city-wide issues. My priorities will include building bridges between the community and the police while prioritizing addressing the root causes of crime such as housing instability and disparate economic outcomes. As stated in other policy areas, we need to remove barriers to the application process for employment opportunities at city run organizations with quality pay such as the CTA, and we need to open up more programming for youth through our schools and park districts.

Ward Services

While our city has made great strides in automating and centralizing many of our residents' everyday concerns, the alder office remains a vital resource to advocate for those needs. Our office would continue to prioritize these needs via follow-up with individual residents and city departments to address service requests, whether that’s as small as replacing a recycling bin or large as tree maintenance - we will be there to pick up your call.

Safer Streets

I have and will continue to support a complete suite of public way improvements that will center the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and all users of the public way in any and all roadway projects funded with or supported by city dollars. I have consistently prioritized investment in infrastructure such as speed tables or raised crosswalks, bulb-outs, and new innovative solutions to deliver safe streets for our city.

Community Engagement

Among the most important jobs of every Alderperson is community engagement. In this role, I will prioritize building community via the support and expansion of individual block club organizations while supporting and expanding the work of legacy community organizations to ensure everyone has a seat at the table.

Zoning & Development

Review of zoning and development remain among the most important responsibilities of the Alderperson’s office. The way our neighborhoods grow and change is of great concern to our current residents and those who will live here in the future. Engaging our residents in all reviews of new projects is the responsibility of the alderperson. Our office would systematize zoning review via a clearly spelled out process that would give neighbor-led organizations and individual neighbors multiple opportunities to guide and inform new development. Our office would adopt a process that I helped author in the 35th Ward, which has been heralded as a community engagement model by many individuals and organizations, including Shriver Center on Poverty Law.

Parks & Recreation

As a volunteer, I have found many opportunities to activate publicly and privately owned spaces to enhance and expand recreational opportunities for all residents. His decade-long work has included repurposing vacant lots, leveraging public funds to expand current park offerings and utilizing vacant buildings to create new spaces for our residents. As Alderperson, I will look for every opportunity to continue this work across the ward by working with local stakeholders and our city and parks administration. I will also collaborate with the advisory boards to find gaps in programming that can be opportunities to provide safe spaces for youth to be after school and on weekends, such as scheduled family nights at Park District buildings, open gyms for sports, and more.

Transportation

Repairing the trust in our mass transit system that has been broken in the last several years by CTA leadership requires ensuring accountability. As alderperson I will prioritize accountability for CTA’s leadership so we can begin to repair the trust in our mass transit system by supporting regular ordinances that require the leadership of our transit agencies to appear before our city council regularly. Leadership accountability is an essential first step to rebuilding our transit system's reliability and trust by promoting increased hiring to fully staff the CTA and deliver promised regular, safe, and effective service. We also have to focus on the breakdown in the hiring process for transit workers. While boosting pay and offering sign on bonuses for new hires are a good start, I have heard from multiple constituents that the application process often leads to nowhere. I will push for accountability from the recruitment and HR teams at the CTA that they are removing barriers to the application process and following up with qualified candidates in a timely manner. We cannot have qualified candidates submitting employment applications into the void, and never hearing a response.

Education

While reforms to the governance of Chicago Public Schools will lessen the city council's role in overseeing CPS, the local alderperson will remain a key stakeholder with intimate knowledge of the individual community's needs. As alderperson, I will work closely with respective school principals to address infrastructure and facilities' needs that could be funded outside the traditional budget. I will also collaborate with the "Friends of" groups and local school councils to improve facilities and students' educational outcomes. Another area of focus will be to bolster support and funding for after-school and out-of-school programs in our neighborhoods to give students a safe place to be with their peers.