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Would you care to elaborate which law you helped to pass? Also, can you link to some good resources for someone who wants to get off the sidelines and get more

Would you care to elaborate which law you helped to pass? Also, can you link to some good resources for someone who wants to get off the sidelines and get more involved in Chicago politics, whether the resources are on FB or elsewhere? I've previously tried Googling for some but with very limited success. Thanks.

tptacek 2y ago
We're the first municipality in Illinois to draft and adopt an instance of ACLU's CCOPS model legislation, which requires board approval at a recorded public board meeting before any agency (most especially our police force) can adopt any form of surveillance technology, given a broad (ACLU-supplied) definition of "surveillance". Previous to that, our police force could acquire arbitrary surveillance products so long as they kept under a discretionary budget threshold; they used that latitude to acquire a pilot deployment of Flock ALPR cameras, and CCOPS was a response to that. My real goal is zoning. In Chicago itself, I have less clarity, but am optimistic that somewhere on Facebook is a message board where the staff at your alderman's office reads posts, and the most politically engaged people in your neighborhood argue with each other. That's your starting point (and maybe your ending point). Just go, listen, and chime in with high-effort comments. If you're used to clearing the bar for HN comments, you're way past the threshold of coding like a super-thoughtful person in local politics.
- pchristensen 2y ago
  My real goal is zoning. God speed to you sir! What is your goal wrt zoning?
  - tptacek 2y ago
    The categorical elimination of single-family zoning along with any building envelope restrictions that would make as-of-right 3-flats uneconomical.
    - pchristensen 2y ago
      That would be an outstanding outcome! Is this just for Oak Park, or beyond?
      - tptacek 2y ago
        You'd hope that Oak Park, Evanston, Wilmette, and then Berwyn and Schaumburg could get this done, and then your next step would be either Chicago (tough because of aldermanic structure) or statewide, the way California did. Either way: you start in one municipality and work from there. It helps that zoning matters more in Oak Park (and Evanston) than almost anywhere else in Chicagoland.
        pchristensen 2y ago
        Why does zoning matter more in Oak Park and Evanston? High demand from being on the El and close to Chicago?
        tptacek 2y ago
        Yep. Historically both of these places basically exist to concentrate the interests of the upper middle class and to reinforce segregation. They're both basically Chicago but with a better funded school system (because lawyers and doctors get to funnel all their property taxes into the school down the street from them), which makes them highly desirable.
        ChrisBland 2y ago
        There is no way you get Wilmette to change zoning. They've fought with Small Cheval about the size of their sign for like 9 months. I doubt you'd get any village in the NT district to rezone - the Optima project was pulling teeth, everyone is worried about overcrowding NT, which as a single HS is pretty packed now
        tptacek 2y ago
        The whole project is going to take many years. Even if we fix Oak Park zoning in the coming year, it'll still be years before anything significant gets built, and years past that for us to serve as a test case.

tptacek 2y ago

We're the first municipality in Illinois to draft and adopt an instance of ACLU's CCOPS model legislation, which requires board approval at a recorded public board meeting before any agency (most especially our police force) can adopt any form of surveillance technology, given a broad (ACLU-supplied) definition of "surveillance". Previous to that, our police force could acquire arbitrary surveillance products so long as they kept under a discretionary budget threshold; they used that latitude to acquire a pilot deployment of Flock ALPR cameras, and CCOPS was a response to that. My real goal is zoning. In Chicago itself, I have less clarity, but am optimistic that somewhere on Facebook is a message board where the staff at your alderman's office reads posts, and the most politically engaged people in your neighborhood argue with each other. That's your starting point (and maybe your ending point). Just go, listen, and chime in with high-effort comments. If you're used to clearing the bar for HN comments, you're way past the threshold of coding like a super-thoughtful person in local politics.

pchristensen 2y ago
My real goal is zoning. God speed to you sir! What is your goal wrt zoning?
- tptacek 2y ago
  The categorical elimination of single-family zoning along with any building envelope restrictions that would make as-of-right 3-flats uneconomical.
  - pchristensen 2y ago
    That would be an outstanding outcome! Is this just for Oak Park, or beyond?
    - tptacek 2y ago
      You'd hope that Oak Park, Evanston, Wilmette, and then Berwyn and Schaumburg could get this done, and then your next step would be either Chicago (tough because of aldermanic structure) or statewide, the way California did. Either way: you start in one municipality and work from there. It helps that zoning matters more in Oak Park (and Evanston) than almost anywhere else in Chicagoland.
      - pchristensen 2y ago
        Why does zoning matter more in Oak Park and Evanston? High demand from being on the El and close to Chicago?
        tptacek 2y ago
        Yep. Historically both of these places basically exist to concentrate the interests of the upper middle class and to reinforce segregation. They're both basically Chicago but with a better funded school system (because lawyers and doctors get to funnel all their property taxes into the school down the street from them), which makes them highly desirable.
      - ChrisBland 2y ago
        There is no way you get Wilmette to change zoning. They've fought with Small Cheval about the size of their sign for like 9 months. I doubt you'd get any village in the NT district to rezone - the Optima project was pulling teeth, everyone is worried about overcrowding NT, which as a single HS is pretty packed now
        tptacek 2y ago
        The whole project is going to take many years. Even if we fix Oak Park zoning in the coming year, it'll still be years before anything significant gets built, and years past that for us to serve as a test case.