The more-than-modest, outdated but fully functional office at 4544 N. Broadway from which Shiller and her staff assist citizens of her ward perhaps mirrors the woman’s belief that good things aren’t always shiny, new and expensive.

“The defining issue (of the 46th Ward) continues to be around development and balanced development or whether or not we’ll have balanced development,” said Shiller, who has been considered a friend and ally of the gay community—a friend of diverse communities in general—her entire tenure as a player in Chicago’s political game.

“It has been very important, from my point of view for the last 16 years, to strive for as much balance in development as possible,” she said. “Meaning, when I got elected, I got elected in large measure because this had been an area that had been divested from everybody, from the banks to the city. There were no city services here. It was outrageous. It was disgusting. There was dirt everywhere. Garbage was never picked up, even though they had all this extra equipment because of model cities. The streets were in terrible disrepair. We were lucky if we had two streetlights working on a street. It was horrible.

“Housing was in terrible shape; there was barely anything that was standard for people to live in and yet there were a lot of people who had very few choices and lived here and had struggled very hard around all these issues.”

Her color commentary on the previous state of the 46th Ward exemplifies Shiller’s direct-aim approach to the issues. First elected as alderman in 1987, at age 39, Shiller often found herself the lone vote cast in opposition to the entire remaining choir of aldermen.

“One of the frustrations I’ve had in the City Council, and in general life, is people come up with solutions, pass them, implement them, and they’re not really solutions,” she said. “If they had thought it through all the way, they would’ve seen there are a lot of secondary and tertiary impacts that are not so positive. It’s what’s gotten me into trouble because I’ll raise those questions and (City Council) people would say ‘why does she have to do that?’ Sometimes, for many years, the way I dealt with raising them and the only way I had access to raising them was to vote ‘no’ and have a forum. In some ways, I was successful.

“There have been ordinances on which I’ve received criticism from my opponent. In all these instances, that was my choice or my alternative in order to get the issues raised and the weaknesses addressed.”

In January 1990, Shiller introduced a resolution to increase AIDS city funding from $1 million to $3 million. Mayor Daley (who recently endorsed Shiller for re-election) stood firmly opposed.

“It took about a month of ACT UP in his face that particular year and Danny Sotomayor leading the way,” Shiller said, referring to the now-deceased Chicago activist. “Danny was incredible. (Daley) changed his mind and acknowledged he changed his mind. This was really more because of people like Danny that we were able to get the attention on this and get the money for it.

“The world has transitioned over the past 15 years. Now, the potential of a ‘no’ vote has allowed me to have a lot of input. That’s especially true around the budget. Also, I saw an opportunity and grabbed it to begin to establish a bridge in the line of communication with the administration based on the issues and solutions.”

Shiller, a former writer, photographer, print shop owner and community activist originally from New York, said the early version of an introduced gay-rights ordinance in the early 1980s was a “no brainer” for her. After Harold Washington was elected Chicago mayor in 1983, Shiller began driving the pylons for bridges with aldermen she knew through her activism.

“I was involved citywide on a lot of issues,” she said, “so I had a lot of coalition experience with people from all over the city and some of them became aldermen (Bobby Rush, Luis Gutierrez, Dorothy Tillman) later.” [Rush and Gutierrez are now U.S. representatives.]

Healthcare remains a huge cloud of concern floating over Shiller and her ward.

“There’s been some real threat, ever since I’ve been alderman, to the public infrastructure around healthcare,” she said. “When the Chicago Addiction Treatment Center was closed in ’89, I think, to me it was a red flag that couldn’t be ignored.”

She has taken on the role of liaison between the city’s health department and the county health department, striving to work collaboratively so that public health services currently provided in the 46th physically remain there, easily accessible to those who need the care. She also keeps a close eye on AIDS funding.

“The good news is that in this budget crisis, we haven’t lost ground,” she said. “The bad news is we need to do better than not losing ground. The level of education of the need and information about HIV and AIDS is obviously much greater today than it was 10 or 15 years ago, and there’s a lot less fear, consequently. And a better understanding of why it’s necessary to respond and why there’s a responsibility to respond. That doesn’t mean to say we’ve eliminated all ignorance or we’ve eliminated all prejudice, but I think we’ve come a long way.”

An issue on which Shiller has been accused of procrastinating is the five-acre Wilson Yards, currently being used as Truman College parking. The incumbent explains how her actions on the four-year project could not be farther from procrastination.

“It has been a model of involvement from community members,” Shiller said, detailing questionnaires that were distributed in six languages—they got responses back in four—and multiple public meetings that gave denizens of the 46th Ward the chance to voice their opinions. “Part of this is the community building. It will force people who chose not to interact with their neighbors to have that interaction. I think that’s a big part of what we’re going to end up with because we’re going to have the uses that everybody wants and they’ll end up going there for those.

“So, for me, it’s as much about building community (as anything else). You have to create those opportunities, then people take them or not. But if you’re constantly doing it, then you impact the world.”

Another issue being raised in this election is affordable housing in the 46th Ward.

“What we know from the census information in the (Loyola) study is that only 15% of the units in this (Uptown) community are in the affordable range or receive subsidies to be able to stay in the affordable range,” Shiller said. “That’s quite different than the 50% and 60% that sometimes my opposition throws out there. And that’s my point: as the market carries on on its own steam, it has an impact on everything else.”

As Shiller cleaned up the ward in those early years, the area began attracting developers.

“It was a double-edged sword,” she said. “It became critical to find ways to make sure that people who had really demanded this change be able to participate in the benefits of it. So that’s what I’ve sort of dedicated my four terms in office to do. That has meant making sure we can preserve as much housing as possible and really improve it. But there’s not enough of it. There’s been a lot of gentrification, so I’ve spent a lot of time attempting to make sure that, as there’s been new development, market-rate development, that there’s also been the preservation as well. That has meant that there has been the ability to maintain some of the diversity in the community, but it’s a cutting-edge issue because my opponent says we have enough low-income housing. Her supporters exaggerate consistently and flat-out lie about the facts. But the objective reality can’t be denied and I think we were really fortunate in this last year to have had a study done by Loyola that pretty much lays out in objective numbers what we do and we don’t have and makes it really clear that a lot of housing has been lost and makes it clear why we need to be able to have a balance when things are done.”

Shiller describes her Uptown service office as a resource center.

“(Our) job here is to help anyone navigate any bureaucracies that they walk in the door for,” she said. “I don’t care if it has to do with the city or not. We have to focus much more on what it takes to create a different kind of opportunity for all young people in our community and that’s why I’ve spent so much time talking about this building community. When you’re isolated and you’re a child, you have to wonder, ‘why is somebody isolating me?’ What does that mean? It means you have a line between you and the institutions that are there to protect or assist you; you have a disconnect there.”

Listening to Shiller for an hour, it feels a lot like a college lecture in the field of social work. The box of Legos in the corner doesn’t look out of place anymore.

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Copyright Windy City Media Group 2003