Bobby Kennedy said, "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." Please join me in Uptown, Buena Park, Lake View and Boystown on my journey to make better communities for an empowered people—affordable and sustainable homes, clean neighborhoods, safe streets, great schools, thriving businesses, good jobs, health and wellness, fairness and equal rights for all.
Agenda for a New Beginning
"I pledge a new beginning that rises above the rancor and blame, that builds on our most basic faith and hope and our common dream of safe streets for our families, affordable and sustainable living, excellent schools for excelling children, vibrant main streets for a vibrant neighborhood economy, leaders who actually listen and a government we can truly trust."
Chicagoans have long voiced with passion an end to ward boss politics as we know it, sweep corruption out of City Hall, run out the rats that have fed on its filth and usher in a transformed, completely open city government that is truly held accountable by the people and trusted to do its job. Unlike any other person to stand for election, a vote for Gerald is the strongest cry for change in Chicago.
Gerald lives each day with the mantra, "You cannot live on Hope alone." He works each day with a simple mission—inspiration, spirit, faith, compassion, dignity, pride and respect. He believes that a failure to fulfill any one of these values is a failure of his responsibility to others. Gerald works and lives by these values and will take them to City Hall.
You Cannot Live on Hope Alone
"It is easy enough to vote right and be consistently with the majority. But it is more often more important to be ahead of the majority and this means being willing to cut the first furrow in the ground and stand alone for a while if necessary." —Rep. Patsy Mink
"It is not enough to understand, or to see clearly. The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity, by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task." —Sen. Bobby Kennedy
"Gerry, do it because I know you love Chicago more than other people around here. Because you know deep inside what's right and what people really need. Because there's no one like you." —Larry Suffredin, Sr.
"The others think helping is a dollar here, show up there, and go to every meeting so people can see them. Everyday for so many years, the people around you watch you get on your knees to look someone in the eye, hug and cry with people, make people laugh and smile. That's why you're the better choice. That's why you need to do this." —Sean Heid
Become a Supporter
Check out our campaign's Facebook page and become a supporter today. Look at some of the people who became supporters, too:
Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune Columnist and National TV Political Analyst
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart
Equality America
LGBT Change
Michael Lehet, Blogger
Lucy Foozie, Entertainer
Illinois Rep. Sara Feigenholtz
Illinois Sen. Heather Steans
Thomas Castillo, Candidate for Illinois Lt. Gov.
Jonathan VanderBrug, Health Care Justice Director at Campaign for Better Health Care
Philippe Melin, Committeeman
Illinois Latino TV
Fighting Hunger and Poverty
Having personally experienced homelessness and hunger, Gerald has been a fierce and impassioned advocate of anti-poverty programs and direct action. For years, he devoted much energy to feed the hungry on the streets, comfort the homeless, actively find health care solutions for individuals without coverage and find emergency food and money for working parents. Each year, Gerald blocks out large amounts of time to raise money and food donations to the Greater Chicago Food Depository and local pantries like Edgewater's Care For Real. Gerald believes that the City Council has a lot of power and needs to do better to provide necessary services and at the same time weed out disingenuous participants wasting tax dollars meant to provide for our neighbors truly in need.
Fighting for Seniors and Veterans
Gerald is a pioneering advocate for senior citizens and veterans. For many years, he has served as a social services professional and directs life enriching moments day after day that enhance mind, body and spirit. He is a believer in the national Culture Change movement to radically transform our vision of elder care for one that is wholly Person First. He has become a leader and professional trainer of Person First ideals. Gerald hopes to birth a radically new Culture Change movement and a Person First philosophy for Chicago governance.
Fighting for Small Businesses
Despite being totally surrounded by neighborhoods whose economies continue to grow with new small businesses offering new jobs to local residents to help keep those families out of poverty, the 46th Ward is and continues to be #1 in unemployment in Chicago's north side.
The great engine of the economy is at its most local level—small businesses on main street. Gerald support measures to put more money in the pockets of neighborhood businesses, by cutting fees and taxes, increase capital spending which create and maintain jobs for people in the neighborhood. Jane Jacobs said, "A metropolitan economy, when it is working well, doesn't lure the middle class, it creates one." We need to create, nurture and maintain a new middle class in our 46th Ward.
Fighting Crime
We're home to 75% of Chicago's SROs. We have the highest concentration of shelters and highest concentration of people with chronic mental illness in the nation. We are #1 in criminal activity in Chicago's north side. Wilson Station ranks #1 in crime with 500% more arrests than average for north side train stations. We're #1 in concentration of registered sex offenders in Chicago and many of them live near schools and playgrounds.
What people are calling "positive loitering" has become popular and brought out residents more willing to participate in community safety directly. But crowding streets at night looking for trouble is not sustainable. Deterring negative activity with fear and pressure becomes divisive rather than build community. Gerald supports common sense solutions to crime—modernizing the police force with smarter spending and resource allocation, leasing a new Uptown police substation for better resident access to CAPS, create community events to squeeze out loiterers in certain areas, and more.
Fighting Corruption
Gerald is the only candidate calling for nothing less than a total overhaul of Chicago government and across the board sunshine laws for a truly open government that allows constituents to truly hold the mayor, aldermen and city officials accountable for their action and inaction when it comes to the welfare of the people and the management of their tax dollars.
Gerald wants online publication of all taxpayer dollars spent in every department, every ward office, every slush fund available to the mayor, the aldermen, departments and other city officials. He wants to rid the city of Chicago's legendary patronage system and does not want to end the Shakman Decrees that current aldermen are attempting to expunge to protect their privileged ward boss statuses.
Gerald will work closely with watchdog organizations like the Better Government Association to come up with common sense solutions to end corruption-enrobed Chicago-style politics as we know it and create a government that the people can truly trust.
Fighting for Equality
From the day he moved to Chicago, Gerald was fighting for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity protections in the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance amended in 2002. A street activist looking out for homeless LGBT youth and finding health care for them as they needed it, Gerald has been a tireless advocate for the civil rights of all and the diversity that built Chicago into the world-class metropolis it is today.
Gerald intends to break more barriers as he becomes the first Asian American alderman in city history and second openly gay voice in City Hall.
Gerald addressed LGBT Change's National Equality March Chicago Solidarity Rally and said, "You cannot live on Hope alone." Civil rights can only be obtained with active participation and Gerald's campaign is bringing people out from apathy to a more direct fight for the rights of all.
Watch and read Gerald's Equality Speech at Daley Plaza on October 11, 2009
As alderman, Gerald intends to pursue the creation of a Weed and Seed district in Uptown in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice Community Capacity Development Office, the U.S. Attorney and local organizations. According to the CCDO: law enforcement agencies and prosecutors cooperate in "weeding out" violent criminals and drug abusers and public agencies and community-based private organizations collaborate to "seed" much-needed human services, including prevention, intervention, treatment, and neighborhood restoration programs. A community-oriented policing component bridges the weeding and seeding elements.
When legal requirements are fulfilled to establish a committee and mandate financial disclosure, like the acceptance of our first $3000 in contributions, a copy of our report will be filed with the Cook County Clerk and will be available for purchase at Cook County Clerk Election Division, 69 West Washington Street 5th Floor, Chicago, IL 60602.