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Dear residents,
Happy New Year! With 2025 finally behind us I'm pleased to be able to say the 1st Ward, based on CPD's data, ended the year with zero traffic fatalities, a 76.7% decrease in shootings from 2024 (3 vs. 13), and a 46.5% decrease in robberies from 2024 (106 v. 198). To be clear, we still have a lot of work to do: there is still so much recklessness with firearms in our neighborhoods, too many near misses, too much trauma inflicted on these victims and their communities. But it does say that we are on the right track toward a safer ward and city as we begin 2026.
This reflects numbers we've seen in the city as a whole, which experienced the fewest homicides citywide since 1965. While there seems to be media confusion as to these successes, all of the cities who have had comparable results have one thing in common: a sustained commitment to building out community violence intervention infrastructure and services. When I started talking to residents about evidence-based violence intervention work, we knew that it would take time to see the fruits of that effort. That is precisely what we are experiencing now and why it was essential, for whatever else can be said of the 2026 budget, that it maintained those investments in the Corporate Fund. I am very hopeful that continued coordinated efforts by CPD, , , and others will continue to reduce gun violence in our neighborhoods and citywide.
Finally, I wanted to share some exciting personal news with professional implications: my wife and I are expecting our second child, due on March 5th! Alicia and the soon-to-be baby are both healthy, and all of us, including our three year old daughter Lucia, are excited to welcome her into our family! I share this since, as of May 2024, all City of Chicago full-time employees are eligible for twelve weeks of family-leave when a new child comes. I will be taking this leave when our child arrives, to get to know this new life as well as support my wife and daughter. This means I will neither be in the office nor at City Council during the time. I wanted to share this now so that my absence is neither unexpected nor seen as a dereliction of my responsibilities to the ward. I hope you can respect this decision.
Have a great week!
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