One Week Left: Join Our Holiday Gift Drive!

1st Ward Newsletter | December 9, 2025

Dear neighbors,

Before we get to the budget, I wanted to highlight the last week of our Holiday Gift Drive here in the 1st Ward! We reached out to schools across the ward and were connected with twenty families that need help providing a happy holiday season for their kids. Their wish lists are compiled here. We've almost filled all of their holiday wishes and it's all thanks to your generosity! We'll be wrapping gifts this Saturday at the ward office from 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. if that's more in line with your abilities and time. Thank you for all you do to make sure no one wakes up to an empty stocking.

That's the fun part. On this budget, I can say conversations and meetings are happening, many of them productive. I'm glad that we've been able to win the funding for library books and domestic violence services that the city needs. Arguably 80% of the budget is agreed on, but the places where we're farther apart are critically important:

• Community safety and how to fund it. Two things are true: the investments we've made in community safety are critically important and the votes do not exist for the community safety surcharge, aka head tax, as outlined by the mayor's initial budget. What form, if any, that surcharge takes in the final budget is still to be seen.
• Advanced pension payment. Making the full advanced pension payments outlined in previous executive orders is essential for the fiscal health of the city and its retirees. We need to have a concrete plan for fulfilling that obligation in 2026. 
• Bond-funding for operational expenses. It's far from a best practice to issue bonds for operating costs. This budget does not do nearly enough to take operating costs like the Local 2 firefighters backpay off the proposed bond authorization. 
• Issuing bonds for essential infrastructure. Instead, our bond authorization should be directed toward infrastructure. The mayor's 2026-2030 capital improvement plan defunds infrastructure by more than 40% from where it was even a few years ago. America has learned hard lessons about the cost of deferred infrastructure maintenance over the past decade; Chicago needs to remember those lessons. 

We can solve for these issues through a range of efficiencies, revenue, and even furlough days. The rhetoric you shouldn't believe is that we can cut our way out through layoffs. You may say that we can cut outside of public safety departments like CPD and CFD, but together those two departments represent 78% of all corporate fund personnel costs. If your target was $150M in cost reductions you would have to eliminate the entire Department of Streets and Sanitation ($117M) and most of the Department of Finance ($47M). Given the ward's support for tree trimming, garbage pickup, rat abatement, and parking enforcement, that's not a direction I'm willing to go in. Nevertheless, my hope and my commitment to a stable and responsible budget by the end of the year has not wavered.

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

In this week's newsletter, you'll find:

• 1st Ward Office
• Community News and Events
• Zoning

1st Ward Office

Help give 1st Ward families a wonderful holiday season! The 1st Ward office has partnered with several elementary schools in our communities to coordinate a holiday gift drive for families in need. The majority of these families have been negatively impacted by immigration activity, are facing food insecurities, or are experiencing other hardships this holiday season.

If you would like to participate in the toy drive, check out the wishlist items here! 

1. Once you choose which gift you'd like to order, please have the item shipped to your own address and join us on December 13th from 12pm-4pm for a wrapping party and mixer! If you're not able to join us on the 13th, feel free to bring the gift to the 1st Ward Office during normal operating hours before the mixer. Our hours are Monday – Friday, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
2. When purchasing an item, please write in the notes during check out which family you would like this to be for. Several families have the same or similar items in their wishlist, so it will help us make sure the gift is going to the correct person. You can see which family requested it by reading the notes on the item in the wishlist. 
3. Once a gift has been purchased, click the “Reserve Gift” button on Listful to let others know the item has been purchased and avoid potential duplicates.
4. If you prefer to purchase your gift in person, please email [email protected] to let us know the details of your purchased item, so that we may mark it as reserved on our end.

If you are unable to donate any gifts, your time is equally valuable! Please join fellow volunteers at a wrapping party and mixer at the 1st Ward Office (1958 N Milwaukee Ave) from 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 13th. Holiday-themed beverages will be provided :)

For more information on both events, please visit the sign-up form below!

Community News and Events

Zoning