About

Hi, I'm Franco and I ran for alderman of the 38th Ward in the 2023 Chicago Elections. I'd like to thank you for your support during my campaign. At the moment I have no plans on running for office again but I hope that in the future we'll be able to work together to address the issues that Chicago faces. You can help move Chicago forward by volunteering with Abundant Chicago.

The following below was my platform for the 2023 election:

Public Safety

Work with CPD to increase patrols in our ward by:

Expand The Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) program leaving mental health issues to mental health professionals from the CFD and Chicago Department of Health. This will free up CPD resources to better patrol and address violent crimes.
Improve CPD morale and mental health by providing mental health resources and enforcing a 4 on, 3 off schedule that will guarantee more days off for officers.

Build community trust by

Working with CPD to close cases at a higher rate
Hold officers accountable for actions that harm the community.
Oversee that the CPD meets the consent decree put in place by the DOJ.
Address root causes of crime
Provide funding for afterschool programs to keep youth off the streets
Address homelessness by passing “Bring Chicago Home” which will add a one time tax on property sales over $1 million to pay for social services to help the homeless achieve stability
Provide funding for mental health services
Work closely with the elected Police District Council members, community organizations, and the community to identify other issues that need addressing.

Public Transit and Traffic infrastructure

Improve Public Transit by:

Work to keep the CTA accountable for ghost buses, late buses/trains.
Work with CDOT, IDOT, and other alderpeople to get a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane on Irving Park Rd. This will allow residents to quickly access the forest preserve, the HIP, Six Corners, the Blue Line and the lakefront.
Work with CTA to start a pilot bus route on Forest Preserve Drive allowing residents to reach the HIP and Wright College without the need for a car.
Work to return weekend service for the Narragansett bus route
Host job fairs to address CTA staff shortages and increase employment in the ward.

Improve bikeability by:

Support the creation of a bike grid on slower residential roads to allow easier biking throughout the ward and city.
Work to slim Forest Preserve Drive and add a bike lane.
Work with the community to identify other streets that would benefit from having a bike lane.

Improve walkability by:

Work with community to add speed bumps, traffic circles on residential roads
Add pedestrian islands to assist crossing big streets such as Irving Park
Allow multi-use developments on main avenues that favor storefronts with apartments

Efficient and Proactive City Services

Take a proactive approach to delivering city services by:

Ensure city services requests are accessible via online forms so that you don't have to make a trip to the Alderman's office.
Audit the state of the ward's streets and prioritize the repairs of badly damaged streets. Work with CDOT and the community to address possible traffic calming in conjunction with repairs.
Take a data-driven approach on identifying bottlenecks in service delivery so that services are delivered in a prompt efficient manner.
Simplify and Modernize service forms so that there are less forms to fill out and less waiting time.
Introduce Participatory Budgeting for the Ward to give you a voice in where ward money goes.
Having services listed on an easily available flier both in print and digital

Improve the community's feel and connectivity by:

Place additional trash cans on sidewalks to keep the community clean
Introduce new municipal service to plow the sidewalks to remove snow and ice in the winter
Modernizing the ward website to make it more accessible and easier to navigate
Maintain an updated Job board on the Ward website
Cut red tape for business owners so they can spend more time focusing on their business and less on paperwork as well as encouraging more community events.
Hosting monthly ward meetings to keep in touch with the community

Support Local Businesses

Digitizing and Streamlining forms
Maintaining a strong relationship with business owners by hosting bi-monthly meetings where they can express specific issues and concerns to be addressed.
Working with local Chamber of Commerces closely to make sure that they are being properly supported

Protect Civil Liberties and Protect our Immigrant Communities

As our nation sees attacks on the rights of the LGBT and women we need to ensure that Chicago safeguards them. I will support legislation that ensures Chicago is a safe and welcoming city to all. In addition I will:

Work with community leaders
Limit employer surveillance of remote employees
Defend a woman's right to choose
Defend the rights of LGBTQ community in our ward and in Chicago
Support resources to help immigrants in our community

Election Reforms

Increase voter turnout, create a fair playing field and cut costs associated with running an election by:

Implementing Ranked Choice Voting(RCV) so that elections are done after a single day
Move election day to align with general elections in November
Use savings from consolidating elections and ending runoff elections to publicly fund elections reducing outside influence.

Affordable housing

Work to maintain affordable housing for all in ward and city by:

Prohibiting corporate landlords from bulk buying residences
Restricting setting rents based on algorithmic software
End no-fault evictions by supporting Just Cause eviction
Prioritizing construction of two/three flats and townhomes in our neighborhoods and prohibiting the deconversion of two/three flats into single family homes.
Expanding the Additional Dwelling Unit pilot citywide
Revise the Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO) to include 30% affordable homes in developments over 10 units and prohibit affordable units from being built off-site.

Worker's Rights

Ensure that the minimum wage keeps up with inflation
Support Project Labor Agreements(PLA) for city projects that use union labor
Support employee's rights to unionize

Education

Ensure that no public funds are used for private schools
Fund after-school programs at CPS and at Chicago Parks
A moratorium on new Charter Schools
Support wall-to-wall AP/IB programs at our high schools

Listening

I will always be open to questions, comments. If you have any concerns I encourage you to fill out the comment form.