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How Too Many Wards Create Confusion about Hermosa’s Priority Vaccination Status

Lee Helmer

February 26, 2021
by Lee Helmer

Hermosa, being one of the smaller of the Chicago communities is used to being left out of ward conversations, resources and media headlines. But why would the city of Chicago identify the majority of it’s residents in one of the hardest hit zip codes in the entire state of Illinois, yet not add them to the Protect Chicago Plus community list? After all, the Chicago Department if Public Health only releases data by zip code, and not by Community. Who made this decision to switch the way they divide their advocacy programs?

Many city residents aren’t aware what official 77 Chicago community they live in (only neighborhoods that change through the years), as the city does not promote these boundaries consistently. With much of the northwest side within a mile or two west of the Kennedy and south of Irving Park, everything in the real estate market seems to be “Logan Square” even though it’s technically in Avondale, Humboldt Park or Hermosa. Belmont Cragin residents and Hermosa residents often claim their central boundary at Kelvyn Park (Hermosa).

Univision highlighted the Hermosa resident vaccination oversight, speaking with adults under 65 who were understandably surprised that they were not able to get a priority vaccine at the 60639 Belmont-Cragin location. What went wrong?

Wards, Zips, Communities = Confusion

Wards in Chicago are divided so acrimoniously, some communities have 4 or more alderpeople. This divides communication and confuses residents, even some who move a few blocks away, but a different City Council representative, yet counted in the same in the city’s data. This system seems disjointed and broken. In ward divisions, we show one of the smallest Chicago communities is chopped up. Ward boundaries will change once again in 2022, and this will be yet another aldermanic land grab that affects the powerless residents who have to start all over again, even though they’ve lived at the same address for decades.

Census.gov data extracted from the American Community Survey 5-Year Data (2009-2019) by zip code, then by Chicago Community Area: processed by DataMade.us and @booltox

Regardless of ward boundaries, what did the Latino Caucus do to influence the priority vaccination list, which happen to be all 4 of Hermosa alderman? Were we lower on the list because Hermosa is a smaller area of around 25,000 and does not compare in numbers to it’s neighboring communities? Let’s take a look at populations from publicly available census data to find out if this is a justified decision of omission by our local government.

There are 5 communities that cover the 60639 zip code: Belmont Cragin being the largest. By the numbers, this covers roughly 60% of the 60639 zip code. Here is where the oversight comes: Hermosa is over 20% of the 60639 zip code, the second most represented community in the list. Austin is third at about 14%, and Humboldt Park has a small foot print of only 4%.

So while every other community is double or triple the size of Hermosa, the much-forgotten triangle between Logan Square and Belmont Cragin of Hermosa is a key portion of getting one of the highest risk, and largely latinx zip code vaccinated. These are the city’s essential workers, fworking parents of young children, families’ Abuelas, Tías and Tíos, and college-aged adult children living in multi-generational households. These are also those who have suffered most dramatically in the state with Covid-19 deaths, cases and economically. We cannot afford to ignore the numbers anymore, or the name of our community. We also cannot afford the divided communication from our public officials. It has been life or death for many.

77% of Hermosa is in the 60639 zip code*, one of the hardest hit areas of Coronavirus in the state of Illinois**

When over 75% of your community is high risk, being left out of the city’s vaccination list even in name, it’s time to raise your voice.

Here are the public officials that you can contact to ask why Hermosa was not listed as a priority, and to repair this oversight to make sure they add us to the list to promote vaccine advocacy. If you have the time to tell them to redraw the boundaries to make Hermosa part of one ward, we can all rest from the stress of who to call about broken alley lights and life-saving information.

Alderpeople

The Latino Caucus: info@ccclatinocaucus.org, Twitter : ChiLatinoCaucus

31st Ward Alderman Cardona

35th Ward Alderman Ramirez-Rosa

36th Ward Alderman Villegas

26th Ward Alderman Maldonado

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