On his website, 38-year-old Tim Meegan declares that he is no politician. He is an 11-year social-studies teacher at Roosevelt High School who believes the "Democrat machine no longer represents or supports working families in the City of Chicago."
Meegan is running against Ald. Deb Mell and challenger Annisa Wanat for the 33rd Ward seat. He invited Windy City Times to his campaign offices for a discussion on the education he intends to bring to City Hall and his plan to improve the lives of people in the 33rd Ward and across the city.
Windy City Times: What spurred the goal to run for alderman?
Tim Meegan: My experiences as a teacher in the classroom of a high-poverty, high-need school. I see the conditions and experiences of my students and their families. My kids come into Roosevelt with a lot of social and emotional issues that have their origins within the community. There is a mass movement to privatize the public education system through Charter proliferation and other mechanisms. Teachers are scapegoated for the ills of society and nobody wants to talk about the elephant in the room which is poverty. Over 50 percent of the families in this ward spend over 30 percent of their income on rent. Many parents work two or three part-time jobs at minimum wage in order to make ends meet. As a teacher I can only control what goes on in my classroom but as an Alderman I can impact my students and their families in a more direct way by raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, passing affordable housing and so on. When Rahm Emanuel closed 50 schools and slashed our budgets we fought tooth and nail, and all of that fell on deaf ears because Chicago is a one-party town so there is no need for our elected officials to listen to their constituents.
WCT: Some candidates have talked about Emanuel as being a corporate rather than people mayor. Do you agree with that assessment?
Tim Meegan: Everything that he's done from the moment he took office has been oriented toward corporate interests and against organized labor and working-class families. The first thing that he did was cancel the negotiated 4 percent raise that teachers were supposed to get and he turned around and gave that money to the police. He closed the mental health clinics and there was no reason. It was just cruel. Roosevelt has lost $1.8 million in just two years and 22 teachers. That doesn't serve working class families. Mell owes her job to the mayor and she has rewarded that by voting with him 100 percent of the time.
WCT: Mell says that many of the issues in which she has disagreed with the mayor have not come up for a vote. How do you answer that argument?
Tim Meegan: Whatever disagreements she may have had behind closed doors, she hasn't taken the tough votes.
WCT: Poverty among LGBTQ people is alarmingly high. With the transgender community, it is at a rate of 90 percent. How do you propose to address it and specifically homelessness of LGBTQ youth?
Tim Meegan: I have seen first-hand the impact that family and peer pressures have had on LGBTQ youth at my school. I think there are a disproportionate number of LGBTQ youth on the streets because of this pressure. It's why I was so disappointed that Mell supported [Rey] ColÃ"n in the building of those homeless barricades underneath the I-90 viaduct at Belmont and Kedzie. You must have wrap-around services and a fully funded public sector in order to keep kids in school and in stable situations. We need more social workers and psychologists.
Had we not had budget cuts we would have been able to provide them. The more they squeeze the public sector and tell people that they're on their own, the more you are going to see people on the street.
WCT: Undocumented LGBTQ immigrants are among the most marginalized in our community. Advocacy groups feel they have been ignored by City Hall. How would you be a voice for them?
Tim Meegan: There's a huge part of this community who are undocumented. They don't cease to be a part of the community just because they don't have the vote. There's a lot more that can be done for them. Elected officials need to be open to representing all members of the community, not just those who can vote for them.
WCT: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the HIV infection rate among Latinos is three times higher than that of whites. What would you do to assist organizations providing education and awareness?
Tim Meegan: We need to increase their funding and bring down the cost of new drugs. Whenever you put a dollar into a non-profit you're going to get 90-100 percent of the value of that dollar in services. At Roosevelt, we have a free health clinic and we're very proud of that. It's a service that needs to be expanded to all CPS schools in the entire city. Sex-education classes are very important. The curriculum provider chosen made light of some very serious situations.
WCT: Why should it be you presiding over this ward?
Tim Meegan: I stand for democracy and transparency. As soon as Deb Mell took over from her father, she effectively killed the 33rd Ward advisory council. I want to work with a democratically elected advisory council. I want to answer constituent questions in public. Not behind closed doors. I'm more interested in investing in the people who already live here rather than forcing them out by promoting high cost, luxury condo developments. Nobody knows the schools like I do and I know better than anybody what needs to happen to improve our schools and our community.
Visit www.meegan4ward33.com/en/ .
More election-related articles at www.windycitymediagroup.com/gaynewsarticles.php .
