West Cook News

Utopia LLC founder Valerie Leonard recently told a Senate Redistricting Committee about her concerns if legislative redistricting maps are created unfairly.

"In the state of Illinois, we have the highest percentage of the returning prisoners coming to North Lawndale," Leonard told lawmakers during the March 30 hearing. "It has two ZIP codes, 60623 and 60624, communities like Humboldt Park East and West Garfield. … They have to come back to the communities. We need to make sure that we have the resources."

With the debate over fair maps bubbling, residents across the state are clamoring to be heard on the issue. Typically the job of tackling the once-in-a-decade task falls to the party in power, but with Census Bureau data not expected to be available before a June 30 deadline, Republicans want to change that process to more of a voice.

Republican lawmakers back proposed legislation known as the People's Independent Maps Act. This measure would give the state Supreme Court the power to appoint 16 independent citizen commissioners to a redistricting commission within 30 days of passage.

The court would equally split the independent commission between Democrats and Republicans, who are lawmakers.

No matter how the process plays out, Leonard told lawmakers she doesn't want to see communities like hers squeezed even more.

"We were fortunate enough not to have that happen, but I've heard horror stories from others," she said. "This was 10 years ago, so we made sure that when we advocated for boundaries that it didn't happen. But we're at a point now where given the reduction in African American population, we don't necessarily know that that will be forgiven this time."