CHICAGO — The Chicago City Council adopted a new map of the city’s 50 wards Monday, forestalling a ballot referendum on competing designs by Black and Latino aldermen and their allies and ending a racially charged confrontation over the boundaries between the two groups.
The map passed 43-7, just two more votes than needed to short-circuit the June 28 referendum when Chicago voters would have picked the design of the wards for the next decade. The vote came three days before a deadline to avoid having the referendum go to voters on the June primary election ballot.
For lots of Chicagoans, their alderman is by far their most intimate and important relationship with an elected official. Starting next year, thousands of residents will need to get used to a new point of contact for many local services and complaints thanks to the redrawn map putting them in different wards.
