Politics in Uptown boils down to one woman: Helen Shiller, the long-serving alderman of the 46th Ward. And depending on your position on the political spectrum you either love her or hate her.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Funny, but not really fair: in a city notorious for its corruption, neither Shiller nor anyone in her organization has ever been indicted, much less convicted, for the sort of illegal electioneering alluded to by Royko. She’s not a lawyer; she doesn’t run an insurance or real estate business on the side. Clearly she’s not in politics to make money, although it looks as though her son, Brendan Shiller, is carrying on that great Chicago tradition in which the relatives of powerful politicians become zoning lawyers.
Some of the animosity against her is a remnant of the culture wars of the 1960s and 1970s. Born and raised in New York City and educated at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Shiller came to Uptown in the early 70s as part of a vanguard of shaggy-haired radicals looking to change the world. Within a few years she and her comrades had created the Heart of Uptown Coalition, which oversaw health and legal clinics, distributed clothes and meals to the poor, and freaked out older white residents by aligning itself with the Black Panthers. In 1977 the group officially moved into local politics by running Shiller for alderman. In those days the ward was controlled by hard-nosed Democratic operatives who’d started in politics under the first Mayor Daley and were not about to let this crowd take over without a fight. She lost by 1,000 votes.
Reed ran again in 2003, but by then Shiller and Daley had reached an understanding–if she backed him he would not only back her, he would endorse her years-old plan to develop Wilson Yard, a vacant lot just west of the Red Line, into a Target and affordable residential high-rises. They announced their mutual support, the galoots stayed home, and Shiller won with about 58 percent. She’s been a fairly reliable Daley ally ever since, and in 2004 the mayor gave her virtual control over the Wilson Yard Tax Increment Financing District project, allowing her to do what she wants with the $26.5 million generated by that TIF to partially fund the $113 million development.
