Brian Ernst/Sun-Times
If someone wants to put up a building in Chicago, the process can be as muddy as our baseball diamonds in the spring thaw. Whether and how the developer needs a zoning change can be tricky enough, and then there’s the towering question of “aldermanic prerogative.”
It’s a political courtesy City Council members allow one another. If a particular alderman doesn’t want something approved in his or her ward, the others are unlikely to vote it through.
It confers enormous power not only on aldermen but on community groups able to raise a fuss. At its best, it’s a veto for something a neighborhood doesn’t want; at its worst, it reinforces segregation. It’s also given some aldermen cover to solicit bribes.