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Helen Shiller (born 1947) is a former Alderman of the 46th ward in Chicago, Illinois. Shiller is also a published author, having written a 500-page book on her politics and activism in Chicago from 1971 to 2011. Shiller served in the Chicago City Council for six four-year terms, from 1987 to 2011. Shiller was elected to the City Council on her third attempt, as Harold Washington, Chicago's first black Mayor, was re-elected to his second term, and her election as alderman helped close the Council Wars era in Chicago government. Shiller has been described as "a reformer unafraid to take on the boys in power." A less flattering description is that she is "committed to liberal causes and destroying all within her path". Her parents were home owners.
Helen Shiller earned her high school diploma in 1965 from Woodstock County School in Vermont, the same progressive boarding school that Pete Seeger's children attended. In 2005, Shiller graduated from DePaul University's School for New Learning Master's Program, where her focus was public policy.
Early career
Shiller moved to Chicago's Uptown neighborhood in 1972 For decades Shiller and her allies worked to preserve Uptown as the last North Side lakefront neighborhood south of Rogers Park that is home to a significant population of low income households.
Shiller supported Michael Bakalis in his 1978 primary challenge to Illinois Governor James R. Thompson, attacking Thompson for "making deals with the Chicago machine" and for being unsympathetic to the urban poor. Shiller helped open an extension of Shimer College at 4833 N Broadway in the Fall of 1978. Shiller took on Illinois' dentists when in 1978 the Uptown Peoples Community Services Center joined consumers groups in a federal lawsuit which attempted to break up dentists' monopoly on fitting dentures. From 1981 to 1987, Shiller was president and CEO of Justice Graphics, Inc. a print shop, a small business of which Shiller and Coleman were two of five owners. On March 6, 1978, Ralph Axelrod, chief administrative assistant to Cook County Sheriff Richard Elrod, "I ran for alderman of this [46th] ward in 1978. I was terrified. I was very shy, afraid to speak to more than five people at a time," Shiller recalled in 2003. Turley and another candidate Carl Lezak, a former priest and former director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), were challenged and stricken from the ballot by the Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners, leaving a three-way race for alderman between Axelrod, Shiller, and former television news reporter Michael Horowitz. Shiller charged that the regular Democratic organization used unfair campaign practices against her, challenging about 100 of the 400 new voters she helped register, stealing her campaign posters, and pressuring store owners to remove her signs. The Chicago Tribune endorsed Axelrod, noting Shiller "runs primarily as a champion of the poor." Axelrod prevailed, receiving 5,575 votes, or 54.5%, to Shiller's 3,475 votes.
Second campaign for alderman (1979)
Shiller and Turley challenged Axelrod in 1979. An extra alarm fire early on Friday, February 9, 1979, weeks before the election, caused extensive damage to the building containing Shiller's campaign headquarters and left 15 homeless. The Chicago Tribune endorsed Axelrod. Shiller (6,852 votes; 46%) bested Axelrod (6,088 votes; 40%), but, as no candidate received a majority of the vote in the three-way race, a run-off was forced. The Chicago Tribune and Turley endorsed Axelrod in the run-off. The Chicago Tribune wrote that "Ms. Shiller's program shares many elements with that of the Black Panthers and appears to be based on hopes of an eventual "revolution" [not defined]." Axelrod defeated Shiller in the run-off by 247 votes. Shiller later recalled the campaign:
<blockquote>I won the primary, but not with fifty-one percent of the vote. We had a runoff and I lost by two hundred votes – to a machine candidate. We were bringing fresh ideas, but we were not experienced in fighting the machine on election day. I swore I'd never run for alderman again. There was so much racial baiting that it was terrifying. I was called names. ... My posters had black paint all over them with racial epithets. It was very disturbing. Justice Graphics published the All-Chicago City News, and became a close advisor to candidate and, later, Mayor Harold Washington. Just before the 1983 elections, Alderman Axelrod resigned from City Council to take a job in the Cook County Sheriff's office. Community activist Charlotte Newfeld and Jerome Orbach ran for alderman and went to a run-off, which Orbach won by 66 votes.
"Harold was mayor, and he was harping on me to run for alderman," Shiller recalled in 2003. Kaszak was a lawyer, a former vice president of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, a Mayor Harold Washington appointee to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, a leader of the Lakeview Citizens' Council, and president of Citizens United for Baseball in Sunshine (CUBS), Newfeld co-chaired Kaszak's campaign. Pechenuk was a consultant for Lyndon LaRouche Jr. for 12 years, and was treasurer of LaRouche-supported Sheila Jones's mayoral campaign.
Mayor Washington endorsed 18 incumbent aldermen and 5 challengers, including Shiller. Washington appeared at a joint rally with Shiller at which she announced her candidacy. Kaszak was endorsed by the Chicago Sun-Times, the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO), the National Organization for Women (NOW), the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and former aldermen William Singer and Dick Simpson. Shiller charged that Orbach catered to developers, displacing people in the wake of rehabilitation that priced housing out of the reach of many, and said she wanted community zoning boards, with their decisions binding on the alderman. Shiller charged that most of Orbach's campaign war chest was from developers and regular Democrats outside the ward.
In the four-way race, Orbach took 40% of the vote and Shiller 38%, but, no candidate received a majority, resulting in a run-off. Kaszak endorsed Shiller, and Chicago Tribune. "His [Orbach's] relationship to large real estate developers is very important. He's become more of an advocate for people outside of the ward than for people here," Shiller charged. Some of Orbach's allies spread a rumor, aimed at lakefront Jewish voters, that as alderman Shiller would support a Palestinian state. Shiller's forces called Orbach a racist, although a large number of blacks backed Orbach in his early campaigns. Shiller later said,
<blockquote>The machine alderman who won in 1983 [Orbach] had a chief of staff who was engaging in racial organizing. There were white gangs up here. One of them he helped organize into a consciously racially white-power gang. They hooked up with both the Klan and the Nazi Party. Jesus People USA, a 500-member commune/business/charity/religious group with many members living in the ward, had supported Orbach throughout his career, but switched to Shiller before the run-off. Jesus People's spokesman explained "We think Jerry Orbach is a lovely man, but he doesn't have what it takes to stand up to the development ... If things keep going there will be massive displacement. People will be thrown out of their homes. We decided that Helen Shiller would do the most to prevent displacement." Orbach supporters charged that a City official had offered City contracts to the Jesus People's construction firm if Shiller were elected. On Tuesday, April 7, 1987, Shiller defeated Orbach by 498 votes, 9,751 to 9,253, Shiller was among opponents of Sawyer's 1989 budget, approved 34–13 on December 7, 1988. In January, 1988, Shiller was named one of "88 People to Watch" by Chicago Tribune staff. Shiller was Mayor Richard M. Daley's staunchest opponent in City Council votes in the last three months of 1989, in Daley's first year of his first term.
In 1989, Shiller sponsored a resolution creating a sub-committee on Domestic Violence. Shiller backed a group of 50 to 75 people including more than 40 homeless people and six children who erected a "tent city" from doors and wood on a vacant lot at 4425 N. Malden to illustrate the plight of the homeless. On Friday, October 14, 1989, Shiller was among five arrested when police, called by the owner, evicted about 100 protesters from the lot. Shiller was charged with trespassing and spent "about two minutes" in jail before charges were dropped.
Uptown Chicago Commission funding
In November, 1987, Shiller's first budget cycle, she recommended to the Budget Committee that the City cancel a federal grant for the Uptown Chicago Commission (UCC), a 32-year-old community group in Uptown that often contended on issues with the Heart of Uptown Coalition, of which Shiller was co-chairman with Walter "Slim" Coleman. The recommendation came during Budget Committee hearings on the distribution of $95.1 million in federal Community Development Block Grants. Mayor Washington's budget recommendation included a $20,000 grant to UCC to facilitate residents applying for home improvement loans. The UCC's service area included the adjoining 48th Ward, whose Alderman Kathy Osterman also supported the funding. Shiller requested that the committee deny the UCC its grant.
Upon the death of Mayor Washington in office, Shiller supported Alderman Timothy C. Evans for mayor, but supporters of Alderman Eugene Sawyer prevailed. Shiller said restoring the grant to the UCC would affect only the 48th Ward, not her ward. "I was not going to have them operating in the 46th," Shiller said, claiming she had reached an agreement to keep UCC services out of her ward several days before Washington's death. "Mayor Sawyer had nothing to do with this," Shiller claimed. "He had recommended no changes."
Low-income housing consent decree
As early as 1966 Uptown was among the possible sites proposed for a northeast-side commuter campus in the City Colleges of Chicago community college district. The Uptown site west of the Wilson Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) station was opposed by those concerned for the displacement of low income residents, largely blacks, southern whites and American Indians. The project was mired in heated controversy for decades. Avery v Pierce, a federal lawsuit filed in 1975, Plaintiffs were represented by Shiller's former campaign manager, attorney James P. Chapman of the Uptown Peoples Law Center.
In 1985 Randall H. Langer, a young real estate developer active in apartment rehabilitation in the neighborhood, aided the creation of a local historic district, the Sheridan Park Historic District, which critics charged was of dubious historical value and created to facilitate gentrification. Nineteen tax delinquent properties in Uptown were offered for sale by auction by Cook County in Fall, 1987. Since 1983 Cook County had a program to afford local governments the opportunity to acquire tax delinquent properties for almost nothing, prior to the county's scavenger sale to the public, if the local government had a specific development plan. and another added, "Properties we gave to the city 12 years ago are still war zones. I don't want the same thing to happen here." The consent decree would have put most vacant parcels in Uptown into a land bank for future affordable housing, administered by a community development corporation, funded by the city with $100,000 over two years.</blockquote>
In 1988 Royko wrote of Shiller, "her main motive was that she was building a political power base, which included as many winos as she and Coleman could drag to the voting booth." Shiller's proposal was criticized in a series of editorials.</blockquote>
In 2003 Shiller explained the editorials:
<blockquote>When I first became alderman, there was a developer up here who felt very threatened by me. He hired a publicist to really go after me. Any time I talked about development without displacement, they would ream me. They went to the press and got some of the most vicious editorials published. On December 9, 1987, at the first regular business meeting of the City Council after the death of Mayor Washington in office, Washington foes brought the proposal out of committee. Alderman Bernard Stone joined Alderman Osterman in blocking the agreement, saying Shiller's "arrogance prevailed and that arrogance has to be answered on this floor." The Council rejected the consent decree 29–17.
Second term (1991–1995)
In 1991, Shiller supported Danny K. Davis in Davis' unsuccessful primary challenge to Daley. Daley endorsed Shiller's challenger, Michael Quigley, campaigned with Quigley and sent letters in support of Quigley. Shiller finished seven votes ahead of Quigley, but a third candidate got 3.4% of the vote, which forced a runoff, the third straight run-off for Shiller and the fourth straight for the 46th ward. In the run-off, Shiller won with 53% of the vote, amid charges that Quigley was a carpetbagger.
Shiller added a budget amendment to triple the city's AIDS budget in 1992. Shiller was one of nine alderman voting against Daley's 1993 budget, which included a $28.7 million property tax increase. Shiller was absent for the 1994 budget vote, and was one of four aldermen dissenting on Daley's 1995 budget.
Third term (1995–1999)
The Chicago Tribune was among newspapers that endorsed Shiller for re-election in 1995, and she won with 57% of the vote, without a run-off. Shiller supported U.S. Representative Bobby Rush in his unsuccessful challenge to Daley in 1999.
"Arguably, the single most important legislative responsibility that aldermen have is voting on the city budget each year," Shiller said. She attended every hearing on Daley's 1997 budget armed with policy questions that she said went unanswered. She was often the only alderman present at budget hearings.
Fourth term (1999–2003)
In 1999, Sandra Reed, a black high school English teacher, and two other women opposed Shiller, the first all-female field in an aldermanic race in Chicago history. The Chicago Tribune again endorsed Shiller. Shiller prevailed with 55% of the vote in a runoff.
On November 17, 1999, Shiller joined in unanimous support for Daley's 2000 budget, her first affirmative vote on a Daley budget and only her second affirmative vote on a City budget. Aldermen applauded. Shiller again joined in unanimous support for Daley's 2001, 2002, and 2003 budgets. In the 2001 redistricting of Chicago wards, Daley tried to deprive Shiller of her most committed supporters, but failed when none of the aldermen in adjacent wards wanted to contend with Shiller's supporters. Shiller and Daley, however, reached an understanding: the mayor supported her in the 2003 elections and also pushed forward development of Wilson Yard, a Chicago Transit Authority facility destroyed by fire, into affordable housing and a Target store, using the Wilson Yard Tax Increment Financing District and the $26.5 million it generated. Subsequently, Shiller consistently voted in support of the mayor's agenda. Shiller cited Daley's commitment to affordable housing, and in particular his Planning Department's work on the Wilson Yard project. Columnist Mark Brown wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times,
<blockquote>The last squeaky wheel in the City Council had been greased. The last independent voice had joined the chorus ... Shiller's endorsement of Daley is all the more amazing when you look at where she started, about as close to a Marxist as you'd ever find at City Hall.</blockquote>
Shiller defeated Reed again in 2003, this time with 58% of the vote. Shiller was the only alderman who did not cast a vote on the passage of the Big Box Ordinance, which required large retailers to pay a living wage. Target sent a letter to Mayor Daley and alderman indicating that if the ordinance were not overturned, they would not proceed on projects in Chicago. Shiller voted to sustain Daley's veto.
Sixth term (2007–2011)
Criticism of Shiller in the 2007 election largely focused on the lack of communication with ward residents, failure to obtain input from residents for zoning changes in the ward, her lack of involvement in community policing meetings, and the many years of blighted retail in the ward. Some critics charged that Shiller was frustrating developers while using the Wilson Yard project to maintain her political base. In 2009, Shiller was criticized by Uptown residents for her perceived lack of engagement in addressing crime in the neighborhood, including a string of violent robberies in nearby Lakeview that attracted the attention of the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and local TV news. Police interviewed said interventions from Shiller and her staff facilitated the protection of gang members from policing activity, allegedly for gaining voter base, according to a report in Chicago Magazine.
Mayor Daley was among supporters of the Wilson Yard redevelopment project celebrating the completion of construction on July 20, 2010. The project included 98 units of subsidized housing for low-income residents in two buildings, one for seniors, and another for other families. The Target store opened on Sunday, July 22, 2010. On August 2, 2010, Shiller announced she would not run for re-election in 2011. Shiller reflected,
<blockquote>... we should be able to make sure that everyone has a place in the city, and when we do development ... we should make sure that the people who are here today will be here when that is complete ... my most singular perspective was to prove that that is possible. ... we have to have a city that is not just inclusive about our diversity but is serious and honest about making sure that everyone has a place here ...</blockquote>
On closing her ward office, Shiller wrote:
<blockquote>I am most proud of my achievements in tripling the City's funding budget for HIV/AIDS victims and for developing the toughest stance on Apartheid that was ever written in the 90's, for my work on domestic violence issues and establishing 24-hour daycare for children, the Ruth Shriman House for senior living, the Wilson Yards Development and for welcoming Target as a neighbor and partner, and of course setting the bar for affordable housing in Chicago.</blockquote>
Retirement and the Westside Justice Center
Shiller retired from politics in 2010 after her sixth term as alderman. In 2014, her son Brendan, a defense attorney, found a few empty buildings on Chicago's west side and laid out a vision to his mother that included setting up shop for his law firm, Shiller and Preyar. Shiller used her years of experience in government work and community advocacy to create the Westside Justice Center which officially opened in 2015. By 2017, the Westside Justice Center became home to two law firms, several sole practitioners, three non-profits, and a cafe. The main non-profit, also called the Westside Justice Center helps to connect low-income communities to social services with the help of the center's legal team.
Shiller and Zalkin have one son, Brendan Shiller. Brendan attended Joseph Stockton Elementary School, a Chicago Public School, and Whitney Young Magnet High School, a selective-enrollment public magnet high school in Chicago's Near West Side. While attending Truman College, Brendan was managing editor of All-Chicago City News. In 2003, Brendan graduated first in his class from John Marshall Law School and currently works as a lawyer representing criminal defendants and police misconduct plaintiffs.
One of Shiller's granddaughters is the published poet Britteney Black Rose Kapri. Shiller is now a professional poker player.
Helen Shiller and her long-time staff member Maggie Marystone were interviewed in separate chapters in Hope Dies Last, a collection of oral histories by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Uptown resident Studs Terkel.
Publications
- Shiller,Helen (2022), Daring To Struggle, Daring to Win