Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, Candidate for 35th Ward Alderman

Candidate Full Name: Carlos Ramirez-Rosa

Office: 35th Ward Alderman

Email Address: mlopez@carlosrosa.org

Web Site: www.carlosrosa.org

Campaign Name: Carlos for Chicago

Campaign Office Mailing Address: 3035 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618

Phone: 773.971.5356

Survey Questions (Character limit of 2,000 per response)

1. What is the most important issue that you will address in your ward?

I have knocked thousands of doors in the 35th Ward, and the greatest concern I hear from my residents is a lack of city services, coupled with an unresponsive ward office. My highest priority as Alderman will be to provide my residents with the robust constituent and city services they deserve. As a former congressional caseworker I helped thousands of seniors, veterans, and families cut through government red tape. As Alderman, I will use a competitive process to hire my ward staff; and then ensure that my staff and I are identifying issues in the ward and working to resolve those issues in a timely manner. As Alderman, I will only support fiscally responsible policies that address our city's debt while providing quality city services. I will work to direct city money to community needs, not big corporations, and will work to increase money allocated for city services (tree trimming, street resurfacing, rat abatement, and snow removal), public safety, and our neighborhood schools.

2. What are your plans for helping fight crime in your ward?

I support hiring 1,000 additional police officers. I will be a hands-on Alderman that works side-by-side with families to put our neighborhoods first. I will knock doors year round and will identify problem buildings and criminal hot spots. I will seek to meet regularly with my local police district commanders and will present my list of problem areas in the ward. I will also work to increase CAPS participation, and ensure that a staff member or I attend each meeting in my ward. I will also advocate for true community policing with dedicated police officers that work their beat day in and day out.

3. What, if any, city assets would you consider privatizing to raise money?

I am adamantly opposed to privatization, we have seen how city services suffer when we place a private corporations' greed before the needs of our residents. Our city's residents need quality city services, not more privatization schemes.

4. Do you support or oppose the vote to increase the minimum wage in several steps to $13 an hour by 2019?

I was one of many Chicagoans who worked with labor and community groups to raise the minimum wage, and I applaud the City Council for finally taking a step in the right direction, but I believe Chicago's working families deserve more than $13 an hour in five years. If the minimum wage had kept pace with U.S. productivity it would have reached over $21 an hour today. Our families deserve a living wage of no less than $15 an hour now. Big corporations can more than afford to pay their workers a $15 an hour living wage today, but regular Chicagoans cannot afford politicians who don't put our families first.

5. Are you in favor of Chicago's Red Light Camera program?

No, I do not support Chicago's traffic light camera program. I believe recent studies bring in to question the safety of the traffic light camera program. I've knocked on thousands of doors in the 35th Ward, and my neighbors feel overwhelmingly that the traffic light camera program was a ploy to dig deeper in their pockets, under the guise of public safety. I believe City Hall's attempts to balance the budget with new regressive taxes and fines is unfair to Chicago's hardworking families, particularly when so many of our public dollars are doled out to private interests via our TIF system.

Carlos Ramirez Rosa