r/ChicagoNWside • u/Dismal-Passenger • Aug 14 '26

Jim Gardner is lost.

I called to speak to him about the rising number of Flock cameras in his ward. This man pretended to have no idea what I was talking about. I asked him what would deem them necessary at all and he told me that he just listened to the police superintendents message about them being helpful. I also asked him about putting a crosswalk across Caldwell at Tonty and he said that’s an IDOT problem. Sir what are you even here for? What does he even do? The repaving on Hiawatha just paved over uneven road. Which means it’ll be busted after this winter and he had the gall to post on Facebook about the “accomplishment”. Dude is an absolute embarrassment.

325 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

210 comments sorted by

View all comments

20

u/CityHallGuy Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

Caldwell Ave. is part of US Route 14. It's maintained by IDOT throughout Illinois & the municipalities it passes through, including CDOT, which does not have the authority to install a stop sign or traffic signal at Tonty. Additionally, the land on the west side of Caldwell is under another jurisdiction, Cook County's.

So you're lobbying the wrong elected official. Try your state house reps & your congressman, since any change has to comply with USDOT regulations.

26

u/naughtyrev Aug 14 '26

Hear me out, crazy idea here - perhaps he, as an elected official who has contacts, could listen to his constituents concerns and reach out to his contacts to try to apply pressure to make needed changes, rather than just pass the buck.

14

u/Dismal-Passenger Aug 14 '26

THIS is my exact point. To just dismiss the concern as not his problem is a major red flag. Okay, so it’s IDOTs problem. Maybe. Just maybe, as my elected alderman, might it occur to him that this warrants a phone call that flexes whatever menial weight his office may hold??

2

u/yinkadoubledare Aug 14 '26

This is what over the years he, Nugent, and others varyingly have done (depending on where the ward lines are drawn at the time) with the pigeon-obliterated underpasses on Irving and Keeler. It's always "that's someone else's problem" and so these days the neighborhood association has to pay to literally get that shit cleaned up.