Trevor Joseph Grant
Trevor Joseph Grant ran for election to the Chicago City Council to represent Ward 1 in Illinois. He did not appear on the ballot for the general election on February 26, 2019.
Grant completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. Click here to read the survey answers.
Click here to read Grant's response to Ballotpedia's unique candidate survey for 2019 Chicago candidates. The survey questions were developed with input from more than 100 Chicagoans in the months preceding the 2019 election.
Elections
2019
See also: City elections in Chicago, Illinois (2019)
General election
General election for Chicago City Council Ward 1
Daniel La Spata defeated incumbent Joe Moreno in the general election for Chicago City Council Ward 1 on February 26, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Daniel La Spata (Nonpartisan)  | 61.2 | 7,326 |
 | Joe Moreno (Nonpartisan) | 38.7 | 4,635 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.0 | 3 | ||
| Total votes: 11,964 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Trevor Joseph Grant (Nonpartisan)
- Justin Tucker (Nonpartisan)
Campaign themes
2019
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Trevor Joseph Grant completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Grant's responses.
Low-income families do not have the same choices, options, or alternatives when it comes to public school. How can this be addressed?
Many high schools in Chicago are at half or less enrollment. This is an artifact of baby-boomers and people on the whole leaving Chicago. If we only look at the costs of keeping these schools open, e.g. utilities, maintenance, etc. then by shutting down many schools and re balancing enrollments to a target of 80-90% would allow us to invest more in all of the remaining schools. I'm not saying we should fire teachers, if anything we should hire more and/or give raises to the ones we have.
How would you address inequality within and between schools?
By wasting fewer resources on under utilized schools, we can invest more in each of the remaining schools and spend more on students, giving them the resources and attention they need.
How can public schools better support their teachers and work more productively with the teachers’ union, parents, and the community?
Student success is highly correlated with parental involvement. This may be because teachers feel more engaged when they know the parents of the students also care, or it may be because students are receiving support at home as well as at school. Chicago Public Schools should explore school specific steps to more actively engage parents. Different solutions will likely work differently at different schools and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Each community is different, but overall that should be the strategy.
What do you believe are the greatest needs of kids in school today? How would you prioritize these needs and address them?
We have a education system that was built for the Industrial Revolution, not the Age of Information. The most important thing to teach everyone is How to Learn. How to find a topic of interest and consume information about it. Unfortunately public education has gone the opposite directions and stamps out any sort of creativity and punishes regurgitating anything other than what the administrators have spoon fed. I support programs helping kids find things they are passionate in, and mentoring them to go discover more about that topic.
What are your proposals for supporting children before and after school? What would be your ideal afterschool programs?
There are thousands of non-profit organizations whose mission it is to come help do after school programs. I would partner with these organizations to offer an exponential increase in after school / before school activities. As a technologist, I think focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) related programs would be the most beneficial, especially programs that get girls interested in STEM as the lack of girls who stay in STEM is often cited as a reason women are underrepresented in STEM careers.
Do you believe that there is corruption in Chicago politics, such as pay-to-play practices when the city awards bids? If so, how would you address it?
I believe corruption is exceptionally rampant in Chicago, and it is done in such a way that only egregious shake downs like we are seeing play out with Ald. Burke even get prosecuted. To fight this, I am not accepting any donations to my campaign, I owe no one any favors. I think organizations such as Illinois Sunshine which show who has donated how much money to whom are a great first step in fighting corruption, but really it takes people researching who has been paid of by who, and voting to not let people who have been bought and sold into office.
How would you make the city’s policies more responsive to community input instead of donors or special interests?
Pass a state law that the landing page of each candidates website must list all of their donors and "how much" has been donated. (This could be a simple iframe with a link through to Illinois Sunshine). Helping voters understand who has paid off their candidate would be an important first step to curbing corruption.
What sort of proposals would help reduce police shootings and fatalities?
Supporting mental health in police departments and removing the stigma of asking for help. I dealt with this issue often as a medic in Afghanistan, working in a dangerous job with people who are trying to hurt you makes you irritable, jumpy, and prone to violence (symptoms of PTSD). However, for various reasons, admitting that you have a problem is often seen as "un-macho". Removing this stigma and allowing officers to honorably seek help when they need it is an important first step. PTSD does NOT justify murder, not in the military, not on the streets of Chicago. If you want to stop senseless police shootings however, you need to take care of the officers and their mental health.
What ideas do you have to reduce the availability of illegal or unregistered guns in Chicago?
SOAPBOX: There are three issues to me which are very important, and I'm not seeing any other questions giving me an opportunity to address them. LGBTQ Equality, Supporting People and Organizations that Rescue Animals, and Cyclist Safety. 1) LGBTQ Equality. I believe very strongly in this however, I was surprised that it would come up as an issue in this campaign, in a progressive city like Chicago, in a progressive Ward like the First, however- here we are. One of my opponents has been attacked for belonging to an evangelical religious organization who recently added an exclusionary policy wrt LGBTQ equality. The opponent claims he doesn't agree with this, and has asked the church to change their mind, he has not however (1) left the church (2) made any public statements to this effect (3) shown any evidence of his petitioning his church to change. The incumbent has had a better track record with gay rights (as one would expect in the First ward), however was conspicuously absent from a gathering of Alderman who challenged President Trump rolling back Transgender rights. I want both of my opponents to fully explain themselves. 2) Supporting Rescue Organizations and People. In 2017, 1,914 animals taken to the city pound were euthanized. That number is down from 26,394 according to a 1997 Sun Times article, mainly due to the work of rescue organizations and the people who support them through fostering and adoption. Over nineteen hundred animals being killed per year is still astronomical. We should be doing more to support people who take these animals in. For example, of the euthenized dogs, they often have severe behavioral issues, which CAN be corrected through training, which costs upwards of $2000, which is non-tax deductible. Simple making training for a rescue dog tax deductible could go a long way in helping save these animals. 3) Cyclist Safety. Whenever I bring this up, the fist thing I hear is "yea, but cyclists have to obey the rules of the road too". I'm a cyclist, and I agree with that statement 100%. If someone gets smoked because they rolled through a red light on a major intersection, that's tragic, but no amount of cyclist safety in the world will save them. I'm talking about when dumpsters and cars are parked in bike lanes. I'm talking about repairing potholes and road issues in bike lanes (and all roads). I'm talking about supporting local organizations like Bike Lane Uprising to track "trouble spots" and then taking proactive measures to make those spots safer.
How will you help to rebuild trust in the police department and to encourage the community to work with police?
Trust is earned. Fixing structural latent issues is the first priority. Over time letting residents realize they can trust the police will flow naturally.
How would you address criminal justice issues such as prison reform and the reintegration of formerly incarcerated persons into city life?
Ending the for-profit prison system is a high priority for me.
How would you address the displacement of people of color and long-term residents from their neighborhoods?
Diversity is one of the greatest strengths of neighborhoods in the first ward and we should seek to maintain that. However, there are several people of color who bought houses 20-30 years ago who have seen an exponential rise in property values and now are counting on those homes as their retirement. While maintaining diversity is important, denying these people who have invested their lives in the community a chance to retire comfortably is contra-The American Dream.
How would you care for the most vulnerable Chicagoans?
Creating channels for owners who live at their property to legally convert "garden units" and "mother in law units" into safe, legal, residences which they can rent out. Currently this costs approximately $10k ONLY for the zoning change, which may or may not be accepted. If owners were able to do this more cheaply there would be a flood of affordable housing options brought to market in every neighborhood.
How would you ensure that development benefits residents in their neighborhoods and not solely the developers and other interests?
Development in a neighborhood always benefits residents. The question is, how to make sure re-zoning benefits residents, not just the developer and the alderman who was paid off to rezone. My solution is the developer should be "paying off the people" and by that I mean, if a developer wants a rezoning, they should create a park, or a trust for the local school, or some other project that benefits people enough to say, "Yes, this developer is doing something good for us so we're OK with a 15 story monstrosity being built in our back yard."
How do you propose to resolve the city’s underfunded pension plan for city employees?
Daley's "parking deal" of 2008, has been widely hailed as a "worst practice" of city government. While Rahm is suggesting that we rewrite the state constitution to make it legally OK to screw pensioners, I suggest we deploy a secondary parking system to take the place of the one we sold. As the city still enforces the parking tickets, we simply wouldn't ticket anyone who uses the "new system" and we would ticket people who use the old one. Their are numerous ways this could be achieved. The only reason not to do this, is the people we sold our parking to have expensive lawyers and the pensioners don't. That's a very lousy reason to screw pensioners in my humble opinion, and if we're talking about amending the state constitution, then I think all options should be on the table.
What’s your opinion on tax increment financing (a program that funds development using any additional property tax revenue that results from an increase in appraised property values)? What, if any, changes would you make to the use of TIF?
Aside from the newly reopened Mental Health centers, I think TIF should never be used. If it wasn't for these examples I would say we should outlaw the entire program as it is a lightning rod for corrupt practices. The usage of TIF definitely needs to be corralled, and any project that uses TIF should be an exception, not a rule.
How would you assess the city's finances, and if your proposals would require new spending, how would you pay for them?
They cities finances are most heavily overshadowed by the looming pension crisis. See my answer with respect to the Alternative Parking System for how I would pay for programs.
Would you be in favor of freezing property taxes, at least for low-income households, so that people can stay where they are living?
I would not be in favor of "freezing" income taxes, but I would be in favor of offering low-income housing tax deductions. This would allow landlords who rent affordable housing (to low income tenants/families) also receive tax relief and increase incentives for creating affordable housing.
How would you increase access to quality food and urgent care in all parts of the city?
I really don't know anything about this subject, and i know to admit when I don't know about a subject. I would listen to experts and people from parts of the city where this is an issue. In the first ward we have a hospital that awkwardly bisects the ward into two, and many good grocers.
How will you address public health concerns such as contaminated drinking water, rat infestation, and lead poisoning?
This is an overloaded question (and I hope questions are being presented along with these answers). With respect to lead pipes servicing homes, I think it is the cities responsibility to replace out all of the lead pipes going up to the home, and instituting fines if property owners haven't replaced their pipes by a certain date. With respect to rat infestations: Increasing use of rodenticide (which is the city's main rat solution at the moment), leads to the development of "super-rats" as is the case in England right now (rats who are immune to rat poison). While cats have been shown to be fairly inefficient rat killers, their scent and presence has been shown to be very effective at warding rats off. Increasing the number of and support of feral-cat colonies throughout the city should be a top priority. The effectiveness of this can be seen by the fact that PAWS has a long waiting list for people wishing to establish cat colonies by their home. Further, any surrendered rat-terriers after a set amount of time should be rolled into a special squad supported and maintained by the city for clearing building and other burrows/dens/other serious infestations.
How would you make Chicago a cleaner city with less waste and pollution?
The first thing I would do as an Alderman is make sure Recycling gets picked up on time. I can't count the times a month has gone by and all of the recycling on my block was over full of boxes, papers, etc.
What would be your first steps for improving the transit system in terms of affordability, accessibility, and safety?
The city's light commuter rail system was explicitly and racist-ly designed to "keep people where they belong". The first step to correcting this would be to create an "outer loop" L-line, something that for example would go down Western from the lake at 115th to Morgan Park, up Western Ave. to Westridge then back to the lake, connecting all of the spoke lines and making it possible to go between neighborhoods with out having to go all the way down town and then back out to only go a couple of miles away.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2019 Elections
External links
Footnotes
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