Little Village Town Hall

Join WBEZ for a virtual town hall with Chicago Ald. Michael Rodriguez, State Sen. Celina Villanueva and 4th Congressional District Congressman Jesus “Chuy” García. We’ll hear about officials’ plans to tackle issues that you care most about, and you’ll also have the opportunity to ask questions directly to your representatives.

This town hall event is part of the Citizens’ Agenda project — where WBEZ has been asking you what you want Illinois politicians to be talking about heading into November’s elections — and beyond. Our goal: Cover politics based on the issues that matter most to constituents, rather than covering politics like a game of thrones.

We heard from over 2,100 of you, and your responses formed our main agenda — key focus areas for reporting stories and hosting events like this one.

This election season has many eyes glued to the presidential race — but many of the issues we heard about are the purview of elected officials who aren’t in competitive elections this year. That’s why we’ve decided to host this town hall-style event. Elected officials should always be responsive to their constituents — regardless of whether they’re at risk of losing their seat.

For this town hall, we’ll be focusing on the top agenda items from respondents in the 4th Congressional District, which are:

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  Public safety: How can all levels of government help residents feel safer from all forms of violence?

  
  


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  Education: How might Chicago reimagine education funding?

  
  


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  COVID-19: How will all levels of government protect those most-vulnerable to the coronavirus, including frontline workers?

  
  


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  Unemployment: What will city, state and federal officials do to help people who’ve lost jobs during the pandemic?

  
  

The town hall will be moderated by WBEZ’s politics reporter Al Keefe. City Bureau has partnered with WBEZ for aspects of the Citizens' Agenda project, including this town hall. Community partners for this event include Latinos Progresando, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Southwest Organizing Project and Sinai Health System.