WOODLAWN — Everything went according to plan in the final days of the runoff election for 20th Ward Ald. Willie Cochran, who won a third term Tuesday night.
Cochran boarded a 7:30 a.m. flight Wednesday bound for Las Vegas — the final step in his re-election plan.
“My wife and I are heading out West and renting a convertible,” Cochran said from his ward office at 6357 S. Cottage Grove Ave., less than an hour after claiming victory over challenger Kevin Bailey.
The alderman representing Woodlawn, Washington Park and Back of the Yards had everything planned out days in advance to land him in a Camaro drop-top convertible by Wednesday morning.
Sam Cholke says Cochran's victory was just one part of the plan:
Cochran’s itinerary: April 5, celebrate his 28th wedding anniversary; April 6, celebrate his daughter’s birthday; April 7, deliver a defeat to Bailey in the runoff; and April 8, take a seat in a Camaro and begin ascending a mountain.
“The Camaro has such cushiony seats,” Cochran said, clearly eager for the short break before planning his next four years in office.
Only one part of Cochran’s plan was out of place.
“We saw ourselves up by 10 to 11 percent,” Cochran said of his Tuesday morning prediction of his electoral victory.
Cochran won by 12 percentage points, taking the runoff election with 56 percent of the vote to Bailey’s 44 percent. As both Cochran and Bailey predicted, turnout increased in the 20th Ward during the runoff, up to 7,604 votes from 6,614 on Feb. 24.
He said the victory was a clear sign that his focus on education and development was in line with the expectations of residents of the 20th Ward.
“My goal over the next four years is to have things in place to serve the 20th Ward over the next 10 years at a minimum,” Cochran said.
Cochran predicted that in the next four years more people would move into the neighborhood as they’re priced out of Hyde Park by the boom fueled by real estate spending by the University of Chicago.
“I don’t think we need to fear that,” Cochran said. “It actually would support our community become more stabilized.”
In recent years, the Hyde Park Day School, MetroSquash and other organizations have built new facilities in Woodlawn as property becomes scarcer in Hyde Park.
Woodlawn is one of the few mostly black neighborhoods that is starting to see white residents move in, according to data compiled by Daniel Kay Hertz, a public policy graduate student at the University of Chicago.
The still-modest influx of whites to the traditionally black neighborhood fueled debate during the campaign that Woodlawn could be gentrified.
Cochran tossed aside the fear of gentrification again Tuesday night, saying that Woodlawn had a large stock of affordable housing and large amounts of vacant land. He will continue to push for new affordable housing to be built in the neighborhood, he said.
The alderman is closely watching where the Barack Obama Presidential Library will go. Either the Jackson or Washington park locations proposed by the University of Chicago would have dramatic ripple effects in his ward, he said.
With big changes likely for the ward, Cochran said he was glad Mayor Rahm Emanuel won a second term.
“Emanuel is a good manager and Emanuel understands economic policy — he’s resourceful,” Cochran said.
Cochran frequently sides with the mayor on votes in City Council, but held back on endorsing Emanuel during the heated runoff with Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
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