AUSTIN — As a now former Chicago Police officer, Ald.-elect Chris Taliaferro intends to bring a beat cop's state of mind to the City Council.
Taliaferro was a sergeant in the Grand Central district, which stretches into northwest Austin, before winning election in last month's runoff against incumbent Ald. Deborah Graham (29th).
Yet as he prepares for the inauguration Monday, he said this week that he's not coming in to change the city's laws in the council, but simply looking for them to be observed and enforced in the neighborhoods.
"I think we have to enforce what we already have," Taliaferro said. "We have existing laws on the books in regard to our businesses that need to be enforced and would help make our community better."
Taliaferro pointed to something as simple as loitering.
"We have a lot of loitering in front of businesses," he said. "Businesses are allowing young adults and the youth to stand out on the corners in front of their business. That brings down the community, and it brings down the value of the community. It takes away from community pride."
It's an approach Police Supt. Garry McCarthy has called "broken windows," improving communities by paying attention to small details, and Taliaferro said it can work to "reduce some of the violence," thus "rebuilding our community from the ground up again."
Looking ahead, Taliaferro said, "I certainly hope to see that in four years we've made really good strides in reducing crime in our community, particularly violent crime.
"Also, in four years, I'd like to see our community more economically developed, bringing in viable small businesses," he added. "We could be thriving a lot more."
He said one follows the other, and that people need to feel safe to shop locally, just as business owners need to feel secure to invest in Austin, even just in the basic staples of a neighborhood.
"We have very few gas stations," Taliaferro said. "We have no supermarkets of significant size. It's a food desert, in my opinion."
Taliaferro said he wants to "bring in businesses that will grow with the ward."
If Taliaferro sounds determined at pounding a beat, it's in part because that approach served him well on the campaign trail as well. In the Feb. 24 election, Graham got 40.6 percent of the vote to runner-up Taliaferro's 22.5 percent. Yet Taliaferro galvanized the opposition to get 51.7 percent in the runoff to Graham's 48.3 percent, winning by 440 votes.
"It was just basic campaigning," Taliaferro said, crediting the work of his staff and volunteers as "people who are passionate about the Austin community."
He kept working as a cop right up to his election, while taking all available vacation days.
"We didn't do anything special," he added. "We really ran hard knocking on doors. I think we ran a grassroots campaign."
According to Taliaferro, the "general consensus" in Austin was that Graham wasn't serving the ward and its residents.
"Our message just resonated in the community," he said. "The community needed new leadership. They needed someone they can depend on and someone they can begin to trust in."
While Taliaferro said he'll be taking counsel from fellow Police Department alumni Aldermen Edward Burke (14th) and Willie Cochran (20th), he's also found role models elsewhere in the council in the Progressive Reform Caucus, which he'll be joining.
"The aldermen that are part of the progressives, if you look at each one of them, they're fighting very hard for their constituents, and they've placed the interests of their constituency first," Taliaferro said. "I think that's just good leadership."
At the same time, he added, he fully intends to work with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in that both have a stated interest in developing Austin.
"I understand the mayor wants to revitalize the West Side," Taliaferro said, adding that the border neighborhood can potentially draw shoppers from the suburbs instead of vice versa. "Why not bring these suburban dollars into the city?" Taliaferro said.
"I'm very passionate about making sure that our community is revitalized, and the spirit of our community and our ward is rejuvenated," he added. "I certainly can see, four years from now, a better 29th Ward."
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