ENGLEWOOD — Ald. David Moore (17th) doesn't like the term "Chiraq."
So much so that he blocked a city permit when filmmaker Spike Lee wanted to hold a block party for residents while he was filming a movie about the city's violence that will reportedly use "Chiraq" as its title.
But the newly elected aldermen insists he listens to the community first — so he dropped his objection to the party after going door-to-door and speaking with residents.
"I was told by many of the residents that they support the party, but not the name," he said. "Many of the residents also shared how much they appreciated me coming to them to seek their opinion."
Moore, 49, a longtime Englewood resident, said he has served the community for years. His ward consists of the Chicago Lawn, West Englewood and Englewood neighborhoods.
“When you’ve been doing this since you were 11, the people know you,” he said. “The people know David or they knew of David and my services. So as long as you’re serving, people take notice, and that’s what did it, they know that I’ve always served the community.”
Moore, who grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes, said he started going door to door in the 17th Ward as a boy with his uncle, an assistant precinct captain for the ward’s Democratic Organization. Moore later became a precinct captain himself and helped with voter registration drives as well as fighting problems in the area.
In his 20s and 30s, Moore worked with Henry McNeil Brown Jr., a local activist who went by the name of Mandrake. He was a part of a movement to shut down drug houses and whitewash billboards that marketed liquor and tobacco in the African-American community.
He co-founded the Citywide Coalition Against Tobacco and Alcohol Billboards. Moore also worked with Barack Obama, when he was still a state senator, and helped to organize meetings and find churches where the future president could speak.
Moore has worked in the private sector as an accountant and for the city's Department of Aviation and the Chicago Housing Authority. His current post is as coordinator of the faith-based Community Initiative for the Cook County Board of Review.
Moore is also an ordained deacon at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, 4543 S. Princeton Ave. His pastor, 90-year-old Rev. Clay Evans, has known Moore all of his life and said that Moore has always put the community first.
“I have nothing negative to say about him. He’s like my son and he’s a good man, he’s wonderful and intelligent,” Evans said. “He is dedicated to what he is doing and he has integrity.”
Moore said his new job allows him to keep helping others.
“What has changed? Just a title. It’s just a continuation of what I’ve always been doing anyway,” he said.
Like other underserved communities, the 17th Ward is battling issues with crime, economic development and affordable housing, Moore said.
He said he’s ready to fight.
“My job as the alderman is to fight as hard as I can with this position to ensure that the resources, services and strategic plans are implemented in my ward and not ignored,” he said. “All of this stuff begins with an active alderman who is going to hold the feet of the people that are responsible to the fire.”
Moore said he is working to decrease crime in the ward. Deloris Harris, the block club president for 80th Street and Stewart Avenue, said Moore is working with her to bring a CAPS Area Resource Team to her block.
Moore said such a team is created whenever a community wants to take back their block. He said it's usually formed when the entire block agrees to work to keep it clean and safe, as well as report anything suspicious, so that means working with the police, he said. It’s all about “maintaining” the good changes, he said.
After a shooting in June, Moore said he's been on Harris' block repeatedly.
“I’ve driven over there every single day,” he said, “when I get up in the morning and before I go to bed. I send someone else over there during the afternoon just to make sure that block is still clear, until we completely turn it around. Nobody is hanging out there and we’re going to keep it that way. It’s that type of engagement that helps reduce that crime.”
Harris said she’s willing to give Moore a chance. So far he’s doing well, she said.
“He’s trying to work with me on this block,” Harris said.
Moore also believes that more police officers are needed, but they must represent the community they serve. It’s important that more of them look like the communities they’re in and that they build a relationship with them.
Moore also said he is working to get Englewood's abandoned buildings off the demolition list so they can be bought by investors from the community.
He said he supports small businesses and he's focusing on helping entrepreneurs, working with different organizations and the city to connect residents to resources that will help them with micro loans and grants.
He said he wants to create a plan to stimulate economic development on the South Side that includes neighboring wards, working with Ald. Toni Foulkes (16th), Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th), Ald. Derrick Curtis (18th) and Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th).
When it comes to bringing change to the ward, he said everyone has to work together.
“My power doesn’t lay with me as an individual alderman, my power lies within the power of the people,” Moore said. “The people have the power. So as I educate and I go from community to community, block club to block club, I’m educating and giving the people and showing them how to exercise their power.
"I’ll fight on the front end but if I get pushed back, I’ll show them how to fight on the back end.”
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
