OAKLAND — Sophia King faced a big test as 4th Ward alderman on Monday night: Could she run a town hall meeting?
King is a month and a day into her role as the appointed 4th Ward alderman to replace Will Burns until a special election can be held in February and she’s trying to learn the ropes.
Monday night was the trial-by-fire that’s worse than any committee meeting or City Council vote, the neighborhood meeting that could easily be pulled in any direction or entirely derailed if the wrong person gets ahold of the microphone.
King faced it all for two hours, from routine sewer problems to questions about using her website to detailed comments about zoning.
She also was forced to confront head-on a lot of built up frustrations with Burns.
“If Ald. Burns office is breaking you in, I have a problem with that,” said Ezra McCann, pointing out that King had kept a lot of Burns' former staff.
Many asked for her to counter the perception of Burns and hold more public meetings about projects in a way that made residents feel they could better influence the decision of the alderman.
“Over the past six years under your predecessor, we were shut out,” Marc Lipinski said. “It’s been a process where the University of Chicago does our planning for us.”
King she would be doing a lot of listening, a refrain she repeated during the meeting.
“It’s my style to get as much input as I can and then make a decision,” King said.
She handled the questions without exasperation or flippancy, but it was clear people were not going to readily accept a political unknown appointed by an unpopular mayor.
King started the meeting having her close friend Robin Robinson, a former news anchor on Fox Chicago, interview her on the stage of the Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, 700 E. Oakwood Blvd.
King talked about her diverse upbringing and career in education and her efforts since to start her own paint-your-own-pottery bar on 53rd Street and a nonprofit, Harriet’s Daughters.
She was interrupted by people eager to ask questions and anxious that her friendships with those in power, including Barack and Michelle Obama, would mean she was a rubber stamp for entrenched interests.
“I’ve never been a rubber stamp for anybody,” King said. “I’m probably the antithesis of that.”
But those questioning her in the audience were asking her to prove it.
“I will have eight months of working and then you will see for yourself,” King said.
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