• Chloe Riley
  • Juanita Irizarry, who’s running for alderman in the 26th Ward, stands outside her childhood home in Logan Square.

The Logan Square Juanita Irizarry knew as a child is not the Logan of today. Growing up at the corner of California and McLean, she remembers the days when she regularly saw houses with fire damage—she says she’d later learn that banks had largely stopped lending in the area, and collecting insurance through arson was one way around that. Irizarry said she won’t patronize Bang Bang Pie because the name strikes her as insensitive. Shootings in that area used to be more common, in fact, her childhood neighbor Tito was gunned down not far from there.

Development—done ethically and transparently—is where Maldonado has most failed residents, Irizarry said.

Irizarry was recently endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union. She supports an elected school board (Maldonado does not) and in 2013, she joined with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, one of several community groups that opposed Maldonado’s decision to convert Ames Elementary into a military school.

Correction: This post was amended to reflect the correct amount of campaign funds Irizarry has raised.