On a sunny afternoon last week, a couple of men walked into Jessica’s Western Wear, a large store stocking rainbows of cowboy boots in every type of leather, button-down shirts, wide-brimmed hats, and a variety of other clothes, shoes, and personal grooming items. They spoke in Spanish with owner Rigo Romero, 56, about getting some patches on their ripped, light-wash jeans. Afterward, Romero, who’s run the shop near the corner of Clark and Lunt in the 49th Ward for 25 years, said the alterations “keep the store open because the retail business has been so bad.”
Romero, who’s originally from Jalisco, Mexico, and has lived in the U.S. since 1979, said he’s not impressed by any of the candidates. Though his business has been in the ward as long as Moore’s been in office, he doesn’t feel like the alderman has done anything particularly beneficial and he doesn’t think much will change if he’s replaced.
I caught up with Morton at the banquet room of the Ethiopian Diamond on Clark Street—the restaurant recently lost its liquor license and had a Joe Moore sign in the window—as he was setting up for a monthly job fair he’s helped organize over the last year, dressed in gray slacks and a utility jacket.
“His public meetings are a dog and pony show,” Morton said of Moore. “I haven’t seen a regular weekly ward night that’s not interrupted or that’s not cherry-picking who he would like to speak with personally.”
The woman from North Lawndale looked stunned. “Wow,” she said, in disbelief. “I think that’s incorrigible. I did not know that!”
I asked how things were going with the Target construction. Elizabeth shrugged and pointed out the sidewalk closure. To go north on Sheridan people coming from Devon have to cross six lanes to the other side. She said it was particularly inconvenient for Caroline Hedger residents in wheelchairs and with walkers or canes. “Usually the construction is such so there are pedestrian walkways and people aren’t inconvenienced,” she said. “Here the priority is for the developers to get whatever they want. Especially if they’re contributing to [Moore’s] campaign fund.”
