Meet the useless alderman of Chicago's 46th Ward
Sometimes politicians expose themselves not by what they say, but what they don’t say.
Angela Clay, the freshman alderman representing Chicago’s 46th Ward, is one such public official.
Of the Chicago lakefront neighborhoods that border Lincoln Park, Uptown stands out as the one community that has successfully resisted widespread attempts at gentrification. Sure, gentrification exists there. Even leftist author and longtime Uptown resident Studs Terkel, who died in 2008, noted the contrasts of Uptown, as he spoke from his luxurious Spanish Revival home on Castlewood Terrace to Mother Jones.
“This street is a have street. This is Uptown, which I like. It is a have-street enclave in a sea of have-nots. Beware of that. Here I am, the romantic again, without feeling the pangs of it. I like Uptown for the United Nations aspect of it. Uptown has more people from different societies and cultures than any area in the country probably. However, only about 100 yards away, there are the have-nots. Am I aware of that? Yeah.”
Perhaps Terkel did not completely fathom the paradox, but when given the choice — or the funds — people choose to live in comfort.
The 46th Ward covers much of Uptown, as well as a bit of Lakeview. For decades, the ward, despite its racially diverse population, could be easily divided into roughly similarly sized factions who despise each other: Pro-development and anti-development. In simpler terms, the ward is now predominantly liberal or far-left progressive.
Moving ahead to the 2020s, you can say the conflict now features socialists versus non-socialists.
Helen Shiller represented the ward in the City Council from 1987-2011. An early community organizer and passionate foe of the war in Vietnam, Shiller gradually moderated some of her political positions in her six terms in office. Originally indistinguishable from a Marxist, eventually Shiller aligned more often with then-Mayor Richard M. Daley in her later terms. A shift that infuriated her far-left constituents, voters’ anger led to Shiller’s decision to retire in 2011 and she was replaced with James Cappleman. A moderate social worker who represented the liberal, that is, the development wing of the Democratic Party in Chicago, Cappleman was considered a reliable ally of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. He retired in 2023.
With Cappleman relinquishing the seat, it was then the leftists’ turn again. Taking Cappelman’s place was a leftist housing organizer, Angela Clay. She prevailed over Kim Walz, a onetime staffer for Congressman Mike Quigley. In her victory speech after prevailing over Walz, Clay remarked her aim in office was to ensure “Chicago remains the dopest city on the planet.”
Clay, in a 2022 interview with Jacobin, enthusiastically described Chicago’s leftist movement:
“I’m most excited to add to the people of color who are coming out of the socialist movement. I feel like as a young person of color, we just aren’t exposed to socialism under the banner of socialism. We are already taking care of our communities on our own when the city and the state do not come in to offer any help. And I want to be that bridge between young people of color and explicitly teaching them, you are already doing the work of socialism. It’s not something that is outside of your everyday life of taking care of the people most impacted by this heavy work.”
The Chicago Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) contributed $17,737 to Neighbors of Angela Clay, her committee, last year. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) was even more generous; the CORE caucus kicked in $55,000 to Clay's campaign.
While Clay is not as obnoxious as most of the DSA members of the City Council, such as Janette Taylor (20th) and Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), based on her remarks to Jacobin and her accepting of massive campaign contributions from the Chicago DSA, it's fair to call the 46th Ward alderman a socialist.
In many of her interviews, Clay discusses her origins. For instance: Her family roots in Uptown reach back 80 years and her first protest was over food quality at a CPS high school are frequently part of conversations. "I grew up just around a bunch of amazing neighbors," she explained to Ben Joravsky on his podcast last year, "who [for them] Saturdays were picketing days." When Clay was 22, she told Joravsky, she became "the youngest president of Voice of the People," a left-wing affordable housing group.
While being interviewed last year by Joan Esposito on WCPT’s Live, Local, and Progressive, Clay added other parts — to borrow a phrase from Joseph Campbell — to her leftist hero's journey. The 33-year-old’s path to public office includes jobs with the Shedd Aquarium, the Goodman Theatre, as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
She also mentioned to Esposito, "I am a small businessowner."
Is that so?
The WCPT interview aired the day before Greg Hinz of Crain's Chicago Business reported on COVID pandemic-era PPP loans Clay received.
Uptown Update carried excerpts of the article:
"A candidate in the 46th Ward aldermanic runoff has filed a revised statement of economic interest with the Chicago Board of Ethics after Crain's asked why she apparently failed to disclose nearly $42,000 in federal Payroll Protection Program loans to a hair-products firm she owned.
In a letter yesterday to Ethics Board Chairman Steve Berlin, candidate Angela Clay said she inadvertently disclosed financials on one newly formed company that she said paid her $9,000 as president, Saij, when she should have listed another that was formed earlier in 2014, Pink Ribbon Hair...
Clay's campaign website makes no mention of the companies she ran or what income she derived from them, terming her a ‘community leader’ who was the youngest president ever of nonprofit Voice of the People in Uptown."
That is quite odd.
Politicians try to be all things to all people, and there is nothing wrong with that. Beyond the political world, establishing commonality is used in sales pitches of all kinds. So then why didn't Clay talk about those businesses while a candidate for 46th Ward alderman in 2019 or 2023?
Days after his first piece revealing Clay received PPP cash, Hinz reported that in 2018 there was an $18,450 IRS lien against Clay.
Uptown Update posted a Kim Walz press release with eight questions for Clay, none of which were ever answered by the candidate or her campaign.
In her statement, Walz asked of Clay:
“1. Why does Clay refuse to provide media or voters proof of any of her businesses, including the Pink Ribbon Hair Company which received $40,000 in PPP loans?
2. According to an SBA report, the $40,000 in PPP loans that Angela Clay received were for a 'packaging and labeling company,' which Pink Ribbon Hair Company is not. However, there is another company called AC Scents (which shares a business address with her and her third company, Saij Corp, at 6028 South Wabash), which is a packaging and labeling company, according to an Experian report. Therefore, why is Clay receiving PPP loans for a business that is not a packaging and labeling company?”
A glance at 6028 South Wabash, which is quite a distance from Uptown, shows a smart-looking three-flat graystone on a modest residential street.
Seated for another podcast, Sessions with Symba, Clay had more of her life story to tell. In a 90-minute chat in 2021, Clay went to great lengths to detail the challenges of becoming a mother during the 2020 COVID lockdown. However, outside the burdens of motherhood, Clay says nothing — not a word — to Symba about any business struggles with Saij, AC Scents, or Pink Ribbon Hair during that time.
Odd, very odd.
The 46th Ward alderman has some explaining to do. Not just to her 55,000 constituents but to every federal taxpayer. Clay ran out the clock as the runoff 2023 runoff election passed, but her PPP and IRS stories are not “old news.”
Chicago has two major newspapers and many other well-read internet news outlets. They have investigative reporters working with them, right?
Now is an ideal time for Hinz to write a follow-up story on Clay for Crain’s.
Soon Clay and the other 49 members of the Chicago City Council will be voting on a municipal budget that will outline how billions of dollars will be spent.
We, however, have a couple more questions.
How were Clay’s PPP loans, which have been forgiven by the federal government, spent?
Has Clay’s IRS lien been resolved?
Here’s another odd thing:
As best as we can judge, Clay is the only member of the City Council whose ward office is closed for lunch daily. So, if you live in the 46th Ward and you need, let us say, a tree trimmed on your property, do not go there between 12 noon and 1 p.m.
Even Studs Terkel, that “man of the people,” would have objected to an alderman closing its doors for a lunch break.
Clay is not a good ambassador for Chicago; in fact, she is just awful. In the Joravsky podcast on which she appeared, Clay said of the city that has elected two black mayors in the last five years, “We still are one of the most racist urban cities on the planet, Ben.”
Not only is her office regularly out to lunch, so is Angela Clay.
