According to the Chicago Board of Elections, Brian White, executive director for the Lakeside Community Development Corporation; Ben Myers, a local developer and longtime Rogers Park resident; and Blane Roberts, who worked on 2007 aldermanic challenger Don Gordon’s campaign, all filed by the Nov. 22 deadline.

Moore said in light of the last aldermanic election — when Gordon forced a run-off vote, then filed a lawsuit against Moore alleging fraudulent voting practices — he has made considerable efforts to return the 10,000 calls and e-mails from constituents he receives annually.

“Elections have a funny way of making politicians sit up and take notice, and my close call in the last go-around told me I had some work to do and some fences to mend,” Moore said at a recent rally.

Myers says that, as an experienced developer, lawyer, and lifelong Rogers Park resident, he was most frustrated with Moore’s vote on the city’s controversial parking privatization measure.

“They blew a billion dollars,” Myers said. “Joe gave it to the parking meter people. Joe has hurt this city terribly.”

Moore was one of 45 aldermen to vote for the parking meter deal, which leased the city’s meters to a private company in exchange for more than $1 billion.

Moore has since said he regrets voting for the deal. Along with four other aldermen, Moore sponsored an ordinance calling for public hearings on the deal’s implementation.

More recently, Moore said he wanted to make clear his actual achievements for Rogers Park. Doing so would serve to increase communication between government and constituents, he said.

“I have learned that communicating what you do in government is almost as important as actually doing it,” Moore said at a campaign rally. “And in the age of the Internet, there is no excuse for any elected official not to provide free and open communication with his or her constituents.”

“Building a community is about much more than bricks and mortar,” Moore said.

Regarding community building, White says he likes the idea of the Howard Streetscape project, which aims to re-invigorate the area east on Howard from the El station to Sheridan Road by updating the street’s infrastructure. White said he was troubled by the amount of time it’s taken to implement.

“The Dept. of Transportation’s website says that 25 streetscapes have been done, but it doesn’t say how quickly it would be done,” White said. “There’s two questions: One, ‘How long does it take to get done?’ And the other question is, ‘Who are you building for, and who is going to be attracted to this area?”

Janet Attarian, project director for Chicago Dept. of Transportation said the plans for improving Howard Street’s infrastructure have been in development for 10 years, but that funding was only secured recently.

The Chicago Transit Authority requested funds from the Howard Paulina Tax Increment Financing district in 2008. The City of Chicago Dept. of Planning allowed the funds to be used after Moore secured an agreement from the organization.

Cook County aldermanic elections will be held in Feb. 2011.

The proposal, dubbed the “Sweet Home Chicago” ordinance by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, calls for an increase of funds from the 158 TIF districts, from which an estimated $1.3 billion in revenue was generated in 2008.

Eithne McMenamin, policy analyst for the coalition, says that equates to about $500 million that could be used for affordable housing.

Mayor Richard M. Daley said in Wednesday’s special City Council meeting to present the 2011 budget that he would use TIF funds in order to plug the city’s deficit, which is at an estimated $655 million.

Only 4 percent of TIF funds are used for housing and rehabbing foreclosed properties, McMenamin said. The coalition wants that number increased to 20 percent.

The coalition estimates that had the ordinance been in place in 2009, nearly $100 million could have gone to affordable housing.

McMenamin, along with a handful of enthused coalition members wearing red shirts with “Sweet Home Chicago” written on them, attended last week’s full council meeting to rally support for the measure and to pressure aldermen into casting a vote on it.

McMenamin says the coalition wanted an alderman to file a motion during last Wednesday’s meeting to move the measure from the Joint Finance and Housing committee to the full council.

“It’s sort of an in-your-face move to [14th ward] Ald. [Edward] Burke,” McMenamin said. “We’re asking for more transparency, for more accountability, when it comes to building houses for the working-class families of Chicago.”

Ald. Burke chairs the Joint Committee on Finance and Housing, along with Ald. Ray Suarez (31st). Calls to both Burke and Suarez were not returned by press time.

McMenamin says 28 of the 50 aldermen say they support the proposal.

Robin Olson, an organizer with the coalition, said most of the TIF money goes to projects that wouldn’t be considered blighted housing—a requirement in the state’s TIF law—like renovating the Willis Tower.

“There’s a far greater need to make affordable housing. So take that extra TIF money that we do have and put it into immediate areas [that need low-income housing],” Olson said.

But some aldermen argue that TIF money should be used to balance the city’s considerable deficit.

Ald. Brian Doherty (41st), who opposes the measure, said, “We should crack the TIF and use the money to address the deficit we have now before we expand any other programs.”

While Doherty stressed he “wasn’t against anyone having a roof over their heads,” the alderman said he thinks a market-based approach, such as Section 8 vouchers, can create fair affordable housing.

Doherty said government housing drives down market prices, which can create unneeded conflict amongst neighbors.

“You get couples from my neighborhood, dads working two or three jobs, struggling to make it,” Doherty said. “And then you have another family who moves into housing subsidized by the government, and it creates a lot of tension. They’re like, ‘why them? Why am I working so hard?’”

Ald. Richard Mell (33rd),  a supporter, said after Wednesday’s meeting that a motion to discharge — bypassing the committee and taking a proposal to the full council – is hard to do.

“It’s difficult for a chairman to discharge a committee on another chairman. We have to coax them, and that’s where I’m trying to help,” Mell said.

Coalition organizer Sonovia Petty said the organization isn’t giving up its mission to get the proposed measure passed—no matter how many monthly meetings they have to attend.

“We want to let [the aldermen] know that we’re not going anywhere. We will be here each and every time,” said Petty.

Last month, Fresh Family Foods, a boutique grocery store from local restaurant chain owner Quentin Love, opened at 336 E. 95th St. in the Chatham neighborhood. Similarly, chains like Walgreens are expanding their services to provide produce for customers in several South Side neighborhoods.

Whether or not these clashing businesses will draw away customers from long-running grocery stores is yet to be seen. But for now, some old-timers say they aren’t worried.

La Casa Del Pueblo has been in its current location at 1834 S. Blue Island Ave. since 1960, according to store owner Nick Lombardi Jr.

So no matter who moves in or decides to expand, Lombardi said La Casa Del Pueblo will compete because of its successfully defined niche.

“We have a full line of Hispanic items. It’s been our mainstay for 30-plus years. There isn’t rocket science behind it. You take customer suggestions and then you get the items,” Lombardi said.

“We tend to have variety. You have to have a little bit of everything,” manager Eladio Corral said.

As customers scan the 15,000-square-foot store, filled with 45,000 items ranging from Mexican cola to fresh-cut cactus, Lombardi said a customer-based business model is key to success

Even though local stores remain constants in an ever-changing neighborhood, issues like gentrification still arouse mixed feelings amongst community leaders.

Raul Raymundo, CEO of community assistance organization The Resurrection Project, said gentrification is a “double-edged” issue. Communities do want development, Raymundo said.

“The question, though, is what kind of development,” he said.

Raul Hernandez, a member of The Resurrection Project’s board of directors, said he welcomes any new business as long as it contributes to the community.

However, Hernandez said, Pilsen residents are unlikely to make the trip to bigger stores in the neighborhood like Jewel because of their connection to local vendors.

Hernandez said small businesses compete in terms of price and quality of items like strawberries.

“It’s why the smallest stores in the neighborhood continue to exist,” Hernandez said.

For Pilsen families, local vendors are reliable presences in the neighborhood.

Sonia Zamora, president of the No Child Left Behind Committee at the Orozco Fine Arts & Sciences Elementary School, says she does not buy everything within Pilsen.

But Maria Rosa Martinez, the committee’s secretary, said groceries are often bought locally. Zamora, however, said families would shop at a larger store if prices were ideal.

“A big store would be a threat to small businesses because of the prices,” Zamora said. “But I think there’s enough business for everybody.”

Billie Jewell, a Pilsen-based musician, said she shops at La Casa as a supplement between paychecks until she can afford groceries at Target and Trader Joe’s.

Jewell said she doesn’t like shopping in the neighborhood since she and her boyfriend were harassed because of their interracial relationship. But she said La Casa’s modest prices — $2 for a package of Gruyere cheese, as opposed to $4 for Kraft elsewhere — is a reason for her continued patronage.

“There’s a give and take,” she said. “I’m really poor right now, and I need to eat. Basically, this is an OK place to come.”

Historic warehouses in Pilsen that would have been converted into low-rent workspaces for struggling artists were rezoned recently for a 200-room hotel with a restaurant and ballroom.

The Chicago Plan Commission unanimously voted to change the zoning at the W.M. Hoyt Co. building at 465 W. Cermak Road in the near Southwest Side neighborhood of Pilsen. Plans for the vacant building also include 78,150 square feet of retail.

Developer Raymond Chin, of R.M. Chin & Associates, Inc. said he was in talks with the Hilton chain as a potential client. Chin also said he planned relocate Chinatown’s Phoenix Restaurant, where he is a partner, over to the property to potentially fill space for the restaurant.

The Hoyt building has historical significance due to its role as a storage space for spices and other commodities during the beginning of the 20^th century.

Christine Raguso, acting commissioner of the Department of Community Development, said the rezoning was a natural fit for Pilsen despite the uncertainty in the current economic climate.

“It’s good for economic development, it’s jobs and it’s getting the land back on the tax roll development,” Raguso said.

Hector Saldana, of the Eighteenth Street Development Corp., said the project has the strong support of his organization.

Chin’s attorney, Rolando Acosta, said they would need to move South Grove Street, which is perpendicular to the Hoyt Building, before development of the property could begin. Acosta said the developer would move the street southwest so potential hotel guests have easier access to the hotel.

Chin said he is relying on a mix of private equity, loans and foreign investors to finance the project, which he said he thought of after visiting the neighborhood.

“I looked around and saw, ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,’” Chin said, adding that he saw the hotel as a benefit for traveling businessmen looking to travel to and from the city.

The four historic structures near Cermak Bridge, including W.M. Hoyt Co. Building, were recommended for development as a creative industries district, according to a 2007 study by ULI Chicago and the Campaign for Sensible Growth.

The study defined a creative industries district as an area that could include “cafes, arts supply establishments, storage and screening rooms,” in addition to artist workspaces.

Julie Burros, director of cultural planning at the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), said the city was not abandoning its plans to develop nearby property as artist workspaces and the two projects were not incompatible.

“Is [a hotel] what we would have picked for the space? Not exactly,” Burros said. “But we think that the retail will give creative people opportunities. We’re in favor of anything that draws investments to the area.”

Burros noted that while the the Department of Cultural Affairs was awarded a $250,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the department had yet to actually receive any money.

Accordingly, Burros said the city was just getting started on the Cermak Creative Industries District. The department hopes to have the development work completed in a year, according to Burros.

Ald. Danny Solis (25^th) was not present at last month’s meeting, but Fernando Espinoza, project manager for the city, said the rezoning had the alderman’s approval. The plans will now move to the Chicago City Council for voting.

Chloe Riley contributed to this report