Joseph A. Moore (born July 22, 1958) is a former Chicago politician. Moore was first elected to Chicago City Council as the alderman for the 49th ward, which includes the majority of Rogers Park and portions of West Ridge, in 1991. Moore won re-election six times, before losing to challenger Maria Hadden in 2019.
Education and early career
Moore was born in Chicago in 1958 and later moved to Evanston, where he graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1976. He graduated from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois with a B.A in 1980 and earned a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law in 1984. From 1984 to 1991, Moore worked as an attorney in the City of Chicago's Department of Law, first in the department's Appeals Division and later in the department's Affirmative Litigation Division, where he worked to recover millions of dollars on behalf of the City's taxpayers.
1991 aldermanic election campaign
On November 6, 1990, 49th ward alderman David Orr was elected Cook County Clerk, creating a vacancy in the Chicago City Council until the 1991 municipal elections. Chicago's Mayor appoints replacements to fill short-term vacancies in the City Council. Orr supported Moore as his replacement. Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed Robert Clarke, a law associate of Illinois State Representative Lee Preston, the 49th ward Democratic committeeman. Moore was among the challengers to Clarke in the February, 1991 municipal elections. No candidate received a majority of the votes, requiring a run-off between the top two, Moore and Clarke, in April, 1991. Orr was Moore's campaign chairman. On April 2, 1991, Moore was elected alderman. Of eight incumbent alderman who were originally appointed by Daley to fill vacancies, Clarke was the only one to fail to win re-election that year.
Chicago City Council (1991-2019) Moore won re-election in 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and in 2015. In 2019, Moore lost election to Maria Hadden.
He was chairman of the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate, which oversees City housing policy and all transactions involving City-owned real estate. Moore also served most recently on the following City Council committees: Budget and Government Operations; Education and Child Development; Finance; Health and Environmental Protection; Human Relations; Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation; and Rules and Ethics.
Community Policing and Crime Reduction
Moore was a pioneer in the effort to bring community policing to Chicago. The Chicago community policing strategy involves residents and other City agencies working together to prevent crime and improve the quality of life in all of Chicago's neighborhoods. Under his leadership, the 49th Ward was selected as one of the first areas of the city to host a community policing pilot project, which resulted in a 54% reduction in serious crime over a 20-year period. Additionally, from January 1, 2013 to February 26, 2013, the 24th Police District, which includes Rogers Park and the adjacent Chicago neighborhood of West Ridge, was the only of Chicago's 22 police districts in which no one was shot. Overall, Chicago Police Department data shows the rate of all reported crimes in the 49th Ward has decreased by 48% between 2003 and 2018, 4% more than the overall decline in crime across the entire city of Chicago during the same period.
Living Wage and Community Business Growth
Moore gained national renown as a leader in the fight for living wages when he sponsored the landmark 2006 Chicago Big Box Ordinance, which required large retail stores to pay their employees a wage sufficient to keep a family of four out of poverty. The ordinance was a precursor to Chicago's minimum wage ordinance, which guarantees all workers in Chicago a wage of at least $13 an hour indexed to inflation.
Moore has also made it a priority to encourage entrepreneurs to open up new restaurants and businesses in his Ward. In 2007 Moore launched an initiative dubbed "follow me on Fridays" in which Moore encourages his constituents to join him at a local restaurant, pub, or festival twice a month after work on a Friday to promote local businesses and entrepreneurs in his Ward. The events have grown in popularity and have facilitated a recent surge in private business growth in Roger's Park.