Jalen Lewis

Roderick Sawyer was born April 21, 1963 in Chicago, Illinois. Roderick Sawyer is currently serving as the alderman of the 6th ward. Roderick comes from a family of politicians as his father is the late Eugene Sawyer who served as the mayor of Chicago.

Being that he is the alderman of the 6th ward he has been forced to deal with more violence than other aldermen. Sawyer has made it a point to reduce the amount of abandoned buildings in the neighborhood and making neighborhood friendly buildings. Sawyer was recently in the news for creating “The People Spot” which was designed to encourage people to be able to sit outside and hang out. Amaja Craft ‘20 said, “I think it is a good idea to try to make opportunities for people to hang out because in violence heavy neighborhoods it’s easy to not want to leave the house although through the bads there are positives in every neighborhood.” And more recently Sawyer was in the news for the opening of the Whitney M Young Jr. Library. Majority of what Sawyer does is in hopes of creating more opportunities to keep people off the streets and stopping the violence in the 6th ward. Ashley Razo ‘20 said, “It’s notable what Sawyer is doing and anyone that is trying to make a change should be recognized for their efforts.”

Sawyer is currently campaigning as his role as aldermen is currently up for grabs. For those of you that are able to vote I highly suggest for you to pay attention to the upcoming aldermen election later this month and in April. Keenan Jones ‘19 said, “Stop complaining about all these issues you have and you aren’t voting. The aldermen election is more important than the mayor. This is the election to pay attention to.” The aldermen are responsible for hearing the voices of the citizens in their neighborhood and are more able to fix neighborhood issues.