
Headshot Photographer: Denver Smith
Belia Rodriguez never planned on running for the Chicago City Council. Even when encouraged by friends and associates, she pushed back, worried that she would have difficulty balancing the needs of the community and her thriving small business.
But she was also increasingly uncomfortable with the neighborhood’s direction in the wake of the “triple whammy” brought about by the pandemic, civil unrest after the murder of George Floyd, and the sharp political left turn under the leadership of the new Alderperson who talks a lot about consensus but who always seems to side with a core group of far-left ideologues.