Community service office

It was once unusual for elected officials to maintain their own community service offices.

Most legislators and Aldermen simply slapped their names on the local political party office and gave their government-issued office allowance to the party organization (it was treated as payment for rent).

Both political parties wanted constituents to come to their offices for services, whether it was for local, state, or federal concerns. It wanted the party, not the elected official, to be identified with service delivery.

State Representative Joe Lundy was one of the few state legislators to maintain an independent community service office when he started his first term in 1973. He believed that people should not have to visit a partisan political office to get services.

The full-time, staffed office in his Evanston/Chicago district was located at Howard and Clark Streets.