Was it gerrymandering?

S&C Electric Company was important to the 50th Ward Democratic Organization and was a source of campaign contributions for one-time Alderman Bernard Stone.

It sat on the former site of the Bowman Dairy Company, between Ridge Blvd. and the Chicago Northwestern Railroad Tracks (now Metra), from Devon to Pratt. It slowly expanded over several decades, buying up residential properties on Columbia Avenue and along Ridge and Pratt, until it owned almost all of the land in that area.

Columbia Ave. was vacated and the area where the street used to exist became part of the company property.

In subsequent remaps, much of the eastern edge of the 50th was redistricted into the neighboring wards but the S&C property always remained wholly within the ward boundaries.

Some people would call that gerrymandering.

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