Trump-friendly Urban Center CEO Rangel tips his mitt: A year ago, before the Archer safety plan was finalized, he was already encouraging Zuno to run against Ramirez
Note: Streetsblog Chicago does not make election endorsements. But when politicians an lobbyists try to use potentially lifesaving safety infrastructure as a wedge issue to win votes, it’s our job to shine light on that.
If you read excerpts from the video interview I did with 12th Ward aldermanic hopeful Claudia Zuno on December 15, 2025, two months before she announced her candidacy, you might think it had never before occurred to her to throw her hat into the ring.
It was the second of the weekly “Archer Guardians” demonstrations against Brighton Park’s Archer Avenue traffic safety project. They’ve taken place during nearly every Monday PM rush for almost six months, in front of or near progressive incumbent Ald. Julia Ramiez’s (12th) office. She supports the initiative, as do the counter-protesters who have showed up since the December 8 debut, and have consistently outnumbered the opponents in recent months.
Granted, in the press release for the December 8 debut demonstration, Claudia Zuno was quoted calling on Ald. Ramirez to “remove these concrete bike lanes, now,” although Zuno was described as simply a “community resident.” The releases were provided to TV stations by the “moderate to conservative” pro-charter school lobbying group Urban Center, which also sent out mass texts to promote the event.
And, sure, at the first rally on December 8, Zuno posed for a photo by a sign reading, “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Julia Gotta Go.” That implied that not only did the demonstrators want the safety infrastructure removed, they were calling for the current alder to be defeated in the upcoming February 23, 2027, municipal election. Standing next to Zuno was protest co-organizer Eva Villalobos, who ran as a pro-charter CPS board candidate in 2024, receiving tens of thousands of donations from Urban Center, and an endorsement from the Chicago Republican Party.
If you’d observed all this, as I had, it would be natural to assume that aldermanic politics were afoot. Moreover, I got a tip that Zuno was already planning her campaign against Ramirez, with support from Urban Center. But when I asked her about that at the December 15 rally, she played coy.
Here are a few key exchanges from those clips.
John Greenfield: [Before I understood who she was.] Are you running for office?
Claudia Zuno: No I’m not.
[Snip]
JG: [After I realized I was talking to Zuno.] I’ve heard you’re running for alder.
CZ: I have not announced a run for anything.
[Snip]
JG: I’ve been told that that Urban Center is backing you for running for alder against Ramirez.
A Rangel Facebook post after Zuno held her campaign launch party on February 16, emphasis added.
CZ: Right now I’m just talking about this [Protesting against the Safe Streets project.]
[Snip]
CZ: No one’s backing me for anything, because I have not announced for anything. So there’s nothing to be backed about. If I announce to do anything, you will be one of my first people to tell. You know what? That’s not a bad idea.
[As it turned out, when Zuno announced her campaign at a February 16 event, after our reporter told a staffer he was writing for Streetsblog, the staffer escorted the reporter out the door.]
Here’s one more segment from the interview.
JG: Do you know who… runs Urban Center currently? It’s a guy named Juan Rangel [who] got fired from [his job as CEO of UNO Charters] because of allowing grants to go to relatives of top executives from UNO.
CZ: OK, what does that have to do with this [Complete Streets issue]?”
JG: Well, he’s got a sleazy background, and he’s doing sort of sleazy techniques here.
CZ: Our politicians have sleazy backgrounds. That still doesn’t make this [project] right.
JG: [Laughs.] Well our politicians haven’t had to give $10,000 [in fines] to the Securities Exchange Commission.
CZ: Look at who we have in the white house. [Donald Trump.] Are you serious?
JG: [Laughs.] Well, I agree with you on that.
CZ: He got elected president twice, and he’s a sleazebag.
In contrast, Rangel doesn’t seem to think the Creamsicle-colored criminal is a creep. He wrote a very flattering Tribune op-ed about the 2024 presidential victory.
Speaking of the Tribune, on Memorial Day, reporter Jake Sheridan published a longform piece on the Archer and Grand Avenue in West Town Complete Streets debates. You can read my thread with immediate reactions to the article on Bluesky and Twitter.
But one passage from Sheridan’s piece really caught my eye. Trump-friendly Rangel spilled the beans about just how long Zuno considered running for alder against left-leaning Ramirez before she stood next to that “Julia Gotta Go” sign on December 8.
Again, Zuno’s not MAGA. But in addition to being anti-Complete Streets, she has a campaign promise to bring back controversial ShotSpotter gunfire detection tech, which is a relatively conservative position in this city. And she’s also allied with Chicago’s most ICE-friendly City Council member, Ald. Ray “Showpez” Lopez (15th).
![What Trib said when I asked for retraction of “[SBC is] demonizing anyone who dares to oppose their views as members of the ‘right-leaning political class.'”](https://chi.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2026/05/Screen-Shot-2026-05-11-at-3.37.22-PM.png?w=1024)
After ranting against the Archer project, and Complete Streets in general, for nearly ten minutes at the February 9 Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee meeting, Ald. Lopez immaturely left the room before Ramirez had a chance to respond. But on his way out, he greeted Zuno. A week later, she announced her candidacy against Ramirez. Image from a video of the proceedings.
“Rangel… said he spoke to Zuno, a longtime family friend, about running for alderman about a year ago,” Sheridan wrote. So that was roughly May 2025. That would have been before the final Chicago Department of Transportation community meeting on the Archer initiative on June 16, which helped finalize the project. And it was approximately seven months before Zuno told me on December 15, “I’m not [running for office.]”
Technically, she didn’t lie to me. She hadn’t publicly announced her candidacy yet.
But it was a bit disingenuous for her to imply to me that she’d never thought about challenging Ramirez before: “You know what? That’s not a bad idea.”
On the other hand, Rangel’s statement to the Tribune was remarkably candid. It’s yet more evidence that the weekly Archer protests didn’t inspire Zuno’s Urban Center-backed campaign to defeat Ramirez. It almost certainly was the other way around.
After discussing the sketchy political machinations behind the Archer Guardians protests, I feel a timeline cleanse is needed. So let’s do a quick check in with the Southwest Side’s Complete Streets boosters.
“On Monday we held our weekly pro-Safe Streets rally,” co-organizer Alfredo Valladares Jr. told me. “The Archer Avengers [his nickname for the Guardians] were nowhere to be seen. I’m assuming it’s because they don’t get holiday pay. We held our rally, then went on our weekly ride from Brighton Park to the lakefront to enjoy the waterfront on such a beautiful day.”
Nice. That was just the kind of refreshing imagery I needed, after spending this afternoon thinking about smoke-filled-room-style Chicago aldermanic politics.
Read CDOT’s FAQ about the Archer / Kedzie traffic safety projects here.
Materials about Archer Avenue can be found here.
Materials about Kedzie Avenue can be found here.
Read Streetsblog Chicago’s writeup of Round 1 of the dueling Archer rallies, 12/8/25, here.
Check out our article about Round 2, 12/15/25, here.
Read SBC’s coverage of Round 3, 12/22/25, here.
Read our article about Round 4, 12/29/25 here.
Check our post about Round 5, 1/5/26 here.
Take a look at our assessment of Round 6, 1/12/26, here.
Read SBC’s post about Round 7, 1/19/26, here.
Take a gander at our article about Round 8, 1/26/26, here.
Check out our article that mentions Round 10, 2/9/26, here.
Peruse out writeup of Round 11, 2/16/26, here.
Read our article about Round 12, 2/23/26, here.
Take a look at our post about Round 13, 3/2/26, here.
View a couple of images from Round 16, 3/23/26 on Bluesky and Twitter.
Take a look at our post about Round 17, 3/30/26, here.
Check out a quick report on Round 19, 4/13/26, from the Archer project advocates here.
Read our report on Round 20, 4/20/26, here.
Read about Ald. Ramirez’s announcement of design changes on 4/24/26 here.
Read about the opponent’s morning press conference on 4/27/26 here. (The supporters didn’t hold a rally that day due to the possibility of severe storms.)
Read a short update about Round 23, 5/18/25 here.
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