James Cappleman

Early life and career

A native of Houston, Texas and the son of a United States Army physician and nurse, Cappleman was one of 8 children raised by his mother after his father's death. After completing a Bachelor in Education from the University of Houston, he taught in the public schools in Houston until 1982 when he moved to the Midwest to join the Franciscan friars. He remained in Chicago after he left the order. Cappleman graduated from the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago with a Masters in Social Work in 1991. He served two terms as Board President of the Uptown Chicago Commission, leaving the organization in 2010 to run for public office.

Political career

He previously ran for alderman of the 46th ward in 2007 against six-term incumbent Helen Shiller and was defeated, polling 47% in the run-off to her 53%. After Shiller announced that she would not seek a seventh term, Cappleman ran against ten other candidates in 2011 before winning with 55.5% in the run-off. In 2015, Cappleman won re-election with 53.7% defeating Amy Crawford in the run-off. He is a member of Budget, Ethics, Health, Housing, Licensing & Consumer Protection, Pedestrian & Traffic, and Zoning Committees.

As an outspoken LGBT advocate, Cappleman, along with the other members of Chicago City Council's LGBT Caucus and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, sought for the legal right for the transgender community to choose the bathroom of their choice, citing the unnecessary stress that they go through when they need to go to the bathroom. The ordinance passed in June 2016, right before the annual Pride Parade.

Ald. James Cappleman worked with Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky to encourage the City of Chicago to create a housing-first pilot project that housed 75 people living under 2 Uptown viaducts along Lake Shore Drive in 2016. After this pilot project was completed, the City of Chicago realized the need to create a process that would identify each homeless person receiving services in an effort to better track who was getting care and how efficient the process was to get them off the streets and into permanent housing. In May 2017, he was the lead sponsor of a resolution that called for the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the State of Illinois to collaborate together to create interventions to reduce prison recidivism, especially among those frequently arrested who have mental illness. With this resolution, Cappleman called for clear outcome measures that tracked the efficiency and success of the interventions provided. Uptown currently has 7 homeless shelters, which is more than what is found in any other Chicago neighborhood.

There was controversy surrounding a woman who was purchasing 100 pounds of rice each day to feed the pigeons, and Ald. Cappleman introduced an ordinance to increase the fines after considerable damage occurred on public property from the pigeon excrement. A farmer from Indiana later contacted the alderman about capturing the pigeons to take to back to his farm. Ald. Cappleman was accused of hiring the farmer although there was never any documentation that the hiring ever occurred and no funding to pay for this was ever found. Ald. Cappleman dropped efforts to increase the fine for feeding pigeons after community involvement had the woman ticketed many times. Afterwards, the woman continued her habit of feeding the pigeons in Ald. Osterman's ward. The woman was fined $3,000 for numerous infractions.

Personal

Cappleman is openly gay. His partner, Richard Thale, is chair of the 19th Police District's Court Advocacy Committee and a CAPS facilitator for Beat 1914. A couple since 1991, the two entered into a civil union on September 8, 2012 and married the following year in Washington State. Cappleman is one of five openly gay Chicago aldermen. However, Cappleman was the first gay individual to be elected initially, as Ald. Tom Tunney, who was the first gay Chicago alderman, was appointed a month before being elected in 2003.