1. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was born on February 18,1989 and is an American politician and the incumbent superintendent and CEO of the Chicago Park District.
43 Facts About Carlos Ramirez-Rosa
1. 2.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa previously served as Alderman for Chicago's 35th Ward from May 2015 until his appointment to the Park District in April 2025.
3.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is a self-described democratic socialist and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
4.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is a member of the Chicago City Council's Progressive Reform Caucus, and was elected as a delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention as a Bernie Sanders supporter.
5.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was an Illinois State Vice-chair for Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign.
6.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was born on February 18,1989, in Chicago, Illinois.
7.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa attended Chicago Public Schools and graduated from Whitney M Young Magnet High School, where he was his senior class president.
8.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa graduated from the University of Illinois in 2011.
9.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is the nephew of Cook County Judge Ramon Ocasio III, and Chicanas of 18th Street author and activist Magda Ramirez-Castaneda.
10.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa's mother is of Mexican descent and his father is of Puerto Rican descent.
11.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was first elected the alderman of the 35th ward on February 24,2015.
12.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was easily re-elected to a second four-year term on February 28,2019, and to a third term on February 28,2023.
13.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is one of the council's youngest current alderman, one of the youngest aldermen in the history of Chicago, and one of the city's first two openly LGBT Latino councilors alongside colleague Raymond Lopez.
14.
In November 2019, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was one of eleven aldermen to vote against Mayor Lori Lightfoot's first budget.
15.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa first introduced the measure to remove the carveouts in 2017.
16.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa has proposed to downzone Milwaukee Avenue and the Logan Square, restricting the supply of housing and other development in the area.
17.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa thwarted the construction of a 60-unit apartment building on the lot of a vacant bakery.
18.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa supported the construction of a 100-unit, all-affordable transit-oriented development to replace a city-owned parking lot next to the Logan Square Blue Line station.
19.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa argued these ordinances would help preserve naturally-occurring affordable housing.
20.
In 2020, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa supported the legalization of accessory dwelling units in much of his ward.
21.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa has supported historic preservationist efforts in his district, including the allocation of $250,000 in public landmark funds to help restore Logan Square's Minnekirken.
22.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa has consistently expressed his belief in participatory democracy as central to his work as a democratic socialist elected official.
23.
In 2016, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa worked with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression to introduce the Chicago Police Accountability Council ordinance.
24.
In December 2017, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was the sole member of the Chicago City Council to support the No Cop Academy campaign, a grassroots abolitionist effort to stop the city from spending $95 million on a new police academy building and instead spend that money on education, after school programs, job training, and social services.
25.
In May 2018, after successfully delaying a vote on the new police academy, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was expelled from the Chicago City Council's Latino Caucus.
26.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was later readmitted to the Latino Caucus after public outcry.
27.
In 2020, in the wake of George Floyd protests, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa helped dozens of Black Lives Matter protesters recover their bikes which had been confiscated by the Chicago Police.
28.
In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa used his aldermanic office's resources to initiate and support neighborhood mutual aid networks, and to target support to communities most impacted by the pandemic.
29.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa's office distributed a bilingual newsletter to 7,000 ward households to provide residents with information on unemployment insurance and resources available to support them during the pandemic.
30.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa has advocated for the raising of Chicago's minimum wage to a living wage, and other measures in support of workers' rights.
31.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was a sponsor of the successful Fair Workweek ordinance to provide hourly-workers with stability in their work schedules.
32.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa sponsored the ordinance to raise Chicago's minimum wage to $15.
33.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa worked to create a municipal Office of Labor Standards to protect Chicago workers.
34.
On October 4,2018, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was arrested at a Fight for $15 protest outside McDonald's global headquarters in the West Loop.
35.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was arrested alongside striking workers as they blocked the entrance to the building in an act of civil disobedience.
36.
In 2017, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa sponsored and passed an ordinance to designate Kedzie Avenue in his ward as "Lucy Gonzalez Parsons Way," in honor of the late labor organizer and founder of the IWW union.
37.
In 2016, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa sponsored a successful measure to ensure transgender persons had the right to access the public bathroom of their choice.
38.
On November 7,2023, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa apologized to Mitts during a Chicago City Council meeting.
39.
In February 2025, Mayor Johnson announced his appointment of Carlos Ramirez-Rosa to become superintendent and CEO of the park district following the retirement announcement of Rosa Escareno.
40.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was later confirmed the same day of the appointment by the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners.
41.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa served as 35th Ward Democratic Committeeman from 2016 to 2020.
42.
In 2022, upon Quezada's election to the Cook County Board of Commissioners, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was appointed to serve the remainder of Quezada's term as 35th Ward Democratic Committeeman.
43.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa withdrew on January 9,2018, and endorsed Jesus "Chuy" Garcia that same day, citing his desire to not split the progressive vote in the Democratic primary.