Isolated Chicago communities secure money for a coveted transit project before Trump takes office
CHICAGO– Adella Bass dropped her in-person college classes because it was just too difficult to get there from the far South Side of Chicago, where the city’s famous elevated train doesn’t operate. And it can take her almost two hours to get to the hospital where she is being treated for a heart condition.
But things are moving in the right direction, with bright red signs throughout the area boldly proclaiming, “Ready, Ready, Soon!” Next year, the city is poised to make good on a decades-old promise to connect some of the most isolated, poor and polluted neighborhoods to the rest of the city via public transportation.
The Biden administration notified Congress last week that it would allocate $1.9 billion for a nearly $5.7 billion project to add four new L stations to the South Side, Chicago’s largest expansion project. system in history. The pledge, which the Federal Transit Administration is expected to formally sign before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, essentially locks in current and future funding.
Yet Bas fears The administration of newly elected President Donald Trump might try to demolish it.
There are enough signs to reassure residents that the project is “an opportunity,” said Bass, who is raising three young children and dealing with health care issues affecting residents of a massive public housing development near her house on the South Side. “But with Trump you never know.”
The $1 trillion infrastructure plan Biden signed the law much more transit-oriented in 2021 than anything his predecessor advocated. That’s why there has been an effort to finalize some transit grants before Biden’s term ends, including commitments last week for rapid transit upgrades in San Antonio and Salt Lake City.
Yonah Freemark, a researcher at the Urban Institute, said Trump unsuccessfully encouraged Congress in his first term to pass budgets that eliminated funding for some new transit projects for which grant agreements had not been secured. But it is virtually unheard of for governments to reclaim projects after they have received final approval.
Steve Davis, who handles transportation strategy for Smart Growth America, said Trump could try to target future competitive subsidies there give priority to highway construction than alternative transport methods such as public transport. He said Trump’s Transportation Department could potentially delay some allocations of already approved infrastructure projects but would struggle to halt them completely.
“If you’re building a massive $2 billion road widening, you have to know that in the fourth or fifth year you’re going to run out of money and there’s nothing a hostile government can do to stop it,” Davis said.
One of the communities that would be served by a new Chicago L station is Roseland, a once-thriving, predominantly black business district that has fallen victim to manufacturing losses and a spike in crime.
Jervon Hicks, who spent many years in and out of prison on gun charges, turned his life around and eventually became a mentor to at-risk youth. The new station could speed the same transition for others, he said.
“Roseland needs a makeover,” Hicks said. “We miss a pet shop. We used to have a theater. Take some of these abandoned buildings and turn them into employment.”
In contrast to the busy “Magnificent Mile” shopping district on Michigan Avenue in the downtown Chicago Loop, the South Michigan Avenue business district in Roseland has fallen from an occupancy rate of more than 90% decades ago to about 10% today.
One of the remaining companies is Edwards Fashions. Owner Ledall Edwards hopes transportation will encourage more people to return.
“I don’t think it will reach the level it was in the 1970s, but I think the environment will improve because of accessibility,” he said. “You’ll be able to get people here. much faster in this area.”
Rogers Jones, who has run the Youth Peace Center next to the future train station for 30 years, said he can’t wait for the transformation.
“The community is going to change,” Jones said. “It will be a vibrant community and people are enthusiastic. I know I’m excited.”
Former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley told residents of Roseland and surrounding areas in 1969 that the L would eventually expand there.
Tammy Chase, a spokesperson for the Chicago Transit Authority, said the cost then would have been $114 million, compared to about $5.7 billion today, a figure that would continue to rise the longer construction is delayed.
The agency has hired a construction company, opened a Roseland office in a former paint store and started boarding up houses that will be demolished so the tracks can run through them. Ground is expected to break in late 2025, Chase said.
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, the top Democrat on the subcommittee that oversees transportation spending, points out that Chicago’s transportation system has survived wars and depressions. It can certainly also withstand a pandemic and a presidential administration with other priorities, he said.
“The big infrastructure projects stand the test of time,” Quigley said. “You have to adapt to it, these ups and downs, but you know the throughput always comes back. If transit doesn’t come back, it will hinder opportunities for the future.”