CHICAGO– Chicago officials had plans to reopen a long-closed elevated train station near the United Center more than four years ago. But repeated delays have left some residents wondering whether that would ever happen.
When the Democratic National Committee the city chosen to organize her congress.
Construction workers rushed to complete work on the Damen Green Line L stop this month before the deputies arrived, with most high-profile events for the home of the Bulls and Blackhawks, less than a half mile away. With embellishments like wooden ceilings, a colorful mural and a glass walkway overlooking the Chicago SkylineThe new station fills a 2.4-kilometre gap left when an earlier stop there closed in 1948.
“It was on schedule to be done, but the DNC got it done faster,” said Alderman Walter Burnett, who lobbied for the project for his West Side City Council district for years. “That helped tremendously, and I thought it was great.”
Cities may consider the possibility of hosting major events when prioritizing infrastructure upgrades, but they rarely embark on major projects simply to attract a political convention or entice their delegates. Speeding up construction, however, is a different story.
Victor Matheson, a professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., co-authored a study that found that the economics of hosting national political conventions are often “unrealistically high.” Still, he said, there’s “a lot of political will” to accelerate already-planned upgrades to impress out-of-town guests, even for an event that lasts just four days.
“The real question with these kinds of things is, if this is such a good project, why wasn’t there political will before?” Matheson said.
After the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, officials there concluded that the event directly brought $214 million to the local economy. But more than half of that amount went to telecommunications upgrades that the city would have needed anyway, Matheson said.
Milwaukee hosted the last month Republican National Convention and the pandemic-altered 2020 Democratic National Convention without any significant public infrastructure investments directly tied to it, city engineer Kevin Muhs said. It did, however, adjust the timing of some road projects earlier this year in anticipation of a citywide construction freeze during the RNC.
One of Milwaukee’s most politically divisive infrastructure projects is the streetcar known as The Hop, which extended service to the lakefront earlier this year despite objections from some Republicans who said it was a waste of money. But part of the city’s agreement with the Republican National Committee to host the convention stipulated that the service would be open to delegates, Muhs said.
Hosting the 2016 Republican National Convention was a key reason Cleveland accelerated construction of the airport, a large downtown park called Public Square and a hotel at the convention center, said David Gilbert, who was CEO of the local host committee.
“This was a city that had been through decades of hard times and was coming back,” Gilbert said, referring to the nearly 15,000 members of the national media who descended on Cleveland for the RNC. “It was a great way to show that we were ready to do this kind of thing.”
Many of the upgrades had already been completed a month earlier, when the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors for their first NBA championship, playing home games in the same arena. And the refurbished facility was back on the national stage that fall with the World Series, which the Cleveland Indians lost in Game 7 to the visiting Chicago Cubs.
During the press conference and opening ceremony at the new Chicago L station, officials made only passing mention of the Democratic National Convention and focused instead on helping underprivileged residents on the South and West sides with public transportation.
Still, Mayor Brandon Johnson closed his speech with a nod to the convention, declaring that Chicago was “ready to welcome the world… so this station comes at a perfect time.”
Commuters Take Action, a group that advocates for more reliable public transportation options in Chicago, called it “a little sad that it took hosting the DNC instead of the daily needs of Chicagoans to get this project across the finish line.” However, the group’s statement celebrated the station’s opening, encouraged attendees to use public transportation during the convention and advocated for more funding nationally.
Some residents who left Damen station by train on the first day wondered to what extent the conference had played a major role in bringing forward the festive opening.
“I don’t think it should be the main fuel for these kinds of projects. It should be the communities and the people who live in them,” said rider Angelica Arzuaga. “But I think it’s a win-win.”