Recently, Streetsblog Chicago's John Greenfield came across the blog post, "For $5.7 billion, South Side Chicago deserved far more than the Red Line Extension," written by Toronto-based transit advocate August Puranauth. [Puranauth uses they/them pronouns.]
Puranauth's thoroughly researched piece concluded that "The value of the Red Line Extension project seems dubious and insufficient to meet the transit needs of the South Side." They proposed alternative uses of the money that they said would provide better public transportation access to more of the Far South Side.
After John shared Puranauth's article in Streetsblog Chicago's morning headline stack, Chicagoan Andrew Wandyez reached out to us, objecting to the notion that the RLE project is of questionable value. He works at a chemical plant on 138th Street in the city's Riverdale community area, roughly a mile south of the Red Line's future southernmost terminal on 130th Street. Wandyez argued that Paranauth's post "misses the point entirely," because the extension will be vital for connecting many Far South Siders with education, jobs, retail, and other resources near existing Red Line stations.
Streetsblog was interested in also getting a perspective on this issue from someone who actually lives on Far South Side. Ms. Deloris Lucas, one of the region's most visible and vocal sustainable transportation advocates, was an obvious choice. A longtime resident of Riverdale's Golden Gate neighborhood, near the Altgeld Gardens housing project, and the leader of We Keep You Rollin' Bike & Wellness Group, she's been a passionate advocate for bringing rapid transit to the area. We discussed that subject, as well as efforts to get a sidepath for pedestrians and bike riders installed on highway-like 130th Street, which currently lacks sidewalks, plus WKYR's upcoming 10 Year Anniversary celebration.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Cameron Bolton: A transit advocate from Canada wrote an article arguing that for $5.7 billion, the Red Line Extension project is of "dubious value," and it would have been smarter to use the money for a less expensive project that would improve transit in a larger area of the South Side, such as a high-speed bus line on 79th Street. What's your response to that argument?
Deloris Lucas: Well, first and foremost, I'm not as much of a transit expert where I can compare what's going on in Toronto versus what's going on in Chicago. As for this person in Canada, their opinion, everybody's got one, and I think their opinion and ideas may be about ten years too late. The Red Line Extension has been on the books for years, and it's finally moving along. It will bring transit equity to the Far South Side, a location Chicago has overlooked in many ways, as well as with the transit system. We deserve it. We need it. It's coming, and I look forward to it. If you've studied some of the Red Line proposals, it will hit many neighborhoods and add a lot of vibrancy to the areas.
CB: That's cool. And when you talk of adding vibrancy to the areas, what are you looking forward to the most?
DL: The most? Wow, the [Roseland Community] Medical District. I want to see how that advances our community, giving us more value and adding medical attention. It may add more benefits, such as becoming a bigger medical area to serve Roseland and [the rest of] the Far South Side areas so that 115th is first and then last, end of the line.
I live a mere, I want to say, maybe ten blocks from the proposed [130th Street Red Line terminal] site. I'm at 131st and Vernon, and the end of the line is proposed to be at 132nd and Greenwood [about a mile away]. My main concern would be how CTA will connect my end of the community. There are three or four different communities that will need to get to the end of the line. So how will they transport us?
CB: What has been your involvement with advocating for and planning the Red Line Extension?
DL: I have attended as many meetings as I can to make sure some of these ideas are out there on record at the meetings. However, I know a lot of the concerns, like I had mentioned, about maybe a shuttle bus or rerouting the #34 South Michigan bus. Those types of concerns are handled by the transit planners. We need to be talking to them, not just the outreach representative. We need to go where the changes are actually made, and that way, the message is not lost. You know, some details could be lost when you're in meetings. Someone takes the minutes, they'll write it down, but does it get to the right department? We should also be engaging with the transit planners, and to my knowledge, we haven't. When I interact with some of the outreach representatives at the next meeting, I'll mention that to see if we could start some conversation regarding [bus connections to the terminal], or if conversations have already been had that I may have missed.
CB: How do you feel the project has progressed so far? Obviously, construction hasn't started yet. [Demolition recently started to make way for the rail line, and the CTA expects to break ground on construction of the extension in early 2026.]
DL: Well, on paper, and what they've told us, and what's out there is progressing. Fast. It was often mentioned, "Well, we expect to operate by 2029." Well, they said that seven years ago, which seemed so far off. Well, it's 2025, and they're projecting to be operating by 2030. That's a mere five years. That's pretty fast. That's pretty fast. The Red Line is moving. The train is moving. So hey, we're just gonna monitor it and ensure it comes to fruition, just like we planned. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to it.
CB: Any updates on the 130th Street sidepath project?
DL: The only update, the main update, is that we're actually getting together to plan the different stages that will come next, at different meetings. They call it community engagement and scope of work. That's what we're working on, and that way, we should get a lot of feedback fro the community on how they feel about this sidepath that's being planned for. It's gonna be a couple of years before it comes to fruition, but we are planning how to engage with Chicago through public meetings, community meetings, stakeholder meetings, and things like that.
CB: Are there any upcoming We Keep You Rollin' events I should mention in my article?
DL: We'll have our 10 Year Anniversary this year on July 26th [at Golden Gate Park, 13000 S. Eberhart. We will have a morning bike ride for the family that includes a car caravan, where we can do an eco-tour of the community. We've got six new murals. We've got over ten assets to show people all in the same area. When the bike ride is over at noon, we'll have lunch and celebrate with cake, ice cream, and group photos. And then, from one to three, we will have a wellness pop-up. The pop-up will be for vendors and medical entities that can come out and share the news with us.
The whole 10-year anniversary will be a tribute to cancer survivors and wellness warriors. The wellness pop up is from one to three. We will have a night bike ride, starting at 8 p.m. and going to 10 p.m. And we are seeking donations of all kinds and raising funds to buy a metal bike shelter. So that's the latest and the greatest from Ms. Lucas.
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