Better Streets Chicago's third annual fundraiser, which took place earlier this month, was one of the major celebrations of passing Illinois' transit reform/funding bill. As such, it was a joyful event.
Still, there was a bittersweet quality to event. Its invite stressed the need for "defending our city from authoritarianism" and discussed "learning to navigate and respond to the darkness we face and how we can still win."
Several dozen people showed up to the gathering at Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro, 3905 N. Lincoln Ave. in the North Center community. After wrapping up a couple of Streetsblog posts early in the evening, I was a little late to the party. But I'm told Board President Scott Robin talked about the advocacy group's Community Blocks initiative, and Executive Director Kyle Lucas discussed the transit bill.
Soon after I arrived, BSC Strategy Advisor Alex Nelson talked about the group's Plow the Sidewalks campaign for municipal snow clearance which the City seemed to be adopting. But recently, frustratingly the program was indefinitely shelved. "By the time that pilot got developed, we felt like unfortunately, the mayoral administration had demonstrated they were no longer really going to fight side-by-side with us on this thing that they had ran on," she said.
"But we did, about one year ago, get a $500,000 line item in the budget for a pilot," Nelson added. "We're like, okay, that is money. We can work with it. And then we were thrust into, effectively, what is called 'legislative purgatory,' where we spent about a year basically just trying to get an implementing ordinance through City Council." She credited Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Chair Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) and Iris Postma, the chief of staff for the committee, for helping facilitate the measure.
"But unfortunately, the headwinds were just not in our favor," Nelson continued. "We finally were able to bring it to a vote, but unfortunately, it was sent to a joint committee, Pedestrian and Traffic Safety, but also Transportation. And the chair of the Transportation committee [Ald. Gregory Mitchell (7th)] is not an ally of ours, and made it as difficult as possible." A meeting time was moved from morning to afternoon, which meant some allies of the ordinance were not able to attend and vote for it.
"This also happened on the same day that Ald. Jessie Fuentes [26th], was arrested by ICE in the hospital," Nelson said. "She's on the committee, and just to give you a sense of like, what the mood of the moment was on that day, no one was thinking about Plow the Sidewalks. It was an 80 degree day in October where an alderperson had just been arrested by an authoritarian government. So the vote did not go our way. But what we can say is, now we have votes on the record, and we can hold people accountable. And with that said, winter is coming, baby. When the snow comes, people are going to be asking questions, and we control the narrative, so more Plow the Sidewalks to come."
Next, Lucas announced the Better Streets' 2025 Activist of the Year Awards for people who had volunteered with the group, particularly with a focus on transit this year. "When we're talking about canvassing, when we're talking about phone banking, when we are talking about creating an entire comedy show around public transportation, we have some people who have shown unbelievable dedication to this fight, and we really want to take some time tonight to honor them," he said.
The recipients included transit advocates Niall Aurora and Gibran Ghani, who were there in person, and "Save Chicago Transit: A Comedy Show" creator Ellen Steinke (also a Streetsblog contributor), who Zoomed in from Portugal. "Thank you so much for everything you've done for us," Lucas said. "Truly we could not be here without all of you."
After that, Lucas discussed how the Trump administration's immigration enforcement crackdown will be shaping Better Streets' work in the future. "We want to take a moment to acknowledge the moment that we are in, because these are unbelievably challenging times, incredibly scary times, as we are facing down the barrel of fascism, and not just on the precipice of it – it is here," he said. "And I want to make sure that we are abundantly clear, and you maybe haven't heard it much from us as an organization recently, and it's truly just we haven't had the capacity."
"But we want to make it effectively clear when we say 'You deserve better streets,' that means that you deserve to not be freaking kidnapped by the Gestapo off the streets", he added. The crowd applauded. "That means we shouldn't have secret police crashing into people and stealing them out of their cars away from their children."
Here Lucas teared up. "And to not be able to dedicate everything that we have into that has been really challenging," he continued. "But we knew that if we didn't focus on transit right now, that that meant someone else was going to have to. So we knew that we it was up to us to get it done."
"But I want to commit to you tonight that we are in the fight against fascism wholeheartedly," Lucas said. "And you see some whistle packs around here tonight, because we finally got some free time to make some ourselves. So we commit to you that we are going to be a part of this work to ensure that we are protecting our communities."
It was a moving speech. And of course, Better Streets did the right thing by focusing on making sure the transit bill crossed the finish line. Just like defending immigrants' rights, preserving and improving bus and train service for everyday Chicagoans is crucial for our city's future.
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