Efforts to reconnect the West Side and fix Blue Line slow zones discussed at Chicago Mobility Collaborative meeting

This post is sponsored by the Active Transportation Alliance.

The Chicago Department of Transportation held its third quarterly Chicago Mobility Collaborative meeting yesterday at DRW College Prep, 931 S. Homan Ave. A main topic was the Reconnecting the West Side project to improve transportation links in communities that were divided by the construction of the Eisenhower Expressway, aka I-290, which began in 1955.

There were welcoming remarks by CDOT Commissioner William Cheaks, and then there was a fishbowl discussion with multiple panelists. The department described this as “an opportunity for community leaders and stakeholders to share personal reflections on the West Side, discuss the lasting impacts of historical planning decisions, highlight community strengths, and identify hopes and priorities for a more connected and equitable future.”

Participants included Dionne Baux-Jones, Executive Director of the Foundation for Homan Square; Jay Simon, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Jones Corner Store Agency; Drea Slaughter, Executive Director, Garfield Park Rite to Wellness Collaborative; Emone Moore, Engagement Coordinator at Austin Coming Together; and Rochelle Jackson, North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council Chair.

A frequent topic of discussion during the fishbowl was community members being displaced and disconnected. Jackson talked about how bus routes were redistributed, bridged, or cut off after the ‘80s, after mentioning that, as hard as it may be to believe now, all buses used to run 24/7 in Chicago. The panelists were asked about was the the impacts of the construction of the Eisenhower, nicknamed the Ike.

“It literally created an island separated from the rest of the community,” said Moore. “Not only the transportation barriers, but it’s a problem where even those residents have access to the resources that other parts of the community have access to, even with sharing information. So, part of our work is to literally bring more connectivity from the island to the rest of the community. We see that that’s our work on a day-to-day basis, and every day we were working around those problems.”

When the Fishbowl was over, the attendees separated into three breakout groups. Table 1 was called “Moving through the West Side: Mobility & Connections.” From there, Table 1 was split up into even smaller groups to talk amongst themselves and answer questions relating to transportation. Upon reconvening, topics that came up were accessibility to transit, interconnectivity, improving service, transportation costs, time cost, and traveling with disabilities.

An attendee named Amanda said she came to the event from the South Side because she wanted to see how it was being run. She added that she thought the meeting was good overall, but wished there was a better turnout – it seemed like most of the people there work for CDOT, and there were relatively few civilians.

“People really want safe transit, and they want reliable transit that serves them,” Amanda said. “I was surprised people didn’t care that much about how fast it was, but they want there to be a wide network of safe access more than they talked about how fast the transit was, which is interesting.”

James Anderson is the Director of Communications for the High Speed Rail Alliance, volunteers with several advocacy organizations, and often attends CMC meetings. He sat at Table 1, and said Blue Line Forest Park Branch slow zones were a hot topic. Earlier this month, the CTA board approved an agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation to address this problem.

“If the Blue Line ran at full speed, I think a lot of people would be much more satisfied with their transportation options on the West Side,” Anderson said. “With the Blue Line being in such deteriorated condition, it is virtually unusable, and so you might as well just take it off the map, like it’s not even there.”

“There were enough CDOT people here that I hope they bring some of the concerns expressed here back to headquarters as they make their plans and establish their priorities,” Anderson added. “I hope they take into account the concerns that were expressed here today. Nothing happens immediately just because there was a meeting. All of a sudden, everything’s not going to change. But when people are heard, it starts to figure into the plans and figure into how priorities are determined.”

CDOT Transportation Planner Ryan Richter is the project manager for the Reconnecting the West Side project. He said that the goal for the meeting was to listen to people and take their imput into account when the Eisenhower Expressway and Blue Line are rebuilt.

“We intend to continue these conversations over the remainder of the year, and really throughout the life of our project,” said Richter. “But the ultimate goal here is to really listen to the people in the community on the West Side, find out and make sure their voices get elevated, so that as IDOT does whatever they’re going to do with the Eisenhower Expressway and CTA rebuilds the Forest Park, that we are elevating the voices of our residents and providing direct input into their projects.”

CMC will hold the fourth quarter CBC meeting on Thursday, October 22, at Gordon Center for Integrative Science, 929 E 57th St.

If you appreciate Streetsblog Chicago’s livable streets reporting and advocacy, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our work. Thank you!