Mayoral hopeful Mendoza discusses “one of my dreams,” extending the riverwalk to Chinatown and Little Village
Here’s one more post about Chicago mayoral candidate Susana Mendoza‘s event at City Club of Chicago last week. I’ve already discussed her comments about traffic safety projects and how to improve the CTA. But during her speech, the present Comptroller of Illinois, ex-state representative, and former City Clerk of Chicago, also had an interesting public space proposal: expanding the beloved Chicago Riverwalk south and west to Chinatown and Little Village. Here’s a transcript of what she said to the crowd, edited for brevity and clarity.
“I’m gonna like lean into one of my dreams, and that is to grow beyond the current Riverwalk,” Mendoza said. “Why? Because it’s transformational and brings a whole city together. And it brings a whole world to Chicago. And when I was at [the Chicago Department of Planning and Development], Annie [I didn’t have any luck making out the surname] was the the brainchild behind Riverwalk. And I know this because Annie was dyslexic – and she’d be okay with me saying this. And I wrote every single one of her white papers and her policy papers on the Riverwalk. Nobody knows that project better than I do.”
“And [then-mayor Rahm Emanuel] was so smart about how we did it, because he leveraged a [$98.66 million] federal loan that [Obama administration U.S. transportation secretary] Ray LaHood did when he was transportation secretary,” she continued. “And we have paid for that entire riverwalk with the $3 surcharge that’s added to every time you go on one of the boats, you’re enjoying your time on the river, whether it’s on one of the Chicago’s First Lady vessels, or it’s on a kayak. That’s how that whole entire project was built out. It was visionary. It was financially smart, and that’s the kind of leadership that is going to bring.”
But it’s also brought the world to Chicago,” Mendoza added. “How many of you, by a show of hands, have taken a cruise on the river? How many of you, more importantly, when you’ve had people visiting Chicago, have taken them on a cruise at the Riverwalk? Yes, and it is the most perfect way of showcasing our city.”
“Now imagine extending that Riverwalk into Chinatown, into Little Village, and getting the communities connected to the downtown,” she said. “That is a transformative project that I’m going to lean into. I’ve been thinking about this for years, and we could do it in a culturally magnificent way.”
“I’ve been to China,” Mendoza continued. “I’ve been all over the world, and imagine in our Chinatown, not just having it be a water taxi, which is a lot of fun and cool, but like building out the Chinatown Riverwalk, not just with Ping Tom Park, but with cafes, like what we see downtown. And then the vessels would be culturally significant to things you’d see in Asian countries or China specifically.”
“Take it into a little village where it could be like Xochimilco,” she said. “Has anybody here been to Xochimilco in Mexico? [The canal system is] amazing, and it’s a huge tourist attraction in Mexico City. And we could do culturally significant rides down there, while you’re using the big [boats] downtown. But then there’s more for people to see, and it’s a way to connect the neighborhoods that I am so attached to, to the downtown and the business community.”
“We need a mayor who’s going to think visionary,” Mendoza concluded. “Who’s going to build big, dream hard, but actually put action behind those dreams. Because without action, we’re going to have a lot more hallucinations. And that would be bad.” The crowd applauded.
Of course, such a riverwalk endeavor would be a lot easier said than done – just extending the riverwalk about a half a mile from State Street west to Lake Street several years ago cost about $100 million. It would cost exponentially more than that in today’s money to extend the path multiple miles to Little Village. I’d also hope that – unlike the recent riverwalk expansion – the new route would be bike-friendly. But as Daniel Burnham said, “Make no little plans…”
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