What types of transportation do you use during an average week, and how has this shaped your view of transportation policy?

I mostly bike, ride the CTA, or walk. Personally, I prefer not having a car. It's not a lifestyle for everyone, but for me I really enjoy getting around town by bike or train. I look at the city and it's roads in a way different from people who drive. This different view is especially apparent when seeing the routes a car driver would take as compared to the roads I would take to get to a place - they take the route with more cars, I take the route with fewest turns and least amount of traffic.

I believe that everyone should travel in various modes of transportation, just to get a sense of how other people traverse the city and its environs.

What are some transportation challenges in your district?

I live in Edgewater, but I am sure many parts of my district in the city will agree - traffic and parking are problems - too much of the former and not enough of the latter.

Zooming out a bit and looking at the whole Ninth Congressional District the three biggest issues are aging infrastructure, lack of funding, and traffic congestion. In Congress, I would ensure that our Congressional District would get funding in order to fix the roads and plan for growth.

How do you view Congress’s role in setting priorities for public transit, passenger rail, and strengthening accessibility in transportation?

Abraham Lincoln said that "the legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but can not do at all, or can not so well do, for themselves". I believe that infrastructure and transporation is something that the government must provide, because individuals cannot do this well enough for the community.

I live in the area where the CTA Red-Purple Modernization projects have just completed Phase One - Uptown/Edgewater. This, plus the recent change in zoning laws along the Broadway corrider, provide a strong foundation for much needed growth in Chicago. Congress should support as much as possible with funding and work in co-ordination with local administrators to ensure that we build for now and the immediate future.

What’s your position on the Federal government and Illinois’ current transportation infrastructure spending, and if you could change anything, what would it be?

Transportation infrastructure is woefully underfunded. Chicago uses a particular method to create funding for many transportation infrastructure projects, setting Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts. In fact, Chicago might have as many TIF districts as the next nine largest U.S. cities combined. TIF districts need to be designated as areas that are "blighted, deteriorating, or in need of development". Chicago has been abusing that definition. TIFs are sometimes called a "secret propert tax". Specifically, I would propose legislation to fund infrastructure projects and tie that money to the removal of TIF districts that are clearly not designated appropriately.

A timely report in the Chicago Tribune this week writes "Cook County misspent hundreds of millions of transportation dollars". Apparently Judge Conlon this week said Cook County "violated the Safe Roads Amendment" in the county's use of several million in transportation tax revenues. With continued misuse of federal spending by localities, I think that we need better oversight that the monies sent by the US Government is spent on the intended purposes using local labor.

What is your position on investing to expand passenger rail service in Illinois, including the development of high-speed rail?

I am 100% behind supporting and investing into train service. Chicago is in the center of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Midwest Regional Plan. We have a particular advantage in Chicago being the nation's railroad hub; as the FRA states, Chicago is at the center of a reimagined transportation system.

Current high-speed rail projects have been a political punchline due to the inability to reach these milestones of these projects - always late and over-budget. That would not happen in the midwest. With Illinois working with Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan we can build the high-speed rail system to be a model for other regions in the United States. From St. Louis to Detroit through Chicago, businesses will want to join the industrial heartbeat of America.

Federal funding for Illinois transportation projects – such as the Red Line Extension and Red-Purple Modernization projects – has come under threat from the Trump administration. How do you plan to shore up funding for critical infrastructure projects under a hostile federal climate?

Congress as a whole, for years, has abdicated its responsibilities. Partly due to political expedience and partly due to polarization. I truly believe that I can get the better part of 435 Representatives in Congress to work together to solidify the Article 1 powers bestowed to the Legislative branch. This mid-term election in particular is going to have a high turn-over rate and the people I hope to be elected are going to work together to bring back many if not most of the Article 1 powers back to the Legislative branch.

My response above of creating better oversight of the distribution of Federal funds to go to the proper projects will not only ensure that the these projects are funded appropriately but also appease the people who are attempting to fight fraud.

Our streets have become increasingly militarized in the past several months as the Trump administration has ramped up DHS and ICE activity in our cities. This past summer, Congress voted to increase the ICE budget larger than most of the world's militaries.

What is your position on ICE and related immigration enforcement?

The day before Alex Pretti's death there was a forum at The Mather in Evanston. Here's what I said there:

In this one term, the most impactful thing I could do immediately is restructure the DHS - particularly ICE. Do not abolish ICE, disarm ICE - if they need armed escorts in Chicago, they can hire local authorities, people familiar with the area, have federal officials work in consort with local authorities. Many billions of dollars are on the table. Use this money to hire local translators, hire local mental health professionals, hire armed police escorts - the local police are the only people _trained well enough_ to be armed in these situations. Basically I want to take money from ICE to fund the police.

I didn't go far enough in this response to say we need to dismantle ICE and CBP and completely restructure the DHS.