What do you believe are the greatest transportation challenges facing the City of Chicago right now?

I believe that the fundamental issue confronting transportation in Chicago right now is the decline in ridership on mass transport – and specifically on CTA trains – and the downstream effects of that on the viability and reliability of mass transit for those in the city who depend on it.. Without high levels of ridership on busses and trains, we cannot fund a safe, reliable, and serviceable mass transportation system that works for everyone in every community of the 77 in Chicago.

In order to solve that problem, we need a substantial investment in mass transit that makes it safer, more reliable, and more transparent about when and where there are problems. And given that these systems ultimately need to fund themselves to a large degree, we must make this investment now while it is still possible and feasible.

Do you or members of your family regularly use sidewalks, bike, take transit, drive, or a combination of any/all to get around? Does this correspond with your preferred/ideal modes of getting around? If not, what barriers do you and your family face in using your preferred mode of transportation?

Myself and my family regularly walk, drive, bike, and use transit to get where we need to be going. In my community in Hyde Park, we have good access to transit, but in many communities in the Fourth Ward that I have worked with for years, still face long walks through unsafe neighborhoods to access mass transit options. We can and must do more to ensure that the City of Chicago makes necessary investments in order to expand equitable access to mass transit.

Can you share a personal experience that changed your opinion about a transportation related policy matter?

When I was a child, there was nowhere I liked going more than my Aunt’s house. To get there I rode all the way down the red line from Evanston to the 100’s in South Chicago. From the windows of that train I fell in love with the city I would spend my life working in and trying to better.

Then, as now, the CTA makes up the arterial veins of our city. Our trains and buses carry workers to the construction site or the office, kids to their school, and fun-seekers to and from nightlife at all hours of the day. It was on that train when that first struck me, and it has never left. But now, it is too hard for workers to rely on CTA because it is unreliable.

Chicago is a snowy city, and even one stretch of uncleared sidewalk can make it impassable – particularly for folks with disabilities, the elderly, and parents with young children. What is your position on implementing a universal city-wide sidewalk snow/ice removal service?

We should certainly explore the feasibility of this initiative. In the interim we should continue to have residents and landlords remove snow on the sidewalks adjacent to their property. The city should then remove snow from city-owned lots and buildings as well as those of sidewalks who haven’t complied. This approach would be less cost prohibitive and help achieve total sidewalk clearance and make sidewalks more accessible for disabled Chicagoans in the winter.

It is now widely recognized and understood that interstate highways were used to physically divide urban communities from one another – often along racial and class lines. How do you propose we overcome these divisions to restore the urban fabric of Chicago and reconnect our segregated neighborhoods?

In the south side of Chicago, we know all too well how the so-called “urban renewal” programs associated with the creation of many of these urban interstate highways were intentionally designed to destroy black and brown communities, and to create visible permanent socio-economic barriers across the fabric of our landscape. We also know that because these inequities were intentionally created, we need to be intentional in how we tear them down.

To that end, we need to strategically invest in transit lines to underserved communities who do not have access to the opportunities the rest of the city has to offer. We need to oppose additional investment in these highways – as we know that they fail to truly address congestion problems due to the countervailing influence of induced demand. Instead, we should prioritize that money to create more reliable, safe, and frequent mass transportation which would both serve to reduce the congestion on the highways, as well as allowing us to make progress in reducing the negative impacts of those divisions on our communities.

What role do you believe transportation plays in Chicago’s collective greenhouse gas emissions, climate responsibility, and overall environmental health?

Transportation represents a tremendous opportunity for Chicago to tackle its climate obligations and ensure a liveable planet for the entire world. Dense cities are already some of the lowest per-capita emission environments in the United States, but by taking bold steps to drive increased riderships of mass transit and to ensure that mass transit operations are as clean and sustainable as possible we can create significant progress towards a truly sustainable energy landscape. In addition to those global implications, we can avert very significant and localized negative consequences for our marginalized and underserved communities. The long history of environmental racism within our country cannot be kept out of this conversation, as we recognize that reducing the emissions from busses, cars, and other forms of transportation can alleviate localized particulate matter effects and their severe health consequences.

What is your position on the Illinois Department of Transportation’s current proposals for rebuilding North DuSable Lake Shore Drive? Do you believe the proposed designs will reduce congestion, improve transit access and make pedestrians and cyclists safer? How do you think the current proposals will impact access to the lakefront?

While I believe that we need to continue to invest in our ground transportation network, we should do so with an eye towards the perils of induced demand and prioritizing pedestrian and bike safety. I have fought hard to ensure access to the lakefront for pedestrians in my ward, and will strive to ensure that we grow beyond this current plan.

What barriers do you believe the Illinois Department of Transportation presents to Chicago pursuing better safe streets design standards and transit investments? How do you plan to work with City Council, the Governor, and State legislators to overcome these barriers?

We know that the barriers to equitable transportation policy at the Illinois Department of Transportation – and indeed every Department of Transportation across the country – are high, strong, and intentionally constructed. We must work with all of our strength to undermine not only the physical infrastructure that creates barriers between our communities, but we must work with all the stakeholders from the local to the federal level to increase levels of equity in resources and funding allocations. To that end, I would ensure that the Mayor of Chicago returns to her traditional role as a convener to ensure that every department, every government, and every agency within our own government is leveraged to create safe streets for everyone in Chicago.

The 99-year parking meter deal enacted by former Mayor Richard M. Daley has been a barrier to enacting safe street designs by privatizing large portions of Chicago’s streets. What is your plan to address this?

To the extent that it is possible, we should reverse this decision. I will leverage the full weight and experience of the City legal department to reverse this decision and return as much of the revenue as possible to the city.

Studies show us that speed and distracted driving kill. What do you think are the most effective ways to reduce driver speed and increase safe driving behavior?

One of the safest ways to reduce the incidence of dangerous driving is provide real alternatives to driving where people, where people work, and where they want to go. By building greater bike lane infrastructure, increasing the reliability of transit, and building walkable communities we can take drivers off the road and reclaim our streets.

As the Alderwoman for the 4th Ward I have been on the front lines fighting against inequities in transportation on the South Side. We fought against the reduction of bus service lines in Bronzeville and restored Sunday services that had a huge impact on the elderly and disabled community.

We know that overall, connectivity within the city that links neighborhood to neighborhood, and each neighborhood to downtown, enables equity and economic vitality. Affordable and accessible public transportation connects to our jobs, our schools, entertainment, pharmacies, grocery stores, with our families. We have had a disparity of connectivity where much of the West South Side has been left out of this basic core community element. The pandemic impact on public transportation has been dire but as we address affordability and create more housing we can create new business corridors and density to increase accessibility and public transportation.

What is your position on the City passing ordinances that attempt to regulate the size, weight, and/or safety features of personal and private vehicles?

I believe that methods to directly regulate the size, weight, and safety features of private vehicles will not be successful at effectively shaping the marketplace for vehicles within the city, and will create significant legal and enforcement costs. However, attempting to make the city less deadly-friendly – such as eliminating parking spaces for oversize vehicles and creating a more intensively designed motor vehicle landscape – will significantly reduce the costs of these vehicles without embroiling the city in intrusive enforcement or expensive legal challenges.

What is your position on establishing a dedicated funding stream for safe and universal pedestrian and bike infrastructure in Chicago?

I think that we should, as long as we ensure that it is not allowed to become an exclusive stream of funding. We need to ensure that we are making significant investments in this region from across the Departments of the City of Chicago.

What is your position on creating select pedestrian-only streets?

I think that in many instances creating pedestrian-only streets can be an incredible boon to local economies, communities, and the safety of pedestrians and bikers. We should explore and expand instances of them where it makes sense for the local community.

What policy solutions would you implement to ensure CTA buses operate on schedule, frequently, and quickly?

The fundamental issue we need to address with both Train and Bus service at the CTA is one of ridership. We have seen a steep drop off in usage driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, and only exacerbated by the serious service issues we have seen since. To improve ridership, and move towards a CTA which is fiscally sound and represents the best of our city again we need to make significant investments in the short and medium term to make the trains safe again, clean again, and show up

reliably.

To that end, we need to convert the non-sworn security patrols into full time Transit Police officers, and not the bandaid that the current administration has made an election season talking point. We need to more aggressively connect the unhoused and those requiring social services to points of service. CTA cannot be the shelter of least resistance. Thirdly, we need new leadership at CTA that will actually show up to City Council meetings, and works with stakeholder to constructively tackle the numerous issues which are impacting reliability.

Considering the role the CTA, Metra, and Pace play in providing public transportation within the city, what are your plans to address the impending fiscal cliff – a deficit of over $700 million – that the agencies will be facing in 2025?

Fundamentally, the fiscal problems associated with the mass transit agencies in Chicago are driven by a sharp collapse in riderships accelerated tremendously by the Covid-19 pandemic. Only by addressing that issue will Chicago be able to overcome the approaching fiscal cliff, otherwise we will be facing a severe decline in services. In order to attract people back to mass transit we need to make significant short and medium-term investments in safety, reliability, cleanliness, and frequency.

In addition, I believe that we need more collaboration with the state and county governments to secure resources for major projects such as regional transportation expansion, infrastructure projects and family services in order to move resources to other improvements for the working people of Chicago.

What is your position on establishing a network of Bus Rapid Transit lines in Chicago?

I believe that BRT lines in Chicago are one incredibly promising investment that we can make moving forward and that the City should make this a priority, as long as we can ensure that issues of ridership are being addressed by its introduction or through other means. We need a sustainable mass transit system and that means we need to address ridership. If we do not the additional bus rapid transit lines we are able to create will not be able to be sustained.

Will you commit to securing the funding necessary to implement CTA's plan to become 100% accessible according to ADA standards? (yes/no)

Yes