Here are Ms. Kelly's comments from the ABC7 write-up:
"Chicago doesn't stop at 95th Street, there's a community out there that needs to have access to the city lines," said Melinda Kelly, Chatham Business Association.The plan for the CTA Red Line is this from the Sun-Times:
The 5.3-mile Red Line extension, which would run beside the existing Union Pacific Railroad tracks, would add stations at 103rd, 111th, 115th and 130th Streets. The capital costs would be about $1.2 billion and add 41,000 new riders a day by 2030. That's more than half of the weekday ridership on the entire Brown Line, which is in the final stages of a $530 million makeover.Well another aspect of this plan well we have to go back to ABC7:
The project would also connect the Red Line with the South Shore commuter train and Metra's proposed southeast service commuter rail.You know in discussing this proposed extension, I think it could benefit the far south side communities, especially Roseland, Pullman, West Pullman, or even Morgan Park more than it may benefit the 6th Ward's neighborhoods. It would be more appropriate to hear from residents and leaders from those communities than from the Chatham Business Association. I'm not criticizing the interest by the CBA by any means, but I am curious and to why they're interested in this project.
Although I must say if 95th being less busy whenever this extension is built is going to be one possible benefit, especially in terms of safety, then I'm behind this 100%. I think any possible expansion of the L is a good thing.
Great comment. I agree that CBA has never made themselves likeable to residents and they have made themselves more distant by voting in officers who do not have respect for our community. Their vice president referred to the youth in our community as "nappy heads" at a CAPCC meeting several years ago.
ReplyDeleteThis proposal has been floating around for over 20 years and some of the past drafts included a station at 83rd and State. This may be why Ms. Kelly may be in favor of the proposal.
The residents living in the West Chesterfield community have been waiting for the extension of the Red Line since the Red Line was built. In fact several have a copy of a newspaper article where the current Mayor's father promised the community that 95th would NOT be a permanent end of the line stop. Many of the problems we have on 95th are caused by the large number of people who travel through that station daily because it is the end of the line. As an example youth from Corliss, Julian, Fenger, Harlan and other schools all descend upon the station Mon - Fri enroute to and from school. Bad folks know this and often loiter in the area looking for targets. So we welcome the extension and hope we see it built during our lifetime.
ReplyDelete