Politics
For Far South Side Residents, the Planned Red Line Extension Brings Both Worries and High Hopes
by Norah D’Cruze, Megija Medne, Alison Miller, Naya Reyes
This story was produced in partnership with students at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and WTTW News.
For many residents of the Far South Side of Chicago, their neighborhoods have often felt cut off from the rest of the city due to a lack of public transportation access.
A project set to begin construction late next year is hoping to change that.
The Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line Extension project will create four new stops on the South Side and allow residents to travel along the “L.”
Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2025 and the anticipated five-year process, which entails taking property and relocating residents, is already underway. Residents in nearby communities harbor both concerns about how the project will play out and hope about how it could improve their neighborhoods.
Many doubted the extension would ever happen. Adella Bass-Lawson, health equity director at People for Community Recovery, and has lived on the South Side for her whole life.
“We thought it was like some type of mythical creature,” Bass-Lawson said of the extension. “It’s like it wasn’t real at one point.”
Louis McFarland, another South Side resident and professor at Chicago State University, said the city has a fraught relationship with the area’s residents due to broken promises and ignored issues.
“People have been waiting for this for decades and even generations,” said McFarland.
The project will place stops on 103rd Street, 111th Street, Michigan Avenue and 130th Street. With the current end of the line being on 95th Street and the Dan Ryan, this will add 5.5 miles to the Red Line. The CTA predicts 38,000 people will use the new stops every weekday.
Bass-Lawson is raising two young sons and a daughter in Altgeld Gardens, a neighborhood just west of the proposed 130th Street stop. For the project to be successful, she said the CTA must work with the community.
“Transparency is everything, and we hope that the project remains for the community, since it’s by the community,” she said.
Bass-Lawson is looking forward to faster travel to the rest of the city but she worries about how construction could affect her health.
“I have heart failure myself, so it’s hard to pinpoint where it came from because there’s so many risks around pregnancy, health, genetics, community,” she said. "We just don’t know where it comes from.”
People for Community Recovery is an environmental justice organization that addresses the pollution created by industry in Altgeld Gardens. The area has been coined “Chicago’s toxic donut,” according to the organization with research linking the neighborhood’s history of manufacturing to high cancer rates and birth abnormalities.
“We’re already a community that has health issues already. A project over time will cause risk,” Bass-Lawson said.
The CTA said dust and noise are expected by-products of the construction. Tammy Chase, director of communications for the Red Line Extension Committee, said the committee will address these health concerns by working directly with affected families.
“We recognize that people may need some extra accommodations for health issues like asthma … This isn’t, you know, one size fits all,” Chase said. “People should be able to breathe, for God sakes.”
In the meantime, Bass-Lawson’s concern is shared by many South Side residents. They say limited interaction with the city and CTA have ingrained a sense of hopelessness.
Andrea Reed, the executive director of the Roseland Chamber of Commerce, emphasized the importance of transportation access for communities.
“You need transportation to get to medical help, food services, job,” she said, “cutting off certain groups of people was done intentionally.”
McFarland pointed to a deeper issue.
“
It’s racism. I think that they expect us in this community to just be OK with things,” he said.
McFarland founded a community garden in Roseland, a majority Black community. He created the garden to support Black and indigenous resilience and gathering. The CTA purchased the garden, along with 50 other properties, to make room for the new stations.
While he said he is looking forward to the extension bringing new business to the South Side, he has worries. Just like the project uprooted his garden, it may also uproot residents.
“l’m very skeptical of these kinds of projects,” McFarland said. “I wonder if this stuff is for the people who are in this neighborhood now, or somebody who’s going to replace them in a few years.”
Chase said the CTA is addressing gentrification concerns.
“We do want to be good stewards and help the city,” Chase said. “What kinds of responsible development can we do that supports the community, not just a high rise for the sake of a high rise on a corner.”
Despite worries, some residents remain hopeful about a promise soon to be fulfilled.
Bass-Lawson knows the impact of transportation barriers. She was forced to drop out of Truman College because of a two-hour commute, she said. She hopes the project means her children and the next generation of the Far South Side will not have to face similar struggles.
“It will open up a different world for folks who don’t have the necessities to travel out of here or have a time constraint,” she said. “And it gives them an opportunity to see the other side of Chicago. It’s beautiful.”
