Politics
Advocates Say Black Communities Are Left Out of Regional Transit Reform Debate
Chicago-area public transit agencies are facing a fiscal cliff.
The budget gap for CTA, Metra and Pace is at $200 million, according to the Regional Transportation Authority. While that’s down from a $771 million estimate from earlier this year, transit officials warn that without more funding, service cuts and layoffs could still hit next year.
As state lawmakers head to Springfield next week to discuss a possible funding plan, some advocates are concerned Black communities on Chicago’s South and West sides are being ignored in decisions about transit reform. The advocates say Black people are impacted the most by transit inequities and they need to be more involved in the decision-making.
State Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago), a negotiator in the transit discussions in Springfield, said that while the smaller budget gap appears to ease pressure on lawmakers ahead of the veto session, there still needs to be swift action to address long-standing issues with transit.
“We have only two options here — one option is to continue to kick the can down the road and pretend as if nothing is happening,” Buckner said, “or the second option is to actually do something, move urgently and do it intentionally so we can move the system along.”
Denise Barreto, former chief equity and engagement officer for the CTA, said many Black residents on the South and West sides don’t have accessible public transit in their neighborhoods, making them more car dependent. She said she saw stakeholders in transit meetings overlook the lack of access in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
“I would see the ways in which Black people in authority were immediately either shut down or not even speak up,” Barreto said. “Black voices get shut out of these conversations because there’s this qualification that you have to ride the system to be able to speak about it. It’s unfair because if I live in South Shore, I don’t have the same access to the system.”
Buckner said engaging Black communities on the South and West sides remains a challenge.
“The way that our systems have always worked, we’ve had to always try a little harder to make sure Black voices are centered,” Buckner said.
According to responses from the RTA’s Customer Satisfaction Survey, Black people make up 40% of Pace’s rider base, 27% of CTA’s rider base and 13% of Metra’s rider base.
But Adam Slade, director of state fiscal policy at the Illinois Black Advocacy Initiative, said if Black people had more access to public transportation, they would take it.
“We need to know where there is low ridership and why,” Slade said. “If people can’t rely on transit to get to work then they will find other means and then people will say, ‘Well, people aren’t taking the buses as much so we can cut this line.’ There is a ‘if we build it, they will come’ ethos that we sometimes forget when we are busy looking at budget numbers.”
About 68% of CTA workers are Black, according to the agency. Barreto said potential service cuts from the fiscal cliff would have a significant impact on Black CTA riders and the local workforce.
“Transit is the artery of the ecosystem of care for people in Chicago,” Barreto said. “This will be an economic wipeout if we have to cut 40% of our employees. That’s going to have a ripple effect on the city and our economy.”
Former CTA President Dorval Carter has said there’s disparities in how transit is funded. He said the CTA provides 84% of all public transit services throughout the Chicago area but only gets 46% of state transit funding.
Advocates’ concerns come after the Trump administration paused $2.1 billion in federal funding for the CTA’s Red Line extension project and other infrastructure projects. As the city faces federal scrutiny from the Trump administration, Slade said the state’s role in reaching a transit deal is even more important.
“It underscores the need of the state in particular to make sure that we are fairly investing in our communities across the state,” Slade said.
