Working people across the region will be hurt – as will Illinois residents statewide who will feel the ripple effects of a hamstrung economy in metropolitan Chicago
(Chicago) … As
Monday’s evening rush hour began and downtown commuters streamed into Union Station,
a group of business, university and elected leaders convened by the
Metropolitan Planning Council sent a public message – and several dozen phone calls – to
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, reminding him that public transportation is vital to
the livelihoods of Chicago-area workers, students and residents. The group also
made a collective plea to the governor, asking him to support a fix that will
provide adequate funding and reforms for Metra, Pace and the Chicago Transit
Authority (CTA) – or brace the entire state as
metropolitan
Chicago’s economy grinds to a
halt.
“Transit is the lifeline
of Chicago’s economy: nearly two-thirds of downtown workers commute by bus or
rail every weekday,” said Mary K. Ludgin, managing director and director of
investment research, Heitman, which employs 180 people at its downtown office.
“Our transit agencies have reached the breaking point, and we’re about to find
out what will happen to our economy if we continue to starve them of a stable,
adequate revenue source.”
Ludgin added that the
Loop’s office market has experienced healthy growth over the past 20 years, and
its share of the regional office stock is among the highest in the
U.S.
At the same time, the Central
Area’s residential markets have experienced remarkable growth. In both cases,
public transportation access has played an important part: companies like Jones
Lang LaSalle, which employs 1,077 workers downtown, stay in the
Loop
due in part to transit access for their workers.
“Viable public transportation can
protect
Chicago ’s business community. It can
ensure that people in our city have access to jobs. It can ensure employers have
the opportunity to recruit diverse talent. And most of all, it can
ensure
Chicago’s future as a
vibrant, competitive center of business,” said Beth Hayden,
senior vice president of
human resources, Jones Lang LaSalle.
If CTA, Metra and Pace
are forced to eliminate existing routes that connect workers to downtown Chicago
and other employment centers, such as around O’Hare, the situation will spiral
downward: f
or
example, up to 260,000 CTA riders will lose service, forcing some into their
cars and onto already congested roads – and leaving those who are
transit-dependent in an even tighter spot.
One solution is on the table: the House Mass Transit
Committee passed a bipartisan bill that would provide funding and reforms for
the region’s transit agencies. To date, Gov. Blagojevich has threatened a veto
due to the measure’s sales tax increase, despite
it being very modest and supported by the region’s elected officials.
“By standing in the way
of a regional sales tax increase, the governor will do great harm to
Chicago-area workers and businesses,” said MPC Vice President of External
Relations Peter Skosey. “A small bump in the regional sales tax – one-quarter of
one cent, which would add less than a penny to the cost of a $3.50 latte – would
put Metra, Pace and CTA on more stable footing, prevent threatened service cuts
and fare increases for the foreseeable future, and keep business moving in
Chicagoland.”
If the state fails to
provide funding for Metra, Pace and CTA, all three transit service providers
have said they will need to cut routes and hike fares to make ends meet.
“I represent one of
thousands of Chicagoland workers who will not have a way to get to work if
Metra, Pace and CTA are forced to cut service and hike fares due to the state’s
inaction,” said Sandra Pruett,
head
of AFSCME Local 1215, representing city library workers. “Many people, myself
included, simply cannot drive downtown to work every day. Without the Kimball
bus and the Blue Line, I don’t know what I’d do.”
In addition, as Ludgin
pointed out, shrinking rather than expanding mass transit service – at a time
when the growing region already struggles with the nation’s third-worse traffic
congestion – will make Chicago a less attractive place for businesses to locate.
This, in turn, will create dramatic ripple effects for the regional and
statewide economy: Property and sales tax revenues will plummet if the
Loop
hemorrhages workers, who not only earn
their paychecks in the city, but spend them here as well.
It’s not only
workers who rely on transit: in addition to suburban day-trippers,
tourists, and conventioneers, some 53,800 college students commute to the Loop
– Illinois’ largest “college town” – every day; only 19 percent drive, according
to John Wozniak, president of Harold Washington College. Wozniak also noted
that many students spend their entire
day
in Chicago. Some study in between classes at
local cafes, others shop, and some 40 percent work part-time jobs in
the
Loop.
“If the state fails to
provide funding for Metra, Pace and the CTA, it’s not just the workforce that
we’ll need to worry about. Students play a major role in Chicago’s economy – and
provided they can get to class to earn their degrees, they will be leading
Illinois’ future economy,” said Wozniak, who added that many full-time students
use the CTA’s U-PASS, representing a new generation of mass transit users doing
their part to combat global warming.
To help turn the
tide
in
Springfield, attendees at the news conference and bystanders were encouraged to use
cell phones provided by MPC to call the governor’s office
at
312-814-2121, asking him to support
funding and reforms for the entire region’s transit system.