Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday lauded Chicago Transit Authority workers for their “flawless” rollout of a five-month Red Line reconstruction that has shuttle buses replacing train service.
So far, they’re breathing a sigh of relief at City Hall. The summerlong shutdown of the Red Line’s south branch service will test not only the patience of thousands of commuters but also the mayor’s support in predominantly African-American communities where his approval rating has ebbed.
Emanuel has touted the break in “L” service as the fastest and most cost-effective method to deliver on a campaign promise of speedier travel times on the long-decrepit stretch of tracks between the Cermak/Chinatown and 95th Street stations. But for some of those affected, the shutdown undoubtedly will serve as their latest frustration with the Emanuel administration, adding to concerns about escalating crime and dozens of school closings set to be finalized Wednesday.
The mayor sought to soften commuters’ daily aggravation Tuesday by stressing the anticipated improvements of the finished product, while CTA President Forrest Claypool took the unusual step of pulling aside reporters to emphasize the city’s efforts to hire disadvantaged African-American workers from affected neighborhoods to work on the project.
“Obviously there is an inconvenience,” Emanuel said before noting that some commuters have said the temporary shuttle buses have gotten them to their destinations faster.
“When you can get to work quicker on a bus than on a train, it talks about what it’s going to take to get the Red Line into the 21st century,” the mayor said as he talked about $1.5 billion in road, water and transit infrastructure projects for the 2013 construction season, including the Red Line work.
Many of the nine CTA stations shuttered for the construction are in predominantly African-American wards, and this month’s Tribune/WGN-TV poll found that an increasing number of the city’s black voters now disapprove of Emanuel’s job performance.
From the beginning, the South Side aldermen who represent those neighborhoods have backed the mayor’s shutdown plan. Emanuel’s other option would have been to stretch the work out over four years worth of weekends. By condensing the work schedule, the city estimates it will save $75 million in construction costs, money that will be spent to paint, improve lighting and add elevators at South Side stations.
If all goes according to plan, the work will be completed by mid-October, more than a year before the February 2015 municipal elections. That benefit was not lost on Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st.
“I think it’s a smart political move for all of us,” Brookins said of the mayor’s decision. “We will be running for election also. Nobody wants the remnants of this construction being around for that. In 2014-2015, we all want to be able to point to the new shiny rail system that gets you downtown 20 minutes faster.”
That’s not to say there won’t be political pain in the short term.
“I think it will upset some people, but it’s hard to argue with progress,” Brookins said. “This is a direct benefit to the community. And I think people understand that.”
For Emanuel of late, there has been less understanding from black voters.
The recent poll found 40 percent of African-American voters approved of the job he was doing while 48 percent disapproved. That’s much lower than approval rates of 59 percent and 54 percent from white and Latino voters, respectively, according to the poll. It’s also a sharp turnaround from a year ago, when a poll found 44 percent of black voters approved of his job as mayor while only one-third disapproved.
Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, who has one of the closed CTA stations in her ward, said she doesn’t view Emanuel’s slide in popularity among black voters as adding to the risk tied to the Red Line remodel.
“There’s always political risk when you’re doing a big project like this,” said Dowell, who supports the five-month approach. “But I think how much of a risk it becomes is going to be seen in how the project rolls out and how well transit riders are accommodated by the CTA.”
The Emanuel administration also has sought to accommodate unemployed and underemployed workers in the area, Claypool told reporters Tuesday. The CTA chief said the city has worked with the Chicago Urban League to identify South Side residents who meet the federal definition of “disadvantaged workers” to be hired into entry-level unionized jobs on the project.
Claypool said Emanuel took notice of the protests by Democratic U.S. Reps. Danny Davis and Bobby Rush of Chicago, who last year held up work on a Metra flyover project in Englewood over objections that not enough minorities had been hired for the rail line construction.
“Mayor Emanuel said that’s not going to happen with this project. The community is going to reap the benefits,” said Claypool, who added that 15 percent of jobs on the project had been set aside for local disadvantaged workers in addition to new city bus drivers hired from nearby neighborhoods.
“In terms of local hiring, that’s hundreds and hundreds of local jobs — South Side, African-American workers tied to the Red Line project,” Claypool said, “because of focusing on where the project is being done and the people affected by the project.”
Before the Red Line work began, the Tribune asked Emanuel whether the CTA project along with controversies over school closings and crime had led to an erosion of his support among the black voters who helped him win his first term convincingly two years ago.
Emanuel immediately cast the Red Line work as a promise delivered.
“There are things that are essential to help any part of the city grow economically. One of those investments is in mass transit. The Red Line, I pledged to do it in the campaign, to modernize it,” the mayor said. “The only part of entire city system that was showing decline was Red Line south, which is because it was slow, the stations were horrible.
“It finally allows people to get to work in real time, which has not been happening before.”
Perhaps in a nod to the challenges he faces with black voters, Emanuel contended he had done more for African-American communities than his predecessor, though he did not mention Richard Daley’s name.
“All the infrastructure investments we’ve done are equally throughout the city,” Emanuel said before listing off improvements to parks, schools, mass transit and water systems, along with efforts aimed at eliminating food deserts and revitalizing Malcolm X College.
“They don’t just look at school actions. They look at the record,” the mayor said of African-American voters. “They look at it over time. They know that I believe in taking on the very forces that have not allowed the city to progress in their own community.”
Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, backs the mayor’s approach on the Red Line, but with a warning.
“Having this done and running by the next election is not a bad thing at all, and I think it’s a wise political move by him,” Sawyer said of Emanuel. “But they better get it done on time.”
Twitter @BillRuthhart
