Preckwinkle at Active Trans meeting: The South Side Metra plan would promote racial equity

Last Wednesday the Active Transportation Alliance held its annual member meeting, handing out volunteer awards and electing a couple of new board members: recently retired Chicago Department or Transportation deputy commissioner Luann Hamilton and former Active Trans staffer Adolfo Hernandez. A major theme of the meeting was the proposal to increase service and lower fares on two South Side Metra routes, promoted by the commuter railroad, Cook County, and other local agencies and organizations.

While Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot has generally been on the right page when it comes to sustainable transportation matters, this issue is the glaring exception. Lightfoot has stubbornly resisted the plan, arguing that more frequent and affordable Metra Electric and Rock Island District service would cannibalize CTA ridership.

It's a position that highlights the folly of inter-agency competition. It's also probably not a coincidence that the most visible proponent of the Metra plan is Lightfoot's former mayoral rival, Cook County board president Toni Preckwinkle. She discussed the initiative, along with other county transportation projects, as the featured speaker at the Active trans meeting. Here's a summary of Preckwinkle's remarks as prepared.

Preckwinkle began her talk, which she said would focus on racial equity, by highlighting a "stark fact." Chicago has the biggest life expectancy gap of the 50 largest U.S. cities. While Streeterville residents can expect to live to 90 on average, Englewood residents have a life expectancy of only 60 years. That's a staggering 30-year gap.

"Your zip code should not determine your life expectancy, and your race should not determine your access to opportunity," Preckwinkle said. "But far too often it does. Why?"

She began to address that question by discussing the difference between equality -- in which resources are distributed equally -- and equity -- where resources are focused on the individuals and communities that need them the most. "In reality, equal distribution of resources, and policies that seem fair on the surface, do not lead to equal outcomes," Preckwinkle said. "Why? Because the playing field is not level. In America, the playing field has never been level. If you are a woman, if you are Black, if you are Latinx, if you have a disability, if you speak another language, if you were born in another country — in other words, if you are most of the population of Cook County — the playing field has never been level."

Next Preckwinkle asked people to consider how transportation access affects the lives of Cook County residents on a daily basis. "How did you get to work today? Did you drive? How are the roads leading from your neighborhood to your office? Did you take public transit? How long was your walk to the train or bus stop? How long was your wait? Are there job opportunities in your neighborhood? If so, why? If not, why not?"

Preckwinkle noted that while downtown Chicago, the North Side, and northern Cook County are generally thriving economically, many communities on the South and West sides and the near-southern and near-western suburbs have been left behind. "We are one County, and the whole region suffers when communities don’t have the opportunity to thrive." She noted that South and West siders have to travel further to get to jobs, and these communities have seen less growth because of historic disinvestment.