With only one dissenting vote on five companion ordinances, the City Council made it happen on Wednesday, creating a new transit tax-increment financing district to bankroll $959 million — 26% — of the cost of extending the CTA’s Red Line from 95th Street to 130th Street, with four new stations along the way.
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After the vote, Lightfoot rose from the rostrum to say that the project was a “long, long time coming.” As a result, five wards nowhere near the Far South Side will bear the burden even though their residents are unlikely to benefit from the new service. “Because these benefits are citywide, everyone should have skin in the game of paying for this project. This has to include the entire city, include the state of Illinois and Cook County. … This takes money from one area of the city and ships it miles away from the residents who generated the funding and live in these communities that still have many issues that need to be addressed.”
“All the communities along the North Side Red Line contributed to funding the modernization and all the communities got the benefit in terms of better service, shorter commute times, more trains. That’s not the case with the Red Line extension. Five wards pay but don’t nearly see any of the benefits,” she said.
“We have an opportunity here with this project to correct what has been [decades] of wrongdoing for this community. … It may very well be one of the biggest visionary decisions that you make as members of the City Council.”
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