Issue Position: Transportation and Community Development that includes Affordable Housing

Issue Position

I believe that building stable, vibrant neighborhoods is critical. It is more than just building in the Central Business District. We must invest in our neighborhoods so there is good and affordable housing, good transportation to jobs, shopping, healthcare and recreation which will keep people in the neighborhoods. We spend billions on transportation projects but we do not use that for community development.

I pledge to develop funding and investments in communities in a way that lifts everyone. We must connect education and training issues and funding with creating good-paying jobs and jobs in growth industries, especially in green industries that will enable people to provide for the families. We must connect a strong and robust infrastructure bill that can rebuild infrastructure across the country and thus rebuild communities, provide training/jobs for community residents and connect community residents to good-paying jobs.

However, it is not enough to support investment broadly. For Chicago, that means a greater investment in transit and transportation focused on neighborhood investment and impacts as well as on regional transportation efforts (freight, roads, bridges, ports, airports etc) that keep the region's competitive advantage because of our highways, port, railways and our international airports. Recent reports have shown the incredible financial and social costs of segregation. Attacking that on many levels is a priority. One step is to focus on vacant land and development around rail stations.

The challenge is to initially focus this on an achievable proposal that moves the larger idea. One way to start is to have the federal government and CTA to fund planning for all Blue, Orange and Pink line stations outside of the Central Business district and West Loop areas which should also include looking at both affordable housing and commercial development as part of the planning effort. This would involve working with and empowering community organizations and others to create proposals that would lay out how investment can lead to more neighborhood development.

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