Has The Mayor TOTALLY Lost It? City Approves $16 Billion Make Work Projects
A guide for downtown growth through 2020 that calls for $15.6 billion in public works was endorsed Thursday by the Chicago Plan Commission.
The Chicago Central Area Action Plan would allocate most of the spending for transportation projects. The most expensive would be a $6 billion West Loop transit hub beneath Clinton Street with a multilevel connection between Metra and CTA service.
Other big-ticket items include $1.5 billion for CTA express train service to the airports and $500 million for a landscaped roof over the Kennedy Expy. from Monroe to Washington, around which new office buildings could be added.
A project budgeted at $377 million would move part of Lake Shore Drive east from Navy Pier to the Oak Street curve, creating space for bike and pedestrian paths. It also could make the road safer for motorists by straightening a sharp curve around Oak Street Beach.
Ladies and gentlemen, NO ONE is at home at City Hall. NO ONE with an ounce of sense is watching the store. With all the dire problems we are experiencing in our communities, with all the debt the state and city is facing and with the lay offs that are regularly announced by the city – THIS is what is passed with out broad public debate??
What do you mean? It is a GUIDE, not LAW. It simply puts infrastructure and transit enhancements on the table. Man, you guys are the ones who aren’t home.
The planners have caught a monster case of White Elaphantitis from Da Mare! The only antidote that will work will be the total collapse of our economy and currency, due to an epidemic of the disease among all our leaders at the national, state, and municipal levels.
$6 Billion for a transit hub beneath Clinton and $1.5 Billion for an express to O’Hare when there is already a rail line in place between downtown and O’Hare? Pass the crack pipe! How can we think of things like this when we don’t have decent rail service going east-west on the congested north side, or connecting our existing rail lines to make rapid transit available to all city residents? Or rebuilding the decrepit Red so it doesn’t fall down on us?
$15.6 billion is what I have roughly figured would be needed to build a rail line over Touhy connecting the Blue and the Red, another over Chicago Ave from downtown out to Harlem, and another over either Belmont or Lawrence. Right now, traveling east-west by auto or bus on the North Side is HELLISH. That figure could also include more connecting lines to make the vast south side more negotiable by transit.
But there are even more urgent needs, like our sewer and water infrastructure. Could $15.6 B replace substantial portions of our dangerously aged and decrepit water and sewer mains?
IS ANYONE DOWNTOWN EVEN THINKING OF THESE THINGS?