Mayor Emanuel's 2017 Infrastructure Address: ST ST
Mayor Emanuel's 2017 Infrastructure Address: ST ST
Mayor Emanuel's 2017 Infrastructure Address: ST ST
Five years ago we met here and I laid out a plan for Building a New
Chicago. It was a plan to rebuild our aging infrastructure. To build a 21st
century foundation for a 21st century economy. And to create new,
good-paying jobs for Chicago in the process.
In the last five years we have created over 60,000 jobs building
Chicagos runways and roads, schools and streetscapes, parks and
playgrounds, bridges and buildings. The projects we have planned in
the next three years will create over 40,000 more jobs Building a New
Chicago.
Young people like Bernard who I know has two young sons and two
young daughters to take care of get the skills and the paychecks to
raise a family.
Because we are investing in our future, every year for the last three
years more companies moved their headquarters to Chicago than to
any other American city. Every year for the last four years more
investors from around the world invested in Chicago than in any other
American city. And no city has ever achieved that before.
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OHare Airport and positioned ourselves at the heart of the national
aviation system and global economy.
The lesson is clear. And whats been true for our past is going to be
true for our future. Building the best public transportation system, the
most efficient aviation system, the strongest road system, the most
modern school system and greatest park system, thats how we secure
our place as a world-class city for this century.
Infrastructure isn't just about moving everyone around the city. Its
about moving our city forward, connecting the people of our city to
each other and to opportunity, and giving everyone a chance to be
part of Building a New Chicago.
More people ride the CTA in a single month than take Amtrak
nationwide all year. But our mass transit system was built for the
needs of the past, not the demands of the future. So were not just
rebuilding the CTA, were reshaping it to meet Chicagos future.
Four of our seven train lines are under major construction. Weve
modernized stations, improved tracks, and updated train cars. We
replaced or rehabbed 80 percent of our buses and by 2019 every CTA
bus will be new or modernized. We made Chicago the largest city in
North America with universal 4G wireless Internet service across the
entire rail system so people can stay connected on the way to work,
school, or home.
But thats just the downpayment for the work ahead of us.
Anyone who commutes on the busiest lines of the CTA knows the
experience of waiting for a train, being stuck in a slow zone, being
crammed in an overcrowded train car, or hearing the announcement
that your train has stopped and is waiting for signal clearance.
Next year we will break ground on the Red and Purple Modernization
project. This investment in Chicagos future will alleviate congestion,
overcrowding, and delays on the Red Line, the Purple Line, and the
Brown Line. It will also build needed capacity at a time when ridership
on those lines is expected to increase by up to 50 percent in just the
next two decades.
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When the project is complete, we will be able to run 15 more trains
every hour on the Red, Purple, and Brown Lines. That means shorter
wait times. Less overcrowding. Fewer delays and faster trips. More time
with your friends and family.
The Red Line is the backbone of our system, but it had been neglected
for years. Thats why we completed the Red Line South Reconstruction
Project and rebuilt the tracks from Cermak-Chinatown to 95th Street.
Its also why we are now rebuilding the 95th Street Station, improving
service at one of Chicagos most important and busiest rail and bus
connection points.
From the platforms of the 95th Street station, we can look to the future
of the Red Line South to 130th Street. CTA has earmarked the funds for
it. Engineering and environmental studies are now underway. We are
going to bring the Red Line to the Far South Side, because you cant
connect people to jobs and opportunities if you dont have the public
transportation to get them there.
What the new 95th Street Station is to the Roseland community, the
new Belmont Blue Station is to Avondale. The new Wilson Station is to
Uptown. The new Washington Wabash Station is to Millennium Park and
the Cultural Center. The new IMD Station is to the Illinois Medical
District. And the new Garfield Green Line Gateway will be to the
Washington Park community.
And as we have seen across the city, when we build new stations, new
developments and new jobs spring up around them. New stations bring
not just new transit, they bring new vitality and new opportunities to
neighborhoods.
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going to embark on a project that has been imagined for decades and
is essential for our citys future.
Today I am announcing that the City has retained Bob Rivkin former
general counsel at the Department of Transportation under Ray LaHood
who also led the citys efforts to secure resources for RPM to begin
working with potential partners who are anxious to work with us to
create an express train from OHare to the Loop.
If London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Toronto can offer this service, the
City of Chicago can and must offer it too. We have been hearing from
potential investors and companies around the world about their
interest in this project. And our engineers have made progress in
identifying the routes to move it forward.
And an aviation system that allows you to easily get anywhere in the
world, at any time of day, any day of the week will also pay dividends
for generations to come.
We are expanding gates at OHare for the first time in nearly 25 years.
Working with our airline partners we are transforming Terminal 2 into
the new international terminal, allowing travelers to go seamlessly
from domestic to international gates. Thats what a world class city
does, and this step will further cement Chicagos leadership with a
world class terminal system. I know our airline partners understand
that this is not only important for the future of their business, but for
the future of our city. Which is why it needs to and will happen.
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We are building a new multi-modal facility at OHare that will house
rental cars, provide public parking, and consolidate all of the airports
ground transportation into one location. We are going to extend the
people-mover system to the new facility and modernize it with new
cars and tracks. That will make traveling in and out of OHare even
faster and easier.
Last year, Chicago was one of only three cities in the country with
more than 50 million visitors. To meet rising demand from more
tourists and travelers, we are building two new hotels at the airport
and renovating the OHare Hilton, nearly doubling the hotel capacity at
OHare.
At Midway, we are widening the bridge over Cicero Avenue and adding
security checkpoints to cut down on lines and get people to their gates
faster. Were expanding parking and adding concessions. And, as we
have seen across the city, the private sector is following our
investment constructing new hotels, building new stores, and
opening new restaurants on the Southwest Side, all to take advantage
of our growth plans and investments.
But we cannot take these strengths for granted. For too long we have
rested on our laurels. We have to protect them. We have to invest in
them. And we have to build on them.
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through Chicago is expected to triple in value and double in weight.
Were going to be prepared.
You all know how much work we have put into repaving Chicagos
roads.
In the last five years, that important job has put 6,750 people to work.
In the next three years repaving our roads from arterials to alleys
will support another 2,000 jobs.
Today, Chicago is moving forward with projects that have the power to
transform our transportation system.
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Building a new Chicago is about more than rails, roads, and runways.
Its about new schools and new streetlights, new parks and new
playgrounds, new bridges and new buildings.
In a time when you earn what you learn, education does not end at 12th
grade. That is why we created the STAR Scholarship so any CPS
student who graduates high school with a B-average can get a free
education at Chicago City Colleges. And that is true regardless of their
parents documentation status. To ensure Chicago students get a
world-class education, we are rebuilding and reimagining Chicago City
Colleges. Rebuilding Chicago City Colleges has created over 2,000 jobs
and will create over 400 more in the next three years.
Last year, we opened the doors to the new Malcolm X College. The new
campus is not only providing a world-class education in the healthcare
field to Chicagos students, it has been a transformative addition to the
Near West Side community and is the first public building in the City of
Chicago to be designed by an African American architect.
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students, but bring more jobs and more opportunities to the City of
Chicago.
We opened the 606, the Big Marsh Park on the Southeast Side, the
Northerly Island Nature Preserve, the Big Park in Little Village, the new
Maggie Daley Park, and the Riverwalk.
Our investments in our parks have created over 3,000 jobs, will create
more than 1,000 jobs in the next three years, and have laid the
groundwork for new businesses to open and bring new opportunities to
neighborhoods across the city.
As part of our Building on Burnham plan in the next two years we will
build new parks, recreation centers and field houses across Chicago.
We will open the Ford Calumet Environmental Center, a new catalyst of
economic development on the Far South Side, restore Theater on the
Lake as a year-round home for the arts, begin work on the Paseo Trail
connecting Pilsen and Little Village, and finish the Lakefront Trail
Separation along the shore of Lake Michigan. And our Saving
Chicagos Treasures plan will rebuild and restore Chicagos historic
parks.
Because of our focus on building a new Chicago, all across the city
building projects that have been stuck for years are now moving
forward. We are filling holes in the fabric of our city that were empty
for too long.
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Because we invested in the new Morgan Street Station and the new
bike garage, Fulton Market is now home to one of the biggest
development booms in the country.
Properties that have been sitting dormant as eyesores for years are
being transformed because of the investments we are making. You can
look around the city, from the 430-acre vacant former US Steel plant
on the Far South Side, to the 28-acre Finkl Steel site on the North Side,
and see builders who are now taking their blueprints and moving
projects forward.
And this year we will begin work on the Barack Obama Presidential
Center in Jackson Park a historic, transformative project that will
revitalize the surrounding neighborhoods, extend economic,
educational, and cultural benefits to every community in the City of
Chicago, and create a lasting legacy on the South Side for a man and a
family who have made immeasurable contributions to our city, our
country, and the world.
We had more cranes in the sky building a new Chicago last year than in
the previous ten years. Our industrial and office spaces had higher
occupancy rates last year than in the previous ten.
People and businesses are moving here, building here, working here,
and investing here for a reason.
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Theyre coming to Chicago because they know what we know: cities
that connect their people to each other, to opportunities, and to the
rest of the world will be the cities that succeed in the 21st century. For a
city to be a world class city without walls it has to connect its people to
the world, and the world to the city.
There is a reason the Chief Economist from JLL just last week noted
Chicagos economic growth has outpaced cities like New York or DC for
the last four years. And lets be clear. DC has a thing called the federal
government. New York has Wall Street. We have ourselves, our grit,
and our determination, and were beating both of them.
Five years ago when we started building a new Chicago, there were not
very many programs taking new apprentices in the building trades.
Because there werent any jobs to send them to.
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But today, there are thousands of apprentices learning the trades in
Chicago.
I have had the privilege of attending all of the graduations right here in
the Laborers Training Facility. To see the pride folks are taking in their
work, to see the pride their families are taking in them, that is what we
mean when we say Chicago is the City that Works.
That is why our work is about so much more than building new
infrastructure it is about building new opportunities in Chicago.
Investments in our infrastructure are about much more than steel and
concrete.
Henri is with us here today. I want to thank him for not just building a
new future for himself, but building a new future for the City of
Chicago.
A future that works for all of us, and that is even brighter than our
past.
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