CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) -- People from three South side neighborhoods packed City Council chambers Wednesday for a contentious hearing into Amtrak's plan to move its maintenance yard from the South Loop to Bridgeport and Chinatown.
The two-hour hearing ended with members of the Council's Committee on Transportation and the Public Way approving a resolution against the move, which now goes to the full Council for consideration.
Amtrak's Steven Segerlin says building a new fully enclosed maintenance facility at the old Union Pacific yard near Rate Field will lead to better service and fewer breakdowns.
"What happens in Chicago yard is felt across the country," said Amtrak development chief Steven Segerlin during his opening testimony, arguing that moving the agency's maintenance and cleaning facility from its longtime yard south of Roosevelt Road to an old Union Pacific facility next to Rate FIeld would make it easier and less expensive for Amtrak to create a modern, safer and fully enclosed facility for its hundreds of workers.
"That means more reliable trains, better on time performance and fewer equipment related delays," he continued.
"It's wrong for every neighborhood," Cook County commissioner and longtime Bridgeport resident John Daley told aldermen during public comment at the beginning of the hearing. Other commenters criticized a lack of publicly available information from Amtrak about the environmental and noise impact of the move from a largely industrial area to one where more than 6,700 people live within 500 feet.
"Convenient for Amtrak does not mean convenient for the city of Chicago," said one commenter. "The way this project was presented to the community was not collaborative or transparent," said another.
"This development isn't ready for prime time," said Bridgeport Ald. Nicole Lee (11th Ward), who sponsored the resolution and called for the hearing, adding that Amtrak appeared to be rushing the project because of the support of the current yard's prospective buyer, billionaire and Chicagoan Justin Ishbia, who has floated the idea of a mega-project along the Chicago River that could be anchored by a new ballpark for the Chicago White Sox, of which he's a minority owner.
Commenters during the meeting also noted what they clearly see as an existential threat to the character of Bridgeport, where the Sox have played home games for 116 years.
"Ishbia, you're not getting Bridgeport, Chinatown or Armour Square," said one commenter as audience members cheered.
Ishbia was represented by Canal Edge development lead Eric Lynn, who tried to keep the conversation focused on the Amtrak development: "It is a separate project from ... any future move for the Chicago White Sox."
But South side Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward), whose ward includes part of the affected area, noted Ishbia's recent purchase of a shopping center near the current Amtrak site: "We all know why."
Lack of transparency, concerns about White Sox future cited
Lack of transparency, concerns about White Sox future cited
