WBBM asked for the Chicago mayoral candidates' responses to five of the top issues facing the city: education, crime, transportation, infrastructure and health.
The 2023 Chicago mayoral election will be held on February 28, 2023. If no candidate receives a majority of votes, a runoff election will be held on April 4, 2023.
Below are the full responses from each candidate to this question:
Transportation: CTA riders continue to complain about the agency’s lack of resources. What would you do to improve transportation in Chicago?
Lori Lightfoot:
"As we move from the pandemic, the CTA, like other urban transit systems, is grappling with a range of circumstances, some outside of its control, but which are all impacting the delivery of services. We have taken significant steps to make CTA bus and rail service safer and more reliable across all of our neighborhoods.
Last year, the violent crime rate on the CTA began to drop. We made progress because we deepened our collaboration and communications with both Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) locals. Both locals have identified a number of steps we could take to improve safety. We strongly believe the people closest to the challenges are closest to the solutions. That strong candid partnership continues and has resulted in concrete, tangible actions. For example, the CTA doubled the size of our contracted, unarmed security guard staff from 150 to 300 and deployed 50 canine teams. CPD increased the number of sworn officers patrolling train and bus routes, and CPD is conducting police roll calls near bus stops and train stations to ensure that they have a visible presence on and near transit.
Another challenge facing the CTA is staffing shortages. 84% of public transit agencies across America are facing labor shortages that affect their ability to provide the full schedule of service promised—and ours is no exception. The CTA has more than 100 openings for rail operators and more than 600 openings for bus operators. The CTA has been working diligently with the ATU, City Colleges, and others to recruit for and fill these vacancies. The CTA is offering hiring and retention bonuses and raising starting pay to attract new operators and increase service reliability. As a result of those efforts, the CTA hired nearly 400 bus operators in 2022.
The CTA has ambitious plans to continue to modernize system infrastructure to improve service reliability and equity. The 2023-2027 CTA Capital Improvement Program includes $3.4 billion in investments in public transit. The CTA is prioritizing Better Streets for Buses, a comprehensive plan for expanding bus-priority streets (for instance, we recently made the bus-only lanes along Chicago Avenue permanent), and continuing Refresh & Renew, our train station improvement initiative.
After decades of promises from City Hall and others, my administration has secured important funding through a new transit TIF to move forward on plans for extending the Red Line to the Far South Side—a milestone achievement for public transit equity in Chicago. This plan has been discussed since the time of Mayor Richard J. Daley’s tenure, but through our hard work with federal partners, we’re capturing needed infrastructure dollars to make this decades-long aspiration a reality."
Willie Wilson:
"The citizens of Chicago deserve to be safe on trains, buses and in their neighborhoods. Our city cannot thrive without a safe, clean, and affordable public transit system. The CTA can no longer be the solution for the homeless and those suffering from mental illness. We have an obligation to protect frontline workers and passengers. Violent crimes are at a 10 year high on CTA.
Despite declining ridership, violence continues to increase. There are 145 officers assigned to the Chicago Police Department transit units, down 92 officers from a peak in April 2020. The officers are supported by more than 250 unarmed private security guards.
In Chicago, we can and will stop the terror that is occurring on CTA buses and trains. I will make public safety and your protection my number one priority.
Dr. Wilson 6-Point Plan for CTA Safety
1. Dedicated CTA Transit Police Force (Increase the number to 300, some will be plain clothes and they will ride the trains and buses. The police force will be trained in de escalation and customer service. We will work with community health centers and social organizations to connect people needing help with services).
2. Bring back Conductors for every train.
3. Federal charges for gun and violent crimes committed on trains and buses.
4. Strict enforcement of the laws on trains and buses (Smoking, urinating, soliciting will not be tolerated).
5. Enhanced communications and cameras on trains and buses (The ability for passengers to quickly report any issue. Also, conductor’s radios must be connected to Transit Police).
6. Create a website to let customers see where crime is happening on CTA.
I will bring common sense solutions to the problems of public safety. Together there is no problem we cannot solve.
And it will take all of us working together to make our city safer, and a place where families want to raise their children.
This is a matter of leadership. I will ensure that we have a world class public transit system. It begins with ensuring the CTA is safe. I will make sure that we have staffing levels to meet the needs of our citizens. Also, I will lower price to ride the CTA to attract riders back. I will work with federal, state, and local partners to get the necessary resources to improve our transit system."
Brandon Johnson:
"A safe, reliable transit system is fundamentally important if Chicago is to grow jobs and employment. Chicago’s transit infrastructure is a tremendous asset, but we need to do better at connecting residents with jobs and educational opportunities. We will need to address funding shortfalls for transit, but at the same time, we can be doing a lot better with the resources we already have. I want to see the CTA as a customer-focused agency with service frequency and reliability as the highest priorities. As just one example, we need to create a citywide bus lane network and bus rapid transit system that gives buses priority over other traffic.
Every stakeholder in the use of Chicago’s sidewalks, railways and roadways must work collaboratively toward safety. The CTA needs a vast overhaul in terms of reliability and increased access, as well as safety for workers and riders. Reducing or eliminating fares for some, and increasing access to transit will increase ridership and mass transit solvency, and increase employment in communities where unemployment rates are high. We must be responsive to trends and feedback from CTA riders, and make changes such as increased late evening hours, trains and trips. We also need mental health professionals and housing advocates with resources to house the homeless and treat those with mental illness by addressing root causes, instead of criminalizing poverty and creating tension between commuters and those harmed by systemic inequity."
Ja'Mal Green:
"We need to make CTA functional once again. This will take a monumental investment into our system, including providing better pay and benefits for employees, having a more dedicated cleaning operation to keep our buses and trains clean, and a Peacekeepers Force on the trains to ensure safety."
Kam Buckner:
"At the heart of public safety is access to safe, reliable public transportation. The current administration has not prioritized investing in infrastructure, making our streets safer, or maintaining CTA service levels, and the community has suffered. Ghost buses run rampant, security is lacking, schedules are inconsistent; these issues lead to a myriad of other problems.
Over 25% of Chicago households don’t have cars, and we must invest in the public transit and road infrastructure we need to support our city. Though the question talks about a lack of resources, that’s not the crux of the problem – it’s a lack of leadership and vision.
As State Representative, I lead the charge to get 20 percent of the state’s motor fuel tax increase dedicated to transit, 90 percent of which comes to Chicago. I’ve been fighting for the funding we need in Springfield to address these challenges, and I’ve put together a comprehensive plan to address them as Mayor. I will make sure that we create an accessible, reliable, equitable transit system that services people across the city. You can read the full plan here."
Jesus "Chuy" Garcia:
"Good, reliable public transit is an equity priority. It’s a matter of climate and economic justice.
And in Congress, improving transit across Chicagoland has been a priority of mine. I am Illinois’ senior-most member of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committees. I wrote key portions of the watershed Infrastructure, Investment & Jobs Act to bring home billions in federal dollars to expand access to transit and make things run smoother in our city. I look forward to shepherding these historic investments in our city as Mayor, and I will ensure Chicago gets its fair share in federal dollars. But I also know that throwing money at the problem alone will not solve it. As Mayor, I will convene and integrate CTA, Metra, Pace, and the RTA to ensure that accessible communities grow.
Beyond public transit, our city must relentlessly pursue Vision Zero. We also need to ensure those who use other forms of transportation like bikers and pedestrians are safe as they travel."
Roderick Sawyer:
"The CTA is in extremely bad shape. Some of it is due to COVID, but much of it is due to mismanagement. Our transit system needs dramatic help in terms of management, technology, and security.
As stated before, safety is a major concern on the CTA and it's one of the reasons riders aren't returning. They don't feel safe, in addition to finding the service unreliable and the rail cars and buses filthy. We need real police officers on the CTA, especially in the most crime-ridden areas. I've been on the CTA and I see how little attention people pay to the private security we have with no arrest powers - they smoke cigarettes and marijuana on the trains, they jump turnstiles, they commit vandalism with impunity.
In addition we need more sophisticated camera systems on every single bus and car with a smart system to alert police / CTA security when there is trouble, and install more sophisticated panic buttons on the buses and train cars. We also need to invest in cleaning up the system to restore confidence and make the experience more pleasant.
And finally we need to #RESET the CTA - and of course you know #RESET is my campaign motto / hashtag. What our government and sister agencies has failed to do for years is to get departments and agencies to work together and overlap services. We have a huge problem overlapping all the different things that need to happen to keep buses and trains running on time and keeping riders aware of when trains are coming. If you weren't kept off the CTA due to fear, you certainly would be turned off when a ghost bus or train doesn't show up and makes you late for work or a job interview or a college class.
We need to modernize technology to ensure people have accurate, real-time information on exactly when their bus or train will arrive and when it will drop them off. Our system needs to be precise in its timing and ensure it delivers people where they need to be on schedule."
Paul Vallas:
"The first thing we need to do is make sure that riding the CTA is safe. I will ensure that we have a well-resourced CTA Mass Transit Unit by using the funds spent for private security on the CTA to hire more Chicago Police Officers. The $100 million spent this year could have paid for almost 300 additional police officers, bringing the CTA police levels to 500. The goal will be to ensure that every CTA station and platform has a police presence and that uniform and undercover officers are riding CTA trains. If we want to increase the ridership at the CTA, we must ensure the safety of our riders and operators.
In addition to safety on the CTA, I will promote multi-modal connectivity to public transportation and expand Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as a critically overdue and badly needed connector of isolated communities to traditional public transit facilities, including the extension of the Red Line in the coming years."
Sophia King did not respond to this question.
Read the full list of questions asked of the candidates here.