Local Community Groups Band Together For A Bus Route
By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 3, 2012 8:20PM
On June 30 a small group of 20 bicyclists massed together at the headquarters of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization to launch a protest ride that would follow the route of CTA’s old 31st Street bus route. The ride picked up more cyclists at designated checkpoints in McKinley Park, Bridgeport, and Bronzeville and ultimately expanded to nearly 70 cyclists by the time the ride ended for a press conference at the newly rehabbed 31st Street Beach and Harbor.
The checkpoints were intended to emulate how a bus fills with riders as it follows its route and for organizers of the ride the growth of the caravan along the route reinforced their belief that reinstalling the route, one of 10 routes discontinued by CTA in 1997, would help bridge the communities it served, make transit to jobs and schools shorter and safer; provide new job opportunities and serve as an economic boost for businesses along the route; provide an easier route for residents reliant on CTA as their primary mode of transportation to enjoy downtown museums and other tourist attractions.
According to numbers provided to Chicagoist by CTA the 31st Street bus route served averaged 246 rides every weekday and 130 rides on Saturdays prior to its discontinuation. Those aren’t large numbers but losing the route has had negative consequences for residents and business owners in Little Village, Bridgeport, Chinatown, Armour Square, Bronzeville and McKinley Park. Instead of being able to take one bus to work or school, students and workers have to make connections that add time and money to their commutes they often don’t have. Students who used to be able to use the route to get to schools safely now have to walk past corners controlled by street gangs or past Cook County Jail. Economic development along 31st Street east and West of Archer Avenue is stagnant as entrepreneurs bypass the street to start businesses, and senior citizens who could seek medical attention at Mercy Hospital simply by boarding a bus on 31st Street have to instead spend $50 on a Pace van.
Joe Trutin, owner of the Video Strip on Archer Avenue in McKinley Park and a former candidate for the Illinois House, said having a 31st Street bus is also beneficial because his and other businesses are located in Chicago’s geographic center and having these neighborhoods not be connected to each other isn’t right. Bridgeport native Maureen Sullivan of the Friends of South Halsted offered historical accounts of the neighborhoods and how having a bus route on 31st Street made the neighborhoods it connected better and have a tighter overall sense of community.
“We have seniors in Bronzeville who want to shop for groceries at the new Cermak Fresh market on Halsted, but can’t get there,” Sullivan said.
Detractors of the coalition’s efforts say there’s already a bus route serving most of these neighborhoods with the 35th Street route and that 31st Street, particularly from Bridgeport to the Dan Ryan expressway and west of Cook County Jail, is simply too narrow for a route to exist. But a solid portion of the route follows Western and Archer Avenues and there are bus routes currently in operation on streets that are as narrow, or slightly wider, than 31st Street; the 44 Wallace/Racine route immediately comes to mind.
CTA has been awarded a $1.1 million federal grant that could provide half the funding to restore the 31st street route, which would run from Cicero Avenue on the west all the way to the Museum Campus. But CTA needs to use the funds soon or they risk losing the grant.