Labor backs Amtrak project as community concern climbs
(The Center Square) – Labor leaders in Chicago are backing plans to create a new Amtrak maintenance facility on the city’s South Side, despite controversy and local uproar over the project.
The Chicago Federation of Labor last week announced alongside Amtrak officials that it supports the $900 million facility proposed for an existing rail yard near Bridgeport, citing the job creation and impact the project will have on Bridgeport and the surrounding area.
CFL President Bob Reiter said there is still value in hearing community concerns, even if the labor organization is putting their support behind the project.
“Chicago should not have to choose between protecting its neighborhoods, supporting working people, and building a stronger transportation system,” Reiter said.
Community residents are concerned about other impacts the project will have, such as the immediate environment and on the residents who live closest to the currently seldom-used rail yard.
Alderman Nicole Lee of Chicago’s 11th Ward introduced a resolution in Wednesday’s City Council meeting – supported by 36 aldermen – calling for an environmental review of the project and more, which residents and community groups have been critical of.
Peter Polacek from the clerk’s office described Lee’s measure.
“Lee and others have proposed a resolution to call for hearings on Amtrak Midwest maintenance facility site selection, alternatives, federal environmental review, and possible effects on nearby communities and shared rail operations, which is referred to the Committee on Transportation and Public Way,” Polacek said.
Hannah Dembosky, founder of community group Bridgeport Environmentalists, said it was “suspicious” for the current presidential administration to be using tactists to bypass environmental oversight.
“The project got the categorical exclusion from federal environmental review, which is what they’re kind of holding over us to say, you know, ‘oh we don’t need to do more.’ The Trump administration has very publicly announced what they’re calling their categorical exclusion first approach,” Dembosky said.. “They’re basically giving as many projects as physically possible categorical exclusions from environmental review.”
Hundreds of residents, multiple schools and other community spaces sit just feet away from the proposed site, which Dembosky said could present serious risks to the public.
The community is also more widely concerned about the involvement of billionaire and future White Sox owner Justin Ishbia in the Amtrak project, with his firm hired for the redevelopment project, while also eyeing Amtrak’s currency yard as a potential location for a new stadium.
The Sox are contracted with the state-owned Rate Field through 2029, with the option to renew for one year. In the meantime, Ishbia has his eyes set constructing a new development for the team to call home.
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