Mayor Emanuels 2017 Infrastructure Address

Remarks as prepared February 9, 2017

Good afternoon. I want to thank Jim Connolly, the Laborers District

Council and their union contractors for hosting us.

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.

Our motto: if you build it, jobs will come.

And as we have seen, when we make a concerted investment in a

connected future, economic development and job creation follow. New
jobs and new opportunities follow. Families and businesses move to the
city, rather than leave.

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.

Young families, like the one I met at an apprenticeship graduation in

this building, have the chance to buy their first home.

We create new opportunities for small businesses. Just yesterday we

held our fifth annual Construction Summit on the West Side. More than
1,000 people came out to get connected to opportunities building a
new Chicago.

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.

At every point in our citys history when we invested in transportation,

when we had the will to build for the future, we exceled. At one time,
St. Louis was the biggest city in the Midwest. They chose not to invest
in rail. Chicago embraced the railroads, and we thrived. We created

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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.

Today, the CTA is in the midst of the largest modernization in its

history.

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.

Chicago cannot be known as the city that works if we cannot efficiently

get our people to and from work.

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.

This morning, I was with Alderman Walter Burnett to announce plans

for a brand new Green Line Station at Damen and Lake, modeled after
the Morgan Station. The new station will connect folks on the Near
West Side to jobs, to schools, and to opportunities across the City of
Chicago.

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.

Altogether, our investments in the CTA have already supported over

15,000 good-paying construction jobs. They will support another
10,000 jobs over the next three years as part of the largest capital
improvement plan in CTA history.

We are at the midpoint of the Your New Blue project modernizing

stations and tracks and taking 10 minutes off a roundtrip from
downtown to OHare. To connect people to OHare even faster, we are

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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.

Creating faster connections between the economic engine of our

central business district and the economic engine of OHare will pay
dividends for generations to come.

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.

That is why we are expanding OHares runway capacity by the size of

Midways total capacity.

In the last three years we opened two new runways. When we

complete the third and final runway of OHares modernization, we will
have effectively added a third major airport for the City of Chicago.
And OHare will have among the most efficient runway systems of any
airport in the country.

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.

Partners in the private sector are building new state-of-the-art cargo

facilities that can house the largest freight aircrafts in the world. Today,
nearly a third of Chinas air cargo to the United States comes through
Chicago. We need to create the capacity to not just retain that
competitive edge, but expand it.

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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.

Because the City of Chicago is investing in the future of aviation in

the last five years 16 new airlines have launched routes from Chicago
to cities around the world. And existing carriers have expanded service
to new destinations. These new flights generate more than 2.8
billion dollars in annual economic activity for the Chicago region. And
our investments in OHare and Midway create a total of nearly 15,000
jobs.

Transportation is not just Chicagos historic strength, its our

competitive advantage for the future.

In addition to our airports, Chicago is home to six of Americas seven

Class One railroads. Seven major interstate highways. The only direct
water connection between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River. And
the second largest transit system in North America.

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.

We are building on the strengths of our freight rail system which

handles a quarter of the countrys total freight volume through the
CREATE program to make our freight rails stronger and safer. Chicago
is Americas rail hub today, and in the next 30 years the freight coming

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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.

We have reconfigured intersections that were congested and

dangerous for drivers and pedestrians like those at Damen, Fullerton,
and Elston, and Western and Belmont where we now have safer
roadways that are reconnecting the fabric of communities and opening
up new opportunities for development.

We are investing in neighborhood commercial areas with new

streetscapes across the city.

Underneath our roads, we are at the midpoint of a project to repair or

replace Chicagos water pipes, sewer lines, and catch basins. I just met
with some of the apprentices who are doing this work. They are part of
a group of apprentices who have gone through training right here in
this building since the program started in 2012, and there are more on
the way. Building the foundations that will support Chicagos water
system for generations to come has supported more than 10,000 jobs
in the last five years and will support another 8,000 jobs in the next
three years.

Today, Chicago is moving forward with projects that have the power to
transform our transportation system.

One of the biggest steps we can take to Build a New Chicago is to

redevelop and reimagine Union Station, which handles as many
passengers every day as some of the countrys busiest airports. That is
why we recently signed an agreement with the US Department of
Transportation which will pave the way for a billion dollars in funding to
renovate and expand Union Station. This is a major step forward for a
long-stalled and critically important investment in Chicagos future,
and I am making it a priority to get this done. We are partnering with
Amtrak and Metra to build a new future for Union Station that is as rich
as its past. This morning, I just met with the President of Amtrak to
move this essential investment forward, and I feel optimistic about its
future. When we do move forward, we will create over 4,000 new
construction jobs.

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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.

At Chicago Public Schools we are building 272 new classrooms, 38 new

science labs, 21 new computer labs, 14 new art rooms, and 13 new
music rooms. Chicagos students are making unprecedented gains in
the classroom, and we are going to support them with an
unprecedented modernization of our elementary schools, middle
schools, and high schools. The work we have done modernizing
Chicago Public Schools and the work we have planned supports
nearly 4,000 jobs.

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.

We were reconstructing the transportation, distribution, and logistics

center at Olive Harvey College. But as you know, that construction has
been stalled since 2015 as the state continues to play politics with our
students, their futures, and the future of our city as a transportation
and logistics center.

Everything we have accomplished and built in Chicago has been done

in the absence of a capital budget from Springfield. The state has
actually been withholding funds, rather than fulfilling their
commitments to our citys future. My hope is that soon Springfield will
be a reliable partner not an obstacle in building a new Chicago. But
in the meantime, we are moving forward, because delay is not an
option or a sound economic strategy for the City of Chicago.

That is why we are rebuilding Richard J. Daley College, our school of

advanced manufacturing, without the state. Were going to build it
ourselves and not just provide a 21st century education for Chicago

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students, but bring more jobs and more opportunities to the City of
Chicago.

Were investing in schools supporting students from kindergarten

through college, and investing in neighborhood improvements that
make our communities great places to live.

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.

In Bronzeville and Kenwood we are building and reconstructing five

bridges to better connect communities with the Lakefront, with striking
architectural designs. When you drive down Lake Shore Drive you can
now see the new 35th Street Suspension Bridge spanning the Drive and
the Metra tracks.

This week the Chicago Infrastructure Trust picked a company to

convert 270,000 streetlights to LED, and installation on one of the
countrys largest outdoor lighting projects in history will begin this
spring.

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.

Our transit-oriented development strategy is generating millions for

the City of Chicago, our transit agencies, and parks.

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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.

The Chicago Department of Buildings had more requests for

construction permits last year than in any of the previous ten years. A
high class problem: they had to bring on more inspectors and
engineers just to handle all the new applications to build.

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.

We have the highest levels of employment in the City of Chicago since

2000. And Chicago raised the minimum wage to ensure no one who
works full time in our great city has to live in poverty.

We have implemented a record number of reforms to increase Minority

and Women Owned Business participation in our progress.

And at a time when the population of the state of Illinois is declining,

Chicagos population is actually growing.

People and businesses are moving here, building here, working here,
and investing here for a reason.

Theyre coming to Chicago because we are willing to invest in our own

future, put our own fiscal house in order, and commit ourselves to
Building a New Chicago.

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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.

Just recently, Harvard Business Review published an article highlighting

Chicago as an example for other cities to follow. The headline? Rising
from the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicagos Entrepreneurial
Ecosystem.

There is a reason Chicago had the second highest number of

companies of any city on the Inc. 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies
list.

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.

There is a reason companies like McDonalds, ADM, Motorola, GE

Transportation, GE Health, ConAgara, Kraft Heinz, GoGo, Coeurs
Mining, Duracell, and countless other large and small businesses are
relocating to the City of Chicago, expanding in the City of Chicago, and
creating new jobs in the City of Chicago. Because they see a city thats
willing to invest in its future.

When we invest in a new Chicago, economic development follows.

When we invest in the transportation system of a new Chicago we
create new jobs that cannot be offshored or outsourced. More than
60,000 of them in the last five years. More than 40,000 in the next
three years.

When we invest to build a new Chicago, we are putting people from

Chicagos communities to work in Chicagos communities.

New training facilities open, and new opportunities in apprenticeship

programs open up so young people like Bernard can embark on good
paying jobs that can support a family.

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.

They are investments in people like Henri Jordan, who recently

graduated from our Greencorps program. Greencorps trains
Chicagoans who have faced barriers to employment and helps connect
them with jobs.

Henri used to be in a gang. He was also incarcerated. But he was

determined to build a different life. He went to rehabilitation and
counseling, and then went through the Greencorps training program.
Today Henri is not only building a new Chicago through his work at the
Forest Preserves, he is committed to helping young men escape from
the streets. He volunteers as a mentor, and helps recruit new members
to Greencorps.

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.

It is a future that builds on our historic strengths. A future that is more

accessible. A future where everyone in Chicago is more connected to
each other, to opportunities, and to the world.

A future in which when you build it, jobs will come.

A future that works for all of us, and that is even brighter than our
past.

Thank you, now lets get to work.

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