When it comes to improving Chicago transportation, city officials and advocates often focus on infrastructure, reasoning that street redesigns, public transit improvements, and better pedestrian and bike facilities will help make travel safer and more convenient for all residents.
Ware, 21, grew up in Rochester, New York, and now lives in the Austin neighborhood, where he runs a restorative justice program at Austin College and Career Academy. #LetUsBreathe was formed as a fund-raising initiative to provide aid to Ferguson protesters. The group uses civil disobedience, as well as outreach through various art forms, to call for police and prison abolition.
Being forced to wait for transit for long stretches, or encountering bus stops with no seating become “questions of dignity” for African-Americans, Carruthers says.
“It could have a lot of impact if the city just gave every CPS student free fare,” he says. “Students who are pinching pennies for the CTA might [also] have problems paying for uniforms and school supplies.”
On the other hand, Ware says, poor and working-class residents may view new bike lanes and transit stations in their neighborhoods as harbingers of gentrification that could force them from their homes. For example, he notes that the $203 million revamp of the Wilson Red Line stop will make economically diverse Uptown more attractive to higher-income folks who want easy rail access to their downtown offices.
“How do we make sure the enforcement doesn’t disproportionately affect communities of color?” Carruthers asks. “There are already more police in these communities than other parts of the city, and the mayor is hiring hundreds more officers,” Carruthers says. “Giving more resources to the police does not make brown and black neighborhoods safer—investments in education, jobs, and mental health do.”
