| Chicago’s Public
Works Projects
The City of Chicago’s Office of Budget
and Management has released its
2001 Construction Report. This report shows
infrastructure projects throughout the City
that were completed or are in the process of
being completed.
In addition, the Office of Budget and Management
has put online a Monthly
CIP (Capital Improvement Program) Status Report
which shows, in detail, the status of city infrastructure
projects, including the name of the contractor
and estimated and actual start and finish dates.
 This
document is in Adobe Acrobat format. If you
need a free Adobe Acrobat reader, click
here.
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"Public works" is another term for the "capital improvements"
or construction projects undertaken to build infrastructure.
Our tax dollars pay for the public works projects that
government builds and maintains. Typically, infrastructure
projects are built to last (more than five years) and
to be used for the general public good. Infrastructure
includes the places where the public meets and conducts
civic life, like schools, libraries and public office
buildings. Infrastructure or capital improvement projects
("public works projects") create and sustain the systems
that provide us with clean water, sewage treatment,
and utility connections. Public works projects also
include mass transit facilities, like subways and elevated
lines, the train cars and buses, and other elements
of our transportation system, like bridges, viaducts,
and highways.
Why does Neighborhood Capital Budget
Group care about public works?? Why should YOU??
How well our government manages the public's infrastructure
has far-reaching effects on our daily lives. We take
for granted that the faucet will produce water, that
waste will be taken away from our homes and businesses,
and that we can travel safely and conveniently from
one place to another. When public works investment
is well managed, and our infrastructure systems are
in good working order, most people don't ever notice
infrastructure. But when it starts to fall apart,
it can disrupt our daily lives and inhibit the economic
development of our communities.
In 1988, NCBG was organized to tackle the
question of why Chicago's
neighborhoods were literally falling apart and crumbling
beneath the feet of their residents. Grassroots
groups, local small business associations, and neighborhood
industrial councils wondered why their communities
weren't getting their fair share of public investment
to rebuild all of the basic systems and facilities
in neighborhoods that were in disrepair. By the late
1980s, the lack of a public works program for Chicago's
neighborhoods was beginning to have visible and dramatic
impacts all over the City:
- Sewers backed up in rain storms,
and viaducts flooded.
- Some neighborhoods still had unpaved alleys,
which contribute to unsanitary conditions. Thousands
of alleys that had once been paved needed to be
rebuilt.
- Crumbling sidewalks represented
public safety hazards, particularly in old neighborhoods
plagued with vaulted sidewalks.
- Many public facilities were dingy,
in disrepair, overcrowded or obsolete, including
libraries and fire stations. Some neighborhoods
didn't have local library buildings.
- Our public school buildings were in a terrible
state, and attracted unwelcome national notoriety
for its "Schools in Ruins" (as
an investigative journalist named his series of
articles in 1990-91).
- Neighborhood manufacturers complained about lost
time and profits every time their delivery
trucks got stuck under viaducts built for early
20th century truck heights.
- One-hundred year old water mains
leaked and failed to provide adequate water pressure
for industrial processes, or even for factories'
fire sprinkler systems. Poor infrastructure conditions
contributed to the decision by many employers to
move to the suburbs, taking entry-level and family-sustaining
jobs with them.
- CTA trains running on poorly
maintained L tracks - many of them built at the
end of the 19th Century-- had to slow
down to a crawl. Many people stopped using the
L altogether because it had gotten so slow. The
CTA's aging bus fleet experienced frequent breakdowns,
frustrating the riding public with delays.
In short, crumbling infrastructure created
the graphic impression that no one cared about the
neighborhoods outside of Chicago's
famed "Loop" business
district. The blight discouraged homeowners,
industry and business from wanting to stay in the
City.
NCBG built a broad-based coalition of community
stakeholders that convinced the City
to reinvest some of the public's tax dollars back
into the neighborhoods. NCBG argued that
increased and strategically placed public works investment
would attract private-sector reinvestment to the neighborhoods
as well. Not only would neighborhoods look better,
they would function better. An infusion of public
works investment would send the signal that City Hall
cared, that our neighborhoods had a bright future,
and would be good places to start a business or buy
a home. Besides, we pointed out, it was government's
responsibility to take care of these public assets
- for everyone.
Now, at the beginning of the 21st century,
much of Chicago's neighborhood infrastructure has
finally gotten some attention. We "still have miles
to go" - literally - miles of transit lines, subway
tunnels, streets, alleys, sewer and water lines, and
sidewalks - not to mention our schools and other public
buildings. But the City's investment of nearly $9
BILLION during the 1990s has started to pay returns.
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