Good morning.
Good morning.
Auto Woman Emma Mitz, 37 Ward.
We'd like to welcome you to the Austin community and 37 as we kick off the 2026 construction season.
I'd like to take the time to thank Mayor Brandon Johnson, Commissioner William Cheeks from CDOT, Malcolm Crawford with the AAA B&A.
It's great to see the next section of the Chicago Avenue Street Cake Improvement now underway right here in Austin.
I think there's no better place to kick off the 2026 construction season.
This is an exciting time for the Soul City Corridor,
with the new affordable housing development open just down the street.
And the work on Laramie State Bank redevelopment is going to set the beginning late this year.
However, as we break ground on the next section of the Streetscape Project, these improvements will help attract more development and create a more inviting, welcoming street.
That's what the Soul City Corridor is all about.
It's all about strengthening Chicago Avenue as a destination for residents, families, and local business.
These improvements upgrade to the streets, new sidewalks, new lighting, and changes that make the corridor safer and more pedestrian friendly.
I want to thank Mayor Johnson and the CDOT team and all of the partners, all of the city workers, all of the community, and all of those who are investing in the Austin community.
I look forward to working closely with them throughout the year to develop more improvement across the entire 37th Ward.
We're excited to see this work continue and keep building a stronger Chicago Avenue.
At this time, it is my pleasure to introduce Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Thank you very much, Alderwoman Mitts, for that introduction, and good morning, everyone.
It is great to be home right here in Austin as we kick off construction season here in Chicago.
This week we'll feature a series of events being led.
led by our infrastructure departments, showing the breadth of my administration's commitment to improving the quality of life for all of Chicago.
Spring in Chicago means residents and families can expect to see more orange cones, more crews, and more equipment on our streets.
And that's a good thing, Chicago.
It means we are hard at work beautifying and investing in our beloved city.
Last spring, we were just west of here, cutting the ribbon on the first phase of improvements
along the Seoul City Corridor on Chicago Avenue, and today that work continues.
Work is underway on the next section of the Chicago Avenue Seoul City Streetscape Improvement Project
with comprehensive infrastructure upgrades between Central and Laramie.
This project will deliver a better functioning corridor for the people who rely on it,
residents, businesses, and everyone who moved through this incredible community, the Austin neighborhood.
Under my administration, we are making investments similar to the Soul City Streetscape Improvement Project all across Chicago.
This is what it looks like when we build better together.
We are coming off of a productive construction season last year thanks to the great team at CDOT.
I'll highlight just a few of those accomplishments.
More than 170 miles of residential and arterial streets and alleyways were resurfaced.
Street lighting was modernized across more than 380 blocks.
Over 3,000 sidewalks, repairs, and more than 6,000 ADA ramps were installed.
And more than 50 blocks of green alleys were completed, improving drainage in neighborhoods that needed the most.
Across all our projects and programs, we are making traffic safety a priority so that everyone can move around our city safely, comfortably, whether they're walking, biking, driving, or taking public transportation.
You can see that right here on Chicago Avenue.
This streetscape project includes safer pedestrian crossing, new bike infrastructure, and improved bus stops,
all designed to better serve the people who use this corridor every single day.
This is not a street that should feel like a highway.
It's a neighborhood corridor where people live, shop, gather, and spend time.
And the design of the street should reflect that.
We're taking that same approach across the city, recognizing that traffic safety is public safety.
Last year, we added more than 26 miles of new low-stress bikeways, surpassing 500 miles citywide.
We also delivered complete streets safety improvements at scale, including nearly 100 new pedestrian refuge islands,
more than 740 curb extensions, and over 50 raised crosswalks and more than 100 bus stops accessibility improvements.
We have been working hard for the people of Chicago.
And as this work is making life-saving differences, our work continues.
Since 2021, traffic fatalities in Chicago are down about 30 percent, outpacing national trends.
And there's still more work to do, but we are committed to continuing that progress every single day.
Neighborhoods across the city deserve these investments.
And that's exactly what we'll be doing this construction season.
And finally, I want to thank the city crews, our contractors, and labor partners for their work in investing in Chicago's infrastructure.
Let's give it up for all of these workers here today.
Thank you.
I'm even clapping for the brother that's wearing a socks hat.
That's how unifying I am right now.
Go Cubs. But none of this work happens without strong leadership and dedicated public servants.
I do want to take a moment to thank our former interim commissioner, Craig Turner.
Let's give it up for Craig. His leadership guided the department during this tenure and his commitment to the city of Chicago is unwavering.
Thank you, Craig, for your love for our beloved city.
And now I'm proud to introduce someone that I have asked to lead this work permanently at CEDAWC.
William Cheeks is a lifelong Chicagoan, a public servant, bringing four decades of experience managing large-scale infrastructure and public operations.
His career reflects a deep understanding of how infrastructure shapes daily life across the city.
And under his leadership, CDOT will continue building a safer, more efficient, and more equitable transportation system for all Chicagoans.
Not sure if he's a Cubs fan, but he got the job nonetheless.
You all put your hands together for Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, Mr. William Cheeks, Jr.
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for coming,
and thank Mayor Johnson for your leadership and partnership
as we kick off another productive construction season in Chicago.
It is an honor to be here today,
and I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve in this role leading CDOT.
I'm focused on strengthening how we deliver projects,
improving coordination and communication,
while continuing to build a transportation system that works better for every Chicagoan.
Under Mayor Johnson's leadership and the Build Better Together initiative, CDOT has delivered real progress in neighborhoods across the city through major multi-year capital projects and the everyday neighborhood infrastructure that improves the quality of life for residents.
Right here behind me is a great example of what that looks like.
The Chicago Avenue project is a full street reconstruction.
It encompasses just about every element that makes the street work for the people who use it every day.
Some of those elements are a rebuilt roadway, new curb and gutter, ADA ramps, wider sidewalks, new street lighting, bike lanes, and tree plantings.
We're also adding raised crosswalks, curb extensions, bus boarding islands, and traffic signal upgrades.
I want to acknowledge Sumit Construction, our prime contractor, for their work delivering this important project.
Sumit has been around for a long time. I've worked with them before, and I appreciate the opportunity to work with them again.
This is a critical moment for Chicago's infrastructure.
CDOT is advancing several major capital projects that kicked off last year,
including the new state and lake CTA station,
reconstruction of the Lake Street-Vascule Bridge,
and the Chicago Avenue Bridge and Halster Street Viaduct.
These are major, complex projects that will shape how downtown functions for decades to come.
At the same time, crews are out every day across all 77 neighborhoods,
delivering the block-level improvements that improve quality of life for residents.
We will be paving streets, repairing sidewalks, upgrading lighting, and delivering traffic safety improvements.
Our focus is to deliver all of it efficiently, coordinate closely with our partners, and do the work safely while minimizing disruption whenever we can.
As construction season gets underway, I also want to acknowledge what this means for the public.
We know this work may be disruptive.
It can mean detours and changes to your daily routine, but this work is necessary to maintain and improve our infrastructure for the long term.
We appreciate the public's patience as this work moves forward, and we are committed to communicating clearly and minimizing impacts wherever we can.
Finally, I want to emphasize something that is critically important this time of year, safety in work zones.
When you see cones, barriers, or lane closures, this means crews may be working in close proximity to traffic.
It's not only CDOT crews, but ComEd, People's Gas, and other infrastructure projects that are going on.
We need everyone to do their part.
Slow down, stay alert, focus on the posted signs, and give workers the space they need to do their job safely.
I'm proud to lead this work alongside my team at CDOT and our partners across the city.
Let's have a safe and successful construction season.
Thank you.
At this time, I'd like to introduce Malcolm Walker.
Crawford, I'm sorry.
I wrote it down a while.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Malcolm Crawford from AAABNA.
Malcolm.
Well, the Walker side of my family would be excited.
We have walkers in my family as well, but I'm Malcolm Crawford, director of Austin's African-American Business Networking Association, and we are excited.
And we often say, you know, what better street for Chicago to have a focus on than a street called Chicago Avenue?
That's right. That's right. It makes sense. And it runs the length and breadth of the city.
And so so goes Chicago Avenue. So goes the city of Chicago.
And to see this amount of investment in our community is just, you know, it just makes you feel feel great.
And to know that Alderman Mitch has been at the helm for 26 years doing this work, we ought to give her a hand.
And then I believe the man knows a little bit about Chicago Avenue because he's somewhere close around here where this is his community.
When he says this is community, he's not playing.
He actually this really is his his community.
He lives here. We see his we see his motorcade traveling down Chicago.
And so it's just exciting. This is just an exciting time for Austin, an exciting time for the Soul City Corridor.
Things are changing. And this this public investment has created private investment, which is now creating where residents and people are doing more.
Now we have residents that are putting up wrought iron. People who are actually planting flowers.
It is starting to snowball now with Chicago Avenue is slowly starting to become a very noticeable place.
And one thing I love about that, man, I love about the alderman.
When we found out that 85 percent of the disposable income of Austin goes to Oak Park, which translates into about one hundred and eighty million dollars a year that Oak Park gets simply because we didn't have it here in Chicago.
It made sense. And now it's happening.
Y'all give us a hand.
Now, I'm going to ask you guys, those of us, we're going to do some shoveling.
I'm not going to do that again.
They know my spiel, but I'm not going to do it this time.
But what, oh, they say do it.
So when I say so, I just need y'all to say city.
That's all.
One time.
So when I say so, you say city.
So.
City.
All right.
I got it. All right. But what we're going to do now, I want don't mention snow in April ever again.
No, I won't. I won't do that either. So now what we're going to do, we're going to transition over to the shovels section.
And so we're going to ask you guys to pivot this way and you will see where we're going to do the shoveling.
Thank you. Thank you.
I know.
Okay.
Yeah, thank you.
Good morning, Mayor Johnson.
How are you doing?
Good morning, Jeff.
I'm doing well.
Thank you.
Welcome to Austin again.
Thank you very much.
It's a pleasure to be here always.
With construction season starting, one thing that our listeners are really interested in knowing about is potholes.
We had a rough winter.
We had a lot of rain this spring.
What's the pothole crop looking like for the city?
And does the city have the funds necessary to fill those in to smooth everybody's ride?
Yeah, we're working hard to do that.
Obviously, Commissioner Cheeks is just getting started today, but he's got, you know, four decades of leadership.
Commissioner, you want to speak to that?
Sure. Good morning.
So I realize that potholes are being have come to a lot extra right now.
So, actually, I met with my team last week.
We're looking at putting up a few additional crews.
We'll wolf pack them so we can address higher numbers in certain areas.
So triage here, move to another ward, triage, triage here.
And then keep my other crews working as well.
Mayor, good morning.
Good morning.
I wanted to ask you one on topic, one off topic, on topic first.
How much did not having a permanent head of CDOT delay perhaps some projects for you?
There are those asking me to pass on this question to you.
They feel as if, you know, the construction season has been tough on the arteries heading into the city,
especially off the Kennedy Expressway.
Why all those at once?
I know that topic has come up before, but maybe you could explain it one more time.
Yeah, look, we have taken on quite a bit because the people of Chicago have called for it.
And so I've taken a very aggressive approach towards transforming our infrastructure.
As I said in my remarks, more than 170 miles of residential and arterial streets and alleys were resurfaced.
Street lighting was modernized across more than 380 blocks, 3,000 sidewalk repairs, 6,000 ADAs.
I mean, look, that work is continuing.
Look, taking on big projects is what I was elected to do.
and that
That work is going to continue to move, and, of course, we do appreciate the patience of the people of Chicago.
But, again, people are working.
Our infrastructure is being drastically improved, and that's a good thing for Chicago.
Will it be better coordinated perhaps now?
Well, look, we have a brand-new commissioner here who's got four decades of experience.
As I said in my remarks, he's accustomed to large-scale projects.
That level of coordination is one that we talked about during the interview process.
He's prepared to tackle that.
There's a lot of work that people want us to get done, and we're going to get it all done.
All right, back to the favorite topic always, the Bears.
Yes, yes.
So the Bears management has met in Hammond twice last week, and NFL is looking for this update very soon.
And it surely does not appear that the city of Chicago is part of that update.
You've had several last pitches, but is there anything else to say as the lawmakers appear to maybe be making progress this week?
Well, look, I'm going to continue to maintain my position that the Bears belong in the city of Chicago.
The lakefront is the top tourist destination anywhere in the entire state, only second to Wrigley Field and Wrigleyville.
And that entire museum campus generates a great deal of revenue for not just the city, the state, but the entire region.
Unlocking that campus is an economic benefit for the entire region.
The Bears belong in the city of Chicago.
I believe what's being banted about right now in Springfield is centered around providing some property tax incentive for corporations.
At a time in which everyday working people are not receiving property tax benefit or relief to offer that up to corporations, those are literally public dollars benefiting corporations.
That is what I've heard Springfield did not want to do, right?
So I think it's actually counterintuitive.
I'm going to continue to challenge all of us to make sure that the economic vitality that we are experiencing in Chicago, we continue to grow that.
Last year, as you know, 3.5 million visitors came to Chicago.
That's the most amount of visitors ever in the history of Chicago.
Under my administration, our airport is now the busiest in the entire country, O'Hare.
American Airlines just celebrated 100 years.
We have construction happening at the 1901 Project, construction on the southeast side of Chicago.
We are building a football stadium.
We call it soccer, but we're building a brand-new stadium for Chicago Fire for that club.
So clearly there's a great deal of excitement and incentive to develop and to build in Chicago.
I'm going to continue to play hard.
As you know, I guess in the spirit of Caleb Williams, never count us out.
I appreciate your indulgence of the question for my colleague Brandon Eisen, who couldn't be here because he's covering the story that I'm about to ask you about.
Now that we know what you meant when you said May 1st is going to happen,
there are people who are concerned about what they view as an overly political nature of the activities
that CTU and others are planning on for May 1st for a lot of the city's public school students.
I wonder if you'd speak to that, please, sir.
Look, civic engagement is something that we should be encouraging.
I'm a former social studies teacher.
In fact, I literally taught the Constitution.
You cannot move on out of grammar school unless you pass the Constitution.
Our politics are centered around that document.
I think anything that we can do to engage the people of Chicago and around the country
to elevate their civic consciousness, that's a good thing for our democracy,
particularly at a time in which this president is literally trying to erode the very tenets of our Constitution.
And here's what I'll also say.
Change in this country has always come about when everyday working people stand up.
Just last month, again, we celebrated the life of Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.
He was a part of a youth movement.
There's strong documentation in this country how young people have been a part of transforming our economy.
Dr. King was 15 years old when he was moved on to higher education.
What I find ironic, too, is that he actually got a C in public speaking, which is somewhat fascinating, right?
It's just proof positive, though, that when young people are engaged, when working people are engaged,
when black, brown, white, Asian folks are engaged, when we're all coming together around civic activity, there's benefit.
The last thing that I'll say is, look, our school districts across the state of Illinois need over $3 billion to be funded properly.
In order to do that equitably, this largest school district in Illinois...
It beats about $1.6 billion from the evidence-based funding model that the state of Illinois passed.
And so we have to make a conscious decision as working people in this country.
At a time in which the largest upward transfer of wealth went into the hands of the ultra-rich,
we're providing opportunities for people to work, right, to get the infrastructure needs met,
as your other colleague articulated.
These big projects that have to get done, it requires investment.
And so this Civic Day of Action is one that is modeled after, you know, movements that have led to the diversity that we are experiencing right now across our city.
So we're going to continue to build safe and affordable communities.
And I'm asking all residents of the city of Chicago to use May 1st as an opportunity to elevate the consciousness of our civic responsibility.
And let's challenge those with means to put more skin in the game so that our schools can be fully funded, can have access to health care, that we can have strong, reliable, safe, accessible public transportation, good paying jobs and, of course, affordable housing.
That's the effort that I'm leading in the city of Chicago, building the safest, most affordable big city in America.
Thank you all very much.