Chicago Politics

CDOT School Zone Improvement Press Conference 10.8.26

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Description

Mayor Brandon Johnson attends the CDOT School Zone Improvement Press Conference.

Transcript

2:07 All right. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Benjamin E. Mays Academy. Good morning. We are very pleased to have Mayor Johnson, Alderman Hall, the Chicago Department of Transportation, Teamwork Inglewood, Community Action Council, and our community partners here with us today. At Mays, we are excited to see new traffic safety investments that will help make getting to and from school safer for our students and families.

2:39 We are grateful to Mayor Johnson and Alderman Hall for recognizing that supporting our students also means making sure they can travel to and from school safely. And thank you to the CDOT team for listening to our school community and working with us to address some of the challenges we experience every day. When I arrived at Mays in 2024, our school's drop-off and pickup process presented significant problems and safety hazards for our students and families, and also we had operational chaos.

3:15 The existing guardrail and fence created severe barrier issues, making it difficult for students to safely reach cars and or cross the street. During morning arrival and afternoon dismissal, students and parents were frequently hopping the fence and darting across traffic to reach their cars. Without speed humps and with physical barriers obstructing control, our staff was simply unable to safely manage student movement. Additionally, accessibility was a major issue for our elderly and disabled family members,

3:52 who struggled with long walks to the main entrance and voiced growing concerns regarding the lack of accommodation. Having the city listen to those concerns and work with us on solutions has meant a great deal to our school community. These improvements will help create a safer and more welcoming environment for our students and families, and we are proud to see this investment happening here in Inglewood. Thank you all for being here today. And now it is my pleasure to introduce Alderman William Hall.

4:29 Thank you so much. Three times I came to this school. The first time we had some young people who came from the southern part of our nation. And there was a need to make sure that children had Wi-Fi to get the tablets to translate. The second time I came was because there was a concern. And as a son of a principal, one of the things that I know principals concern is children's safety. And when I came here, the second time it was to try to figure it out.

5:01 The third time I got fussed out. And the fourth time we got it right, because even in the midst of our transitions with our CDOT leadership, I'm grateful that our mayor kept this at the top of the list. No matter who was in office in CDOT, this school was a priority. And so through the ups and the downs and through the leadership, first of this great principal, second, through the staff who continued every single day to make sure that no child was hit, to make sure that every child got to and from.

5:33 That's only a measure of how much love is on this corner. So can we celebrate the leadership of this school and every principal that has always thought about their children's? Come on, y'all. Y'all can do better than that. And so teamwork is what makes a dream work. And so even in their absence, Teamwork Inglewood not only had this school on their mind, but they had Inglewood STEM and every school in this neighborhood, of which we made sure that we put every speed bump you can imagine up and down Stord, up and down 67th Street, and even made sure that we put a speed camera for those who still didn't want to slow down in front of our schools here in Inglewood.

6:15 And so that's the type of leadership that we have, not only in the sixth ward, but from the fifth floor. We have a mayor that cares about children. We have a mayor that cares about neighborhoods where children come from. And I'm grateful to say to you all today that we have a mayor that not only shows up to cut ribbons and see new roads, but he shows up because he cares about the future of our children. I want you all to clap your hands for the mayor of the city of Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson. Thank you so much, Alderman Hall, for that introduction.

6:47 And good morning, everyone. It is truly a blessing to be with you all this morning. And thank you to Principal Jones for welcoming us today at Mays Elementary, her assistant principal, assistant principal Palmer, I believe. And I do again want to thank Alderman Hall, CDOT Commissioner Cheeks, teamwork Inglewood and the educators and students that are here today. I thank you all for your leadership and the collaboration that was so necessary in ensuring that our schools are safe.

7:24 Schools are sacred spaces for our young people. This is where their futures are formed. Students deserve to feel confident, secure, and most of all, safe inside and outside their schools so that they can focus on their education. And that means ensuring that they can walk, take a bike, ride the bus, or get dropped off by a family member to school in a safe way. Yesterday, I joined students and families for a bike bus, a ride to Hamilton Elementary, as part of the Walk and Roll to School Day.

8:01 It was great to see a school community come together. It was also a reminder of why safe routes to schools certainly do matter. Today we are celebrating continued investments that make those daily trips safer for students and families across our beloved city. And through CDOT's School Zone program, we take a comprehensive look at traffic safety in the streets surrounding our schools, and then we work with the school leaders and community partners to make the streets safer for students and all of our families.

8:34 This commitment is evidenced right here in Inglewood, where nearly 2,000 young people travel each day to schools in and around the Stewart Avenue corridor. These include Benjamin E. Mays Academy, Barbara A. Sizemore Academy, Inglewood STEM High School, Jones College Prep, Parker Community Academy, and Urban Prep Academy. We are delivering a coordinated set of improvements in this corridor to help students get to school and help residents move through the neighborhood safely.

9:10 Here at Mays, we added speed bumps and changed the lane layout to make school pickup and drop-off safer. Our Stewart Avenue, right here on Stewart Avenue, we added a protected bike lane, speed bumps, and curb extensions to slow traffic and shorten crossings. On 69th Street near Englewood, Stem, and Parker Community Academy, we added pedestrian islands and curb extensions to make crossing the street safer. And we added lower speed limits on neighborhood streets surrounding the schools.

9:42 And this work grew out of concerns raised by school leaders and local organizations. Teamwork Inglewood, whose partnership helped CDOT understand what students and families needed. I want to take this moment to thank Inglewood Academy and the Inglewood community, school leaders, and Teamwork Inglewood for turning concerns into solutions and real improvements. I also want to acknowledge CDOT planner, Riley O'Neill, who worked on this project and was tragically killed in a bike crash this past summer.

10:15 Riley worked closely with Principal Jones and helped develop the improvements around these schools. Our city remains grateful for his service. I know his loss is still felt deeply by his colleagues and loved ones. And I hope it is comforting to all, all of them, that Riley's work will continue to benefit students, families, and residents every single day in this city. And finally, it's in his honor we are continuing to invest in safer streets around schools, parks, transit stops, and other neighborhood destinations.

10:48 As we mark Pedestrian Safety Month this October, we can certainly celebrate that Chicago is making real progress. For example, traffic fatalities declined by 35% between 2021 and 2025. We've seen a 26% reduction in serious injury crashes during that same time period. And the number of lives lost and impacted by serious injuries in Chicago is the lowest in over a decade. Today, we are pleased to release CDOT's annual traffic crashes report, which helps tell the story of our progress.

11:24 The report brings together traffic safety data and examples from neighborhoods across Chicago of how we are working to make streets safer, including the school safety projects that we are celebrating here today. So while we can see progress, we know that we have more work to do. I look forward to the continued collaboration with our school communities and leaders to bring more safety improvements to more schools across the city. Thank you again. Traffic safety is truly community safety. And I appreciate everyone and the hard work that was delivered.

11:54 And with that, please welcome to the podium, Commissioner for CDOT, Commissioner William Cheeks. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you, Mayor Johnson, and thank you to Principal Jones, Alderman Hall, Teamwork Inglewood, and all the students, families, and school staff here today. At CDOT, one of our most important responsibilities is ensuring people can get where they need to go safely.

12:27 That responsibility carries even more weight around schools, where children and families are walking, biking, and crossing very busy streets every day. Thanks to funding from Mayor Johnson's capital bond program, we've been able to make targeted investments in school zones across the city, improvements designed to specifically around the needs of students, families, and school communities. Our approach starts with data. We look closely at crash patterns and street conditions.

12:59 Then we pair that analysis with conversations in the community, learning from residents and school leaders who see these streets every day. That's exactly what happened here in Englewood. With six schools in close proximity, we had a unique opportunity to make a greater impact. The result is a range of improvements, including safer crossings, speed humps, a protected bike lane, curb extensions, and other design changes to slow traffic and make it safer for students and families to get around. And that same approach is being used across the city.

13:31 Through our school zone improvement program, we've delivered improvements across Chicago this year from Inglewood to Edgewater. Our newly released annual traffic crashes report highlights how this work fits into our broader approach to street safety. We build safety improvements into our arterial resurfacing projects. We work with aldermen through the Aldermanic Menu Program to address neighborhood needs. And we continue to expand safer bike lanes and pedestrian crossings,

14:02 all aimed at reducing dangerous speeding and making everyday travel safer for everyone. As the mayor noted, we're making real progress. There is more work to do, and we'll continue working with schools and neighborhoods across Chicago to identify needs and deliver improvements. Before I close, I want to thank everyone who helped make this project possible, especially the Mays Elementary community, who worked closely with us throughout the process, and Alderman Hall for his support and coordination. I also want to recognize CDOT's Division of Project Development and our entire Complete

14:35 Streets team. One member of that team was our colleague Riley O'Neill, whom we tragically lost this summer. As the mayor mentioned, Riley worked closely with the team here at Mays and helped develop improvements around the school, including finding a better solution to a guardrail that had been creating access challenges around the campus. For several years, Riley also led CDOT's bike parking program, helping install bike racks in neighborhoods across Chicago. In his honor, we are now calling them Riley Racks, and some of those racks are installed right here at Mays.

15:09 Riley brought tremendous energy and care to his work. He cared about getting the details right and finding solutions to challenging problems. That is the spirit we want to carry forward at CDOT. Now I'd like to introduce Wallace Faust. Thank you. Appreciate you. Yes, Wallace-Faust, Team Eaglewood, representatives. It's an honor and privilege to stand here before you guys, to know that we are doing a great job in the community.

15:43 As a safe passage worker, supervisor, we see a lot going on in the city. We see a lot of cars coming through too fast, and the kids are trying to get the school safe and sound. So our job is to make sure that they're safe going to and from school. And I thank God for this opportunity to be out here and to see the changes that we've made. I thank God for my job, for coming up, for being a partner in this community. And we're going to continue doing the same thing. Thank you all. Thank you. Don't go too far.

16:15 I want to just give a special shout out again, you all. You know, Brother Wallace and other community members. It's why we're here today. And, you know, you can't underscore the importance and the value of these type of collaborative efforts. You know, as a former public school teacher and organizer, I can tell you that this principal and this assistant principal and these staff members work hand in hand with community organizations.

16:46 You know, I thought I wanted to be a principal until I saw my principal 20 years ago. I said, I need an easier job. But thank you to, you know, our brother and, you know, Miss Denise Dyer, my good friend, Cecile. Let's give it up for teamwork, Inglewood, and the entire community to make this day possible. Thank you, brother. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you. Good job. All right. Thank you.

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