Lucas Sreniawski - We Funded Chicago Public Transit!

@aoc.bsky.social says of Mamdani victory: "A lot of people...are willing to talk about party unity when it serves them, but not party unity when it serves everybody."

"We have a future to fight for, and we're either going to do that together or you're going to be left behind."

Chicago transit getting funded and Zohran Mamdani comfortably winning election is probably the best week in big city American politics in a long time.

We will have to keep an eye on some of these, the funding in SB2111 may allow them to increase frequency on some of these routes.

Dowd messes up on the first goal and now he’s afraid to come out of his goal to let in the second. Absolute disaster goalkeeping ending the Fire’s season.

I remember when I first moved to Chicago from the suburbs. I was driving every day to North Lawndale for work. It was a pain and a stressful drive. I still remember the first day I chose to take the pink line instead and that changed my life forever. It really was ‘L’ove at first ride!

In what world is that not a red card???

Oh no 😭😭😭

I just took the brown line instead

Watching the little flashlights on the tracks was mind numbing lol

Playing with the city behind us 💪 #cf97

The development rights in SB2111 are such a huge win. If we can achieve some thing close to the MTR Corporation with how Hong Kong builds and develops, Chicago will be unstoppable.

We saved transit.

Illinois transit is going to be bigger and better than ever! SB2111 passed!!!

SB 2111 passes the senate!

Chicago transit bsky having another 18 inning baseball game rn

Not sure how much I need to see opponents try to stall it actually

Is there a link to watch the hearing?

UPDATE: We now have a good outline of where the $1.5 billion transit revenues will come from. Check the highlighted paragraph at the link capitolfax.com/2025/10/30/e...

Maybe the bill will just work so well that all of the gas tax revenue loss will just be from changes in mode share to transit!

My big concern with the gas tax is that it theoretically will provide diminishing amounts of money. So it will probably need to be revisited in the future. But 6.5 hours to go it’s hard to say anything besides “just pick something”

Capitol Fax hinting at the toll being for Capitol projects. Glad to see some attention to that when this is the current map we’re working with. (Even with the Forest Park Branch being done as part of a different project)

Personally I am partial to scaling vehicle registration to vehicle weight (and hood height while we’re at it) but it is good to see actual transportation related stuff.

Kinda running out of time here

Riders & non-riders have a lot at stake with the public transit fiscal cliff ($2.6 billion GDP, congestion, emissions). Riders will face devasting cuts & missed opportunities. An alternative of investment could yield share benefits (riders & non-riders). Two scenarios for @chicagocta.bsky.social

Yes, I believe so.

There’s no real world where the city/region doesn’t generate the local match in value several times over in that timeframe. Transit funding has a great ROI!

Oh definitely, like you said we don’t have infinite money. But the cost that was locked in, and will likely still be the case after this attempt to cancel funds by the Trump admin fails in court, is well within it. This infrastructure will last a good 70+ years before needing to be rebuilt.

Agreed, which is why I am such a big proponent of the RLE. Significant investment to provide the best form of public transportation we can reasonably offer in a community that has been deliberately defunded for decades, while also alleviating congestion at the Howard yard, is a good project.

Mayor Brandon Johnson reveals budget to 'Protect Chicago' from Trump cuts • The TRiiBE “This budget was written long before I took office,” Johnson said, surrounded by Chicago Board of Education members, the CTU president, and more.

UPDATE — Mayor Brandon Johnson lays out his FY 2026 budget recommendations to protect Chicago’s most vulnerable residents from Trump.

“When they come for any of us, they come for all of us,” Johnsons said to applause.

thetriibe.com/2025/10/mayo...

The we just kind of end up in a circular argument how how much we value the overall goals of the RLE vs other projects, which would also ofc suffer from the same cost bloat the entire country is suffering from with infrastructure projects.