CHICAGO– Chicago officials had planned to open a new elevated train station near the United Center more than four years ago, but multiple delays have left some neighbors wondering if it would ever happen.
Then the Democratic National Committee chose the city to host your convention.
Construction crews scrambled to finish work this month at Stop L of the Damen Green Line before deputies arrived, with most of the high level events scheduled for the home of the Bulls and Blackhawks less than a half-mile away. Featuring details like wooden ceilings, a colorful mural, and a glass pedestrian walkway overlooking the Chicago skylinethe new station fills a 1.5-mile service gap created when a previous stop closed in 1948.
“The goal was to get it done, but the DNC made it faster,” said Councilman Walter Burnett, who spent years lobbying for the project for his West Side City Council district. “That helped a lot and I loved it.”
Cities may consider the ability to host large events when prioritizing infrastructure upgrades, but they rarely embark on big-ticket projects just to hold a political convention or attract their delegates. Speeding up construction, however, is another matter.
Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, co-authored a study that concluded that economic expectations for holding national political conventions are often “unrealistically large.” Still, he said, there is “a lot of political will” to accelerate improvements already planned to impress out-of-town visitors — even for an event that lasts just four days.
“The real question with these kinds of things is: If this is such a good project, why wasn’t there political will before?” Matheson said.
After the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, officials concluded that the event directly generated $214 million for the local economy. But more than half of the quoted amount was for telecommunications upgrades that the city would eventually need anyway, Matheson said.
Milwaukee hosted last month Republican National Convention and the pandemic-altered 2020 Democratic National Convention without any significant public infrastructure investments directly tied to them, said city engineer Kevin Muhs. However, he adjusted the timing of some road projects earlier this year in anticipation of a citywide construction shutdown during the RNC.
One of Milwaukee’s most politically controversial infrastructure projects is the streetcar known as The Hop, which expanded service to the lakefront earlier this year despite objections from some Republicans who argued it was a waste of money. But part of the city’s agreement with the Republican National Committee to host the convention stipulated that the service would be open for delegates to use, Muhs said.
Holding the 2016 Republican National Convention was a major reason Cleveland accelerated construction of long-delayed airport improvements, a large downtown park called Public Square and a hotel attached to the convention center, said David Gilbert, who served as CEO of the local host committee.
“It was a city that had been through decades of hard times and was coming back,” Gilbert said, citing the nearly 15,000 members of the national media who came to Cleveland for the RNC. “It was a great way to show that we were ready to host this kind of thing.”
Many of the updates were already in place a month earlier, when the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors for their first NBA championship, with home games in the same arena. And the revamped downtown returned to the national stage once again that fall with the World Series, which the Cleveland Indians lost in Game 7 to the visiting Chicago Cubs.
During the press conference and dedication of Chicago’s new L station, officials made only passing references to the Democratic National Convention and instead focused on transit assistance for needy residents on the South and West Sides.
Still, Speaker Brandon Johnson concluded his remarks with a nod to the convention, proclaiming that Chicago was “ready to welcome the world…so this season comes at a perfect time.”
Commuters Take Action, a group advocating for more reliable public transportation options in Chicago, called it “a little sad that it was necessary to host the DNC instead of the daily needs of Chicagoans to get this project across the finish line.” . However, the group’s statement celebrated the station’s opening and encouraged visitors to use public transportation during the convention and to push for more funding nationally.
Some residents who caught the train at Damen station on the first day wondered how influential the convention had been in bringing forward the opening.
“I feel like it shouldn’t be the main fuel for projects like this. It should be the communities and the people who live in them,” said rider Angelica Arzuaga. “But I think it’s a win-win.”
