@article{THESIS,
      recid = {6385},
      author = {Wilcox, Micah},
      title = {Major “L”: How the Chicago Transit Authority Gentrified  its Elevated Trains},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {B.A.},
      address = {2023-06},
      number = {THESIS},
      abstract = {The City of Chicago has pursued a path of urban  valorization based on advertising the city as a nexus of  entertainment, leisure, and consumption made possible by  its dense, walkable environment. This valorization was  carried out in the context of an economically neoliberal  approach that consisted of market-focused policy choices  and general government non-interventionism except to  support market-based approaches. These policies aggravated  existing inequality in discriminated-against communities  while advancing gentrification in others in the form of  new, higher-income residents and the restructuring of  neighborhoods around their preferences. Despite being one  of the few areas where Chicago undertook direct government  investment, the Chicago Transit Authority’s “L” elevated  train system’s ridership changed in ways that mirror this  gentrification-disinvestment pattern, with Chicago’s more  affluent/gentrifying North and and less-well off South  Sides experiencing ridership increases and decreases  disproportionate to their population changes. In the  context of this data and the city government’s own  observation that Chicago’s incentivizing of market-based  development near “L” stations failed to produce development  in disadvantaged neighborhoods, Chicago implicitly  gentrified the “L” by leaving the development of the built  environments surrounding stations up to the uneven  distribution of the market. This market-first, hands-off  approach on the part of the city government resulted in the  “L”’s functioning as an amenity in certain neighborhoods  and an afterthought in others based on presence or absence  of development in surrounding stations. My argument is  supported by multiple linear regression analyses that  identify significant, strong positive correlations between  ridership and census-tract change in median income (as  estimated by the US Census Bureau’s American Community  Survey Five Year Estimates) between 2010 (2006-2010) and  2019 (2015-2019) at the citywide level and on the North  Side. I obtained these findings by comparing Chicago census  tracts to their closest “L” station (excluding O’Hare  Airport (Blue) and including Oak Park-Austin (Blue)). I  also found significant, strong positive correlations  between these variables when I analyzed only tracts ≤ 0.5  miles from their closest station. Although there is a  positive relationship between population and ridership  change at the citywide level and certain regional levels  when broken down by line, I observe no relationship between  them at the overall regional level. These results support  my argument that the “L” essentially functioned like an  amenity whose increased ridership paralleled increased  income on the North Side even as ridership decreased on the  South Side, where I observed a significant, weak negative  correlation between median income and ridership for all  tracts. Chicago is now fashioning a set of  government-involved policies (in contrast to its prior  neoliberal/purely market-focused approach to  transit-oriented development) to address gentrification and  inequality (including funding of development near neglected  “L” stations). With this policy ongoing, it is relevant to  understand the correlating characteristics of neighborhoods  with “L” stations – particularly those outside of the Loop  – that experienced the greatest increases and decreases in  ridership. This data will ideally help drive long-term  equitable development around the CTA that expands on  current initiatives.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/6385},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.6385},
}