CASL’s Response to the Amtrak Community Meeting

On September 17, CASL representatives, including CEO Paul Luu, attended the community meeting on Amtrak’s proposed maintenance facility at the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council Facility, 2121 S. Union Ave, which is in Ward 25. Over 550 residents attended, exceeding the venue’s capacity, with many more watching the livestream outside in the parking lot. Elected officials in attendance included Ald. Nicole Lee (11th), Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), Cook County Commissioner John Daley, and State Rep. Theresa Mah. CASL shares the disappointment and concern reflected by the community that evening. A recording of the meeting is available at mwmaintenancefacility.com. 

“CASL is opposed to the project as it is currently proposed. The lack of meaningful community engagement and language access for this diverse neighborhood is alarming, and the residents of Armour Square, Chinatown, Bridgeport, and Bronzeville deserve better,” said Paul Luu, CASL CEO. 

While Amtrak has made space for the community to gather, several logistical barriers limited meaningful participation, including: 

• The venue for the most recent community meeting was changed just three days before the event, giving residents almost no time to adjust plans or spread the word. 

• The new location was moved outside the 11th Ward, further from many of the residents this project directly affects. 

• The window to submit translation requests and questions was open for only six hours, making participation nearly impossible for non-English-speaking residents who needed advance notice to prepare. 

• Translation devices did not work for the first part of the presentation, so Chinese-speaking attendees missed critical information at the start of the meeting. 

• Translations were only available in Mandarin, despite the neighborhood’s significant Cantonese-speaking population. 

Each of these barriers directly undermines the ability of Chinese-speaking and other limited-English-proficient residents to participate in a process that will shape their neighborhood. Amtrak has said it is committed to community engagement. These breakdowns fall short of what real community engagement requires: advance notice, accessible venues, and language support that residents can count on. 

The stakes make this worse. The proposed Canal Street site would put roughly 6,700 residents within 500 feet of the property, including over 1,100 children — compared to just 26 residents within the same radius of Amtrak’s current maintenance facility. CASL’s own data shows nearly 3,000 of our clients live within a half mile of the proposed site. Amtrak is exempt from conducting a full public-facing environmental impact study for this project. Without that study, residents are left to rely on incomplete information to understand the project’s potential effects on air quality, noise, health, and traffic in their neighborhood, and have had limited opportunity to weigh in before decisions are finalized. 

What we’re asking of Amtrak going forward: 

• Confirm meeting venues at least two weeks in advance, with at least a five-day notice given for any changes. 

• Hold meetings within the 11th ward, accessible to the residents most impacted. 

• Open translation and question requests well ahead of each meeting, not on a same-day or six-hour basis. 

• Test all translation equipment before meetings begin, with a clear backup plan if equipment fails. 

• Follow through on Amtrak’s own commitment at the September 17 meeting to publish the full environmental studies, before any groundbreaking, so residents have a real opportunity to review the findings and respond. 

We’re asking our community to keep showing up. Every resident deserves the opportunity to be part of decisions that shape their neighborhood — and federal law requires language access for projects like this one. CASL will continue to track how Amtrak follows through on its stated commitments.