CRAIN'S: No Grant for Divvy Expansion to Evanston, Oak Park

Gov. Quinn denies $3 million grant to expand Divvy

The Quinn administration has denied an application by the city of Chicago for a $3 million grant for Divvy, puncturing a hole in Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to expand the bicycle-sharing program.

Chicago was shut out last month when the Illinois Department of Transportation announced nearly $53 million in grants under the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program. The Emanuel administration had planned to use the money to buy 75 docking stations, extending the reach of the program into Oak Park and Evanston.

The denial came as Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Quinn were jabbing at each other over a much larger issue: a bill backed by the mayor overhauling the finances of two city pension funds that would require a $750 million hike in Chicago property taxes over five years. The bill, which passed the Illinois General Assembly on April 8, is awaiting approval by Mr. Quinn, who has objected to the tax hike at a time when he has made lowering property taxes a key part of his re-election campaign.

The joint application by Chicago and the two suburbs was part of a competitive field of 232 applications requesting over $260 million, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation said. The department on April 12 selected 71 proposals for the program, which is funded by the federal government.

“We are enthusiastically behind the idea of bike sharing,” the spokesman said, noting that Chicago has won transportation enhancement grants in the past. “It's just a matter of finding a funding fit.”

The largest grants were about $2.2 million each to Evanston, for a bicycle path along Chicago Avenue, and west suburban Winfield, to build a portion of what is called the West Regional Trail. The Emanuel administration is working with the two suburbs to find other sources of funding, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation said in an email.

BLUE CROSS

The blow of losing the grant was eased on May 1, when city officials announced a five-year, $12.5 million sponsorship agreement with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois.

“Our partnership with Blue Cross helps us to expand the bike share system, improve and maintain bike lanes, and encourage cycling in all neighborhoods across Chicago,” Mayor Emanuel said, according to a statement.

The $3 million IDOT grant would have been about 11 percent of the $27.4 million in public funding the Emanuel administration had planned to use to get Divvy rolling.

The bulk of Divvy's startup costs are to be funded by three federal grants, totaling $24.4 million, which require matching city funds of $6.1 million, according to information obtained from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Chicago officials say their local contribution is $175,000 more than federal records show.

The Emanuel administration last year obtained obtained funding to increase the number of bike stations to from 300, to 475, which is considered key to converting Divvy from a tourist attraction to a day-to-day program that city residents use for routine trips instead of automobiles. The state grant would have added another 75 stations.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140514/NEWS02/140519922/qu...

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on May 19, 2014 at 6:05am

Despite being an Evanston resident, I'm not too disappointed in this. While Divvy-in-Evanston would have been handy for bopping around town, looking at the governor's list of funded projects around the state, it appears that almost all of them involve bikes in some way, including the Sheridan Road project in Evanston that is arguably more important:

http://www3.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?Subject...

Permalink Reply by ad on May 19, 2014 at 6:28am


Yeah, the Crains article definitely has a different spin on this than I've seen from other sources.  Streetsblog had a good write up on this stuff a few weeks ago: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2014/05/06/dont-despair-evanston-oak-par... 

My understanding is that a certain amount of grant money was available, and the Divvy expansion simply didn't win a piece of the pie in the end.  Instead, other pedestrian/bicycle projects in the Chicago area and Evanston were selected instead of the Divvy expansion, which is different than Crain's take, which seems to be insinuating that Quinn throwing the grant under the bus as some type of retaliation towards Rahm. Who knows, though.    

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

Despite being an Evanston resident, I'm not too disappointed in this. While Divvy-in-Evanston would have been handy for bopping around town, looking at the governor's list of funded projects around the state, it appears that almost all of them involve bikes in some way, including the Sheridan Road project in Evanston that is arguably more important:

http://www3.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?Subject...

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on May 19, 2014 at 7:12am

Seems like there's a been a lot of sniping between Quinn and Emanuel lately, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if that was a factor in denying the grant. Quinn looks like more of an ass every day, between Illiana, pension-related issues and such. If Quinn and Emanuel were competing in an "Illinois' biggest ass&*#$" competition, it would be tough to choose a winner (or loser, as it were). 

ad said:


Yeah, the Crains article definitely has a different spin on this than I've seen from other sources.  Streetsblog had a good write up on this stuff a few weeks ago: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2014/05/06/dont-despair-evanston-oak-par... 

My understanding is that a certain amount of grant money was available, and the Divvy expansion simply didn't win a piece of the pie in the end.  Instead, other pedestrian/bicycle projects in the Chicago area and Evanston were selected instead of the Divvy expansion, which is different than Crain's take, which seems to be insinuating that Quinn throwing the grant under the bus as some type of retaliation towards Rahm. Who knows, though.    

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

Despite being an Evanston resident, I'm not too disappointed in this. While Divvy-in-Evanston would have been handy for bopping around town, looking at the governor's list of funded projects around the state, it appears that almost all of them involve bikes in some way, including the Sheridan Road project in Evanston that is arguably more important:

http://www3.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?Subject...

Permalink Reply by OLB 0.1 on May 19, 2014 at 7:56am

I would say it's easy to choose the losers: taxpayers.



Anne Alt said:

 If Quinn and Emanuel were competing in an "Illinois' biggest ass&*#$" competition, it would be tough to choose a winner (or loser, as it were). 

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on May 19, 2014 at 8:21am

That's looking all too likely this time around.

OLB 0.1 said:

I would say it's easy to choose the losers: taxpayers.



Anne Alt said:

 If Quinn and Emanuel were competing in an "Illinois' biggest ass&*#$" competition, it would be tough to choose a winner (or loser, as it were). 

Permalink Reply by globalguy on May 22, 2014 at 8:01am

Did the grant include funds for repairing and expanding the bike lanes running through Austin and Belmont-Cragin?  Because without that most Divvy user will most likely just be tootling around the 4.7 square miles of Oak Park.

Permalink Reply by David Barish on May 23, 2014 at 2:11am


Setting aside any issues we may have with the Governor and the Mayor and any issues they have with one another, I agree that this is not that big of a loss. Divvy in Evanston and Oak Park would be nice but routes and roads are more important to me. 


Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

Despite being an Evanston resident, I'm not too disappointed in this. While Divvy-in-Evanston would have been handy for bopping around town, looking at the governor's list of funded projects around the state, it appears that almost all of them involve bikes in some way, including the Sheridan Road project in Evanston that is arguably more important:

http://www3.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?Subject...

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