The mayor can’t claim much progress.
The state and federal government last spring delayed a study showing that tracks should be moved to 10th Street at a cost of more than $300 million, and U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin has warned several times that there isn’t any federal money to move lines. A federal declaration that 10th Street is the best rail route through the city isn’t likely anytime soon, Houston allows.
“It’s not going to happen without some intensive work to make it happen,” Houston says. “Most importantly, what we need to be able to do is speak with one voice as a community. One of the things the Federal Railroad Administration is attempting to do – and this is my personal opinion – is to divide the community so that there is no single voice so that they can say, ‘Gee, we can sort of do whatever we want to do because the community is not saying where it wants the tracks.’”
The Springfield branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People opposes consolidation on 10th Street, saying that such a plan would put an unfair burden on the east side, but that opposition isn’t uniform. Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson, who represents the east side, supports Houston’s rail plan, as does Turner, who appeared alongside the mayor at an August press conference called to blast a federal proposal to shift freight trains from Third to 10th Street and keep passenger trains on Third.
As a candidate, Houston promised to increase minority hiring in the police and fire departments, and he said he is optimistic that the number of minorities will increase in the next class of firefighter recruits.
Rudy Davenport, a founder of the Citizens Club and former president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP, praises the mayor.
“I think he’s doing good,” Davenport says. “I think he has certainly shown that he intends to be fair as far as race is concerned. I haven’t heard any criticism of him with regard to race. That’s very unusual.”
“That was never part of my campaign”
Davenport said that he believes the city supports Houston.
“He came in and won the election and the people have seemed to have gotten behind him – I was quite pleased by that,” Davenport said. “In a short period of time, he has kept stability going, and that’s the main thing to do. We could have expected, I won’t say a breakdown in government, but a slowdown.”
But Houston promised more than stability. Turner and other city council members say they want to see a plan to repair aging streets, sidewalks and sewers – and soon.
“If we don’t see one, it definitely was campaign rhetoric,” says Ward 6 Ald. Cory Jobe. “He said he had a plan.”
Turner says it’s time for the mayor to deliver.
“I am disappointed that I have not seen any movement with regard to an infrastructure plan,” Turner says. “I would have liked to have seen it yesterday. Ward 3 is literally crumbling. … The mayor did say he could do that, and fairly quickly.”
Houston, however, says that he never promised voters an infrastructure plan, but nonetheless is working on one.
“That was never a part of my campaign,” Houston says. “That was an offhand comment that I made to (radio reporter) Jim Leach as a last part of an interview that people then picked up on to say that I had a program. I never said I had a program. I said I had an idea in terms of how we could finance an infrastructure plan. We are still working on that. I think that the plan is, in fact, a viable type of plan and at the right time, making the assumption we can get this put together, we would then present it.”
According to a June 1 story in the State Journal-Register, however, Houston as a candidate did promise an infrastructure plan sooner rather than later.
“On the eve of his election victory, Houston told reporters: ‘I think within a 30day period, we will be talking about an infrastructure plan for the city of Springfield that is comprehensive, that can be done without raising any taxes or fees,’” wrote reporter Deana Stroisch, adding that the mayor expected to come up with a plan within two months. That was four months ago.
Houston also said the city needed an infrastructure plan in a candidate questionnaire he filled out for the Capital Area Association of Realtors.
“As chair of the Chamber (of Commerce) board I appeared and addressed the city council in support of the passage of the 0.25 per cent
increase in the sales tax to be segregated and used only for
infrastructure improvements,” Houston wrote. “I have indicated that the
city not only needs to maintain what it is currently doing but it needs
to develop a comprehensive infrastructure program with a specific source
to fund it.”
continued on page 14
