Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins has been appointed to a new board that will oversee upcoming transit reform in the Chicago area.
After the Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act took effect June 1, NITA replaced the Regional Transit Authority in governing CTA, Metra and Pace. In his five-year term starting Sept. 1, Hoskins will help implement changes to local transit, including in Forest Park.
The Cook County Board approved Hoskins, along with four other candidates who have experience in oversight and transportation, to the NITA board on July 16 after they were appointed by Toni Preckwinkle, county board president. The governor’s office and Chicago mayor also make five appointments each to the NITA board. Five surrounding counties also get an appointment each.
“It’s humbling to be appointed and have her trust me to represent the interest of Cook County,” Hoskins said of how honored he was for Preckwinkle’s appointment. “I’m really excited about the opportunity to make an impact.”
“Every day, hundreds of millions of residents depend on reliable, accessible transit to get to work, school, health care and other commitments,” Preckwinkle said July 16. “I am confident these appointees will bring the experience, leadership and collaborative approach needed to strengthen our transit systems. Together, they will help ensure we can build more reliable, equitable and financially sustainable systems that serve the needs of Cook County residents and the entire service region.”
For years, Hoskins has advocated for more resources at the end of the CTA Blue Line and Green Line in Forest Park and been in touch with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office about the village’s challenges near those locations. This year, Hoskins applied for the NITA board and interviewed with Preckwinkle and her team, where he discussed how Forest Park is impacted by local transit, his career as an attorney and his background in social services and mental health.
“They want a degree of what they consider to be relevant experience that is beyond politics,” Hoskins said. “Some of [Preckwinkle’s] pillars in transit reform are reforms that are responsive to the riders. That includes a level of social services for some of the more vulnerable, unhoused people who frequently ride the trains,” plus to address prevalent drug use around the Blue Line terminal, said Hoskins.
“I feel like we have a lot of insight to offer from our first responders and our riders,” Hoskins said of the Forest Park perspective he will contribute to the NITA board, adding that he hopes firefighters will get the chance to talk with those who are helping transition from the RTA to NITA. “It’s one thing for me to articulate it. It’s another thing for them to articulate it.”
After NITA was created at the start of June, the Illinois Department of Transportation hired a transition consultant to help make recommendations to the new board. For example, they’ll help implement an ambassador program which will address social services and rider safety concerns.
“And that’s a big deal. How do you implement something like that on a regional scale that impacts CTA, Pace and Metra?” Hoskins said. “NITA will have authority to own land and work with construction and development of housing. The vision is to incentivize transit-oriented development, which I think is something that’s also important to Forest Park.”
Pace board
Of Preckwinkle’s five appointments, two each will sit on the boards for Metra and Pace, and one on the CTA board. Preckwinkle separately appointed three people to each board.
Hoskins was also appointed to the Pace board — a position that he said can only be awarded to mayors or former mayors.
“There’ll certainly be things for me to continue to learn about Pace, but I’m very familiar with what their work is and what they’ve been doing,” Hoskins said.
In addition to Pace buses running throughout Forest Park, and Pace using the Blue Line terminus at 711 Des Plaines Ave., Forest Park contracts directly with Pace to use its paratransit vehicles to get people to and from the Howard Mohr Community Center.
“I hope to take the mandate of the NITA board — because NITA ultimately has authority over capital improvements and operations on a very large scale — to the service board, which is the traditional PACE board, for adoption and eventual implementation,” Hoskins said. “I don’t expect there to be a change overnight. What I’ve learned from serving as mayor in this community is our people have real concerns over safety on the trains, and I think there’s always a capacity to make improvements in safety. And a big part of why I wanted to serve was to address safety concerns.”