Approximately one year ago, the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and Senator Martin A. Sandoval, Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, stood together in front of the Little Village High School and called on the Chicago Transit Authority to provide bus service immediately to the 31st Street corridor. This past Saturday, LVEJO once again stands in front of the Little Village High School, but this time to celebrate a great leap forward in a 15 year struggle to establish an east-west bus route in Little Village. Saturday morning at the CTA Board Meeting the Committee on Strategic Planning and Service Delivery presented their 31st Corridor Analysis which allowed CTA staff to conclude that the west extension of #35 31st/35th bus route (from 24th/Cicero to Kedzie) should be permanently adopted. Additionally, it was recommended that #35 31st/35th bus route be extended to the 31st Street Beach on weekends during the summer time.

In a time characterized by CTA service cuts, the permanent adoption of a bus route extension increases the magnitude of this accomplishment for the Little Village neighborhood. The people of Little Village can now rest assured that their children will continue to have a safe route to school, that they will have a route connecting them to their place of work, and that access to the beach will finally be possible in the summer of 2014.