Season 2, Episode 2: TikTok, Transit, and Transformation: How Elevated Chicago is Fighting for Transit Equity

Podcast

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April 29, 2025

Featured Image Description: Jannice Newson, a former coordinator with Elevated Chicago, highlights neighborhood walkability and public transit access in her TikTok series “Can You Walk There?” Elevated Chicago advocates for equitable community development around transit hubs. (Digital still from Elevated Chicago video)

I started the page because I was walking to the train station, and it felt like Mario—I couldn’t get around. There was construction everywhere. I said, maybe people need to know about this. So I started recording. – Jannice Newton, former coordinator for Elevated Chicago

In this episode, Chicago-based audio production team B Posi+tive Productions, with Sara Faddah and Dario Durham, interview members of Elevated Chicago about their work to advance Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) in the city and the creative ways they use social media to build support for their work.

Public transportation connects Chicago’s neighborhoods, but not all communities benefit equally. We hear how Elevated Chicago is working to ensure residents can have access to safe, vibrant, and walkable spaces near transit hubs.

Jannice Newton, a Chicago resident and Elevated Chicago coordinator (at the time of recording), started using TikTok to document the stark inequities in transit access across the city. From sidewalks in disrepair to the lack of lighting and community investment, her videos bring attention to the ways systemic racism has shaped Chicago’s urban landscape. Elevated Chicago, alongside policymakers and community advocates, has been working to change zoning laws and incentivize development that serves marginalized communities. Their recent victory—the passage of the Connected Communities Zoning Ordinance—is a step toward reshaping Chicago’s transit future.

This podcast series serves as a final grant report for Convergence Partnership’s most recent grantee cohort. Through the voices of our grantees and their partners, we explore how civic narrative, mutual aid, and economic power shape the fight for racial justice and health equity.

View full transcript for this podcast

Amanda M. Navarro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Convergence Partnership Podcast. Today our grantees will share their stories on how they are working to improve community health and promote racial justice. The Convergence Partnership is a collaborative of local, statewide, and national funders working to transform policies, practices, and systems.

To advance racial justice and health equity. Strong democracies require truth and transparency, which relies on having diverse narratives in the public sphere. Important to this is bringing forth often unheard voices and promoting narratives that champion equity, justice, and democracy.

In this series, our grantees and their community partners bring us such stories from across the United States. This podcast introduces you to people and organizations who are building civic narrative [00:01:00] and economic power to advance racial justice and health equity. This series acts as a final report for our most recent grantee cohort.

Leslé Honoré: And what we know is because of systemic racism, a lot of ordinances and laws and policies are really embedded, um, in oppression and, uh, limiting resources to black and brown communities are a legacy of this country’s past and the city’s past.

Amanda M. Navarro: From the Gulf Coast to Chicago to the San Joaquin Valley. To Buffalo and places in between, we are learning how our network is amplifying community power, shifting narratives and igniting transformation in philanthropy to create a just and inclusive society where all people, especially those most impacted by structural racism, are empowered to shape the policies and systems that impact their lives, are healthy, and can thrive.[00:02:00]

I’m your host, Amanda Navarro, and today we’re hearing from Elevated Chicago, a Convergence Partnership grantee that is using social media to engage their community on the sidewalks and advance their mission of equitable transit-oriented development. This episode is produced and hosted by Sara Faddah and Dario Durham, the creative team behind the podcast, 77 Flavors of Chicago.

Janice Newton: I am Janice with Elevated Chicago, and today I’m walking in Fuller Park. I’m Janice with Elevated Chicago, and today I’m walking in Bridgeport, walking in North Lawndale. I am walking in Uptown. I’m walking in Woodlawn, and today we’re walking a little village. I’m walking in.

Sara Faddah: Janice Newton is a longtime resident of Chicago and in 2022 she started working as a coordinator for Elevated Chicago.

It’s a nonprofit that focuses on equitable transit and development in the city. Chicago’s buses and trains connect the majority of [00:03:00] the city. But it’s hard to overlook the inequity in the south and west sides, especially when it comes to transit. Janice decided to start documenting the problem on elevated Chicago’s TikTok page.

Janice Newton: Ooh, I can’t breathe. I have to go back down. Alright, I, I gotta take a breath. Get to that station with a cane. A walker, a wheelchair, A stroller is going to be difficult, not good. There was trash and glass on the sidewalk. The sidewalks are not in good shape. There was overgrown weeds.

Sara Faddah: Janice cares about transit, not only because she takes it every single day, but because she sees the problems that the communities face.

Janice Newton: I started the page because I was walking to the train station, Union Station, and it felt like Mario, you know, it was, I couldn’t get around. There was a lot of construction and I said, well, maybe people need to know about this. So then I started recording when I was walking to the [00:04:00] bus or to the train station.

Sara Faddah: She got involved at Elevated because of her passion for fighting injustice.

Elevated Chicago brings communities together and advocates for policy change around transit. According to Elevated, most of the development around transit has happened on the north and northwest sides of Chicago. Leslé Honoré, the co-chair of Elevated Chicago said she especially sees this on the L and the high speed buses.

Leslé Honoré: So when you get off your L train or you get off a rapid transit bus and you look around, if you see homes, if you see retail, if you see restaurants, if stuff, um, if, if it’s walkable, if it’s well lit, if there’s green space and art, um, and you’re exiting transit, typically you’re gonna be on the north side.

Sara Faddah: Janice said that’s a problem for black and indigenous folks and other communities of color who live on the south and west sides, especially because those are the groups that tend to take public transportation the most.

Janice Newton: It is nothing there for you to interact with. It doesn’t help you to feel safe if.

You’re surrounded by nothing. There’s no lights [00:05:00] and it’s not fair.

Sara Faddah: Her TikTok informs folks about their transit system.

Janice Newton: So I may just be telling people this is what transit oriented development versus equitable transit oriented development is, or this is some historical information about how transit oriented development came about.

Sara Faddah: And her TikTok has made waves

Newscaster: On a day much nicer than today. I got to go behind the scenes with the creator of Elevated Chicago’s walkability TikTok series. I’m Jamaica Ponder from North Lawndale for CBS News. Chicago

Making neighborhoods vibrant, accessible, and easy to get around can be a key part to making them safer. One Chicago group is advancing something called Equitable Transit-Oriented Development or ETOD.

Sara Faddah: But even before the TikTok elevated Chicago had heard from South and West side residents for years about the issues Janice helps to document

Roberto Requejo: from Logan Square to Holman Square to Washington Park and, and many others, uh, as they were [00:06:00] describing to us, you know, we’d love to have a health center here. We don’t have a health clinic, or we’d love to have a grocery store. Or we need more affordable homes.

Sara Faddah: Roberto is the executive director of Elevated Chicago. He’s seen the issue with inequities in Chicago’s transit happen over decades.

Roberto Requejo: They were also saying, telling us a lot of stories about how poor the behavior of developers of the city of Chicago, of government in general, of financial institutions, of some slum landlords, had been over the decades,

Sara Faddah: Many of these problems boil down to the way the city is built and how laws incentivize or deincentivize developers. Elevated Chicago, worked with policymakers for years to change a number of city laws that could help this problem, like its zoning ordinance.

Leslé Honoré: First of all, zoning ordinances are extremely complex and not easy to understand. And it’s responsible for how our, our city can grow, how we can build, who can build, [00:07:00] where they can build. Um, and what we know is because of systemic racism, a lot of ordinances and laws and policies are really embedded, um, in oppression and limiting resources to black and brown communities are a legacy of this country’s past and the city’s past.

Sara Faddah: And last summer they had a big victory. Elevated Chicago helped pass the Connected Communities Zoning Ordinance.

Leslé Honoré: So what the Connected Communities Zoning Ordinance, um, is doing is removing some of those barriers. Um, specifically incentivizing developers to come to the south and west sides and develop near transit.

So to do ETOD. Um, it also has provisions in there to make sure that people can walk, ride, roll, push safely across the street to transit to their homes.

Sara Faddah: Janice’s TikTok played a part in their success.

Janice Newton: Getting people to know about the ordinance, support it, and we were able to ask people to call their alder person and say, Hey, I take the train, I take the bus. What’s going on here? Like, can you pass this ordinance [00:08:00] to get people aware of Elevated Chicago, of the concept of equitable transit oriented development?

Sara Faddah: Now, Janice’s TikTok is helping spread the word to younger generation of activists like Selma.

Guest: My name is Selma and I live in Uptown. I’ve only ever taken public transportation, and I’ve always noticed when areas are more or less accessible, especially since Uptown has seen a lot of change in the last few years.

When I found the TikTok page, I mostly started watching because it was funny, but then I couldn’t unsee the things that were pointed out in the video. I started going to other areas in the city and really seeing for myself how different it was living in an area with a lot of access to transportation.

Sara Faddah: Janice says her goal is to help break down jargon for people and tell them how to get involved to create change, but she’s also there to have fun.

Janice Newton: For the TikTok page, we’ll still be out there walking around. We’ll still be cracking jokes, but we’ll still be educating people as well. We’ll be drawing you in with some shiny lights, and then we’re gonna educate you when [00:09:00] you get inside.

Amanda M. Navarro: You’ve been listening to the Convergence Partnership Podcast, where we hear stories from our grantees across the country. Who are working to create racial justice and health equity broadcasting from the Gulf Coast of Chicago to the San Joaquin Valley, to Buffalo and places in between. Learning how our network is amplifying civic, narrative and economic power, toward a healthy and inclusive democracy. To learn more about the Convergence Partnership, visit [email protected]. That is www convergence partnership.org. Stay tuned as we continue telling the stories of our work. I’m Amanda Navarro, Executive Director of Convergence Partnership. Thanks for listening.

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors. Please refer to the audio recording for accuracy.

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