Rep. Tammy Duckworth, Illinois’ Democratic nominee for Senate, dropped by East St. Louis Monday morning to talk economics with community leaders.
The city, once a magnet for industry, has fallen on hard times over the last few decades.
Civic leaders from the mostly African American community impressed upon Duckworth that this has not only diminished quality of life for residents, but has destroyed educational opportunities, creating a cycle of failure.
Duckworth, who said she wanted to begin building a relationship with city leaders, agree with the assessment and said that pulling communities out of poverty requires a holistic approach.
“We need to keep in mind that criminal justice, social justice and economic justice go hand in hand,” Duckworth said, before opening up a roundtable discussion with roughly twenty civic leaders and community organizers, including Mayor Emeka Jackson-Hicks, James F. Clayborne Jr., the Illinois Senate Majority Leader and Brendan Kelly, St. Clair County state’s attorney.
Leaders pointed out a number of pressing issues, but focused on difficulties created by the lack of economic opportunity.
“The first thing is getting opportunities for the community itself, the adults that have families, that have kids, that do not have an income, and they are doing other things to get that income,” Milton Jones, a panel member said.
Jones said that without a future to look forward to, the city’s youth were falling into hopelessness, and then crime.
“It’s because they don’t have anything to go forward to,” he said.
Other attendees raised similar issues. The city has few recreational opportunities for youth, no swimming pool and limited afterschool programs. There are few opportunities for vocational training. The East St. Louis Community College Center, the city’s major provider of secondary education, has dramatically cut programs this semester and faces an uncertain future.
Duckworth outlined several items she hopes will raise fortunes in the area.
For one, she wants Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to take a more creative role in helping create multi-generational and mixed-use inner-city housing, which she believes would begin to reverse urban blight.
Duckworth also said she wants to see massive reinvestment in American infrastructure.
“We cannot compete on a global scale with foreign nations in terms of economy if we do not invest in our roads, our rails, our intermodal systems, commuter rail systems and water pipelines,” she said.
Duckworth said that in addition to working to make this a reality, which she mentioned was a top priority for Hillary Clinton, she would work to make sure that contractor money actually made it into communities in need.
“One of the things we must do is hire local contractors who will hire from our communities in order to work on those infrastructure projects,” Duckworth said. “They can’t just award it to national contractors who will come in, do the work and never hire a local person, because we need those jobs right here.”
Duckworth said that more job training was key, and pointed to a survey showing that the 80 percent of manufacturers had difficulty finding skilled workers.
In addition to adding providing more opportunities, Duckworth wants to allow student loans to be refinanced so graduates are not “condemned to paying 12 percent interest.”
Duckworth, who has worked on legislation to allow graduates to refinance, called the current situation a “giveaway” to big banks, and criticized her opponent Mark Kirk, who she said has voted against approving loans.
Duckworth also opposes stricter voter ID laws, which she believes target African Americans. She was also vocal about ending Gerrymandering because it marginalizes minority communities and results in politicians who are more ideologically extreme, whether they are Democrats or Republicans, she said.
“I think that there has been a great effort over the last few years to reduce the voice especially of minority communities,” she said.
Duckworth has done well in recent polling in the state, with a 14 point lead over Kirk in the latest survey by SIU.
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