Legislators secure $3 million to renovate armory for new police station

An alliance of Southwest Side elected officials and community leaders advanced plans this week to open a new police district facility at the vacant Midway armory at 5400 W. 63rd St. after securing $3 million in state funding for the building’s renovation.

Sen. Mike Porfirio and Rep. Angie Guerrero-Cuellar on May 19 announced funding to assist with building renovations they acquired via the state legislature to better serve the Southwest Side’s policing needs.

“Obviously, this is the next step,” Porfirio (D-11th) said. “We’ve gotten this great facility for a dollar from the state to the city. We’ve secured funding for any renovations. Right now we’re standing in the hangar. This is a great opportunity for the Chicago Police Department’s helicopter fleet to be stored here and to be a police district.”

Porfirio said investing in public safety infrastructure on the city’s Southwest Side is important in a facility like the unused armory that is an asset to the city.

Chicago Police Department Supt. Larry Snelling did not attend the event despite proposing the idea of holding a walkthrough to assess the state of the unused armory in November. The event was built around his schedule, Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) said.

The current 8th District serves 250,000 residents with 259 police officers, the worst officer-per-capita ratio in Chicago and takes the highest number of calls for service, he said in a previous story by the Southwest News-Herald.

An additional 8th District facility would require an increase in police officers that, while a concern, is doable according to Ald. David Moore (17th).

“We’re hiring and we are continuing to hire,” Moore said. “We’re short police officers; everybody in the city knows that. It’s the largest district of the 22 police districts with the highest crime rate so we don’t want people waiting for the police to arrive. We want to split the district so police can arrive in time.”

Ald. Silvana Tabares (23rd) had a different perspective involving the safety of the 8th District’s children.

“There’s a real urgent need to get this done now,” she said. “Not only do we need to address response times for our homes and businesses but also for our schools. Recently, in January, Hubbard High School had a kidnapping where the police couldn’t respond quickly despite their station being right next door.” 

The mayor’s appointed school board members ordered removal of  School Resource Officers from schools last year, she noted.

“This means our kids don’t have officers inside their schools,” Tabares said. “Staff, teachers and kids have to wait, just like everybody else, for police to respond to their 911 calls.”

Police helicopters are another issue, she said. 

“The city has six Chicago police helicopters,” Tabares added. “This location is the best place for them to be housed rather than the far south side because it’s centrally located. The helicopters can respond more quickly to calls and easily cover more city territory from this location.”

The armory has been valued at $6 million. With the $3 million in funding from the state included, this constitutes a $9 million gift to the city, said Quinn.

“A lot of good work has gone into this and this is a great example of how city and state should be working together, which isn’t the case with the current administration,” Quinn said. “At the end of the day we got a direct assignment from our constituents that enough is enough. That’s no disrespect to Chicago police officers.”

Waiting too long for 911 response calls is no longer acceptable for residents, he said. 

A letter from U.S. Rep.  Sean Casten was sent to Mayor Brandon Johnson urging conversion of the armory to a police station stating FAA assessments that would take place for potential impacts on the airport from the new police station.

One, for example, was “whether the facility might interfere with navigation or communications transmissions from the airport or other air navigation facilities,” the letter said.

“Just one block to the east is a Chicago Fire Department,” Quinn said. “I did get a letter from Congressman Casten, Garcia and Schneider. They thought this project would be in compliance with the FAA.”

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) supports his aldermanic colleagues efforts to divide the 8th District.

Given the procurement of the armory for $1 including the additional $3 million in renovation funding, Lopez believes the project is a “win-win” for Chicago, he said.

The working group sent three letters to the mayor inviting him to have a conversation with local leaders and stakeholders, Lopez said. The mayor, who wanted to work with us, has gone “tone deaf” on this issue.

“Unfortunately, I know my mayor and I know he has a hard time accepting an easy win,” he said. “One thing I do know is you cannot ignore the 250,000 residents the 8th District serves, nearly 10% of the City of Chicago’s population. He should acknowledge and activate this space for the people on the Southwest Side.”