Lol..... the 95th Street Red Line stop had 2.8+ million paid station entries in 2019 and over 3 million in 2018. That was more than the Addison Red Line stop had, next to Wrigley Field, in the same years and also more than Clark/Division. Idk - someone want to explain how the 95th street station has more paid station in a year than the stop right next to Wrigley Field and some downtown?
Just a look at the most boarded stations in 2019 in the entirety of Chicago:
Lake: 6,450,839
Clark/Lake Brown/Orange/Pink/Purple: 5,830,767
Chicago Red Line: 4,501,851
Washington Blue Line:, 4,176,948
O'Hare Blue Line: 3,811,167
State/Lake Brown/Orange/Pink/Purple Line: 3,783,187
Grand Red Line: 3,780,031
Belmont Red/Brown/Purple Line: 3,745,165
Fullerton: 3,719,544
Roosevelt: 3,466,910
Washington/Wabash: 3,126,070
Monroe Red Line: 2,900,809
95th St Red Line: 2,818,826
Jackson: 2,601,587
Addison Red Line: 2,597,371
Midway Orange Line: 2,477,340
Clark/Division Red Line: 2,452,981
Logan Square Blue Line: 2,261,714
Merchandise Mart: 2,237,817
Washington/Wells: 2,214,522
Quincy/Wells: 2,188,354
Adams/Wabash: 2,087,483
Wilson Red Line: 2,043,387
Damen Blue Line: 2,023,150
Chicago Brown Line: 1,993,375
79th St Red Line: 1,975,866
Jefferson Park Blue Line: 1,896,402
North/Clybourn Red Line: 1,780,616
Division Blue Line: 1,735,843
UIC-Halsted Blue Line:, 1,729,039
California Blue Line: 1,702,462
Diversey Brown Line: 1,651,007
Western Blue Line: 1,649,428
Pulaski Orange Line: 1,465,594
Chinatown Red Line: 1,456,259
69th St Red Line: 1,423,925
Sox-35th Red Line: 1,391,119
Clinton Green/Pink Line: 1,271,865
Western Brown Line:, 1,258,060
Armitage Brown Line: 1,243,651
87th St Red Line: 1,186,724
Sedgwick Brown Line: 1,160,257
Morgan Green/Pink Line: 1,105,090
Harlem Green Line: 1,101,813
Southport Brown Line: 1,084,936
Harold Washington Library: 1,077,009
Polk Pink Line: 869,191
Just the 79th, 87th, and 95th St Red Line stops combined in 2019 saw 5,981,416 paid boardings. That is more than 1 million more boardings than the entire Pink Line between Polk and 54th/Cermak saw in the same year. That is also 367,812 more boardings than Logan Square, California, and Western stops combined saw in the same year.
For "nobody living down there" that's quite a bit of demand even relative to other parts of the city for the last 3 stops of the red line. They must be coming from somewhere, especially given the fact that the 95th line stop has around 3 million boardings per year but the next 2 stops (87th and 79th) each have over 1 million with 79th having nearly 2 million. So where are they coming from if 87th and 79th are also busy?
The fact is that yes people live down there and there's some people who are actually more reliant on public transit to get around than others. You have to realize this is actually an investment for the overall city considering the fact that a lot of the people who are working downtown jobs whether doorman jobs or at restaurants may be coming from areas on the south side with adequate public transit. Extending it south in areas gives people better access to this and perhaps may even ease up companies being able to find people for work in other parts of the city. Kind of hard to take a job when you don't have a car and it's not worth it taking 4 buses just to get to your not-so-high paying job.
Interesting too when you look at where people in these communities work - just take some of the areas that may make up the downtown area and others outside of their neighborhood along or near the red line:
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Roseland: The Loop, Near North+West, and Hyde Park = 34.9% of workers
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Pullman: The Loop, Near North+West, and Hyde Park = 34.1% of workers
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West Pullman: The Loop and Near North+West+South = 31.9% of workers
They only list the top 5 so I'm sure it's much more. Also consider the fact that this type of development could actually spur on new development around those stations and for down there, I wouldn't doubt it at all.