Area Soldier Killed In Fort Hood Rampage
Stroger Makes Hollywood Play
Put Down Your Nanowrimo And Leave The House
Sox Shuffle Continues
Breaking news: No Doomsday! (...until January maybe.) Blago offered $27 million grant to keep the CTA and Pace functioning at their current levels, and even though transit officials had said they wouldn't accept short-term solutions, CBS2 is reporting that Mayor Daley did.
More as it happens. Also, what's that story about a little boy crying some animal? Coyote? Dingo? The boy who cried...panther? It's on the tip of our tongue...
UPDATE Looks like we have to wait for the Federal Transit Administration to approve the deal. According to Carole Brown, "FTA policy is not to allow the amending of those [capital] grants. FTA is gonna have to adjust their policy to allow us to do that." And it's $21 million, not $27, according to the latest reports.
ANOTHER UPDATE The FTA said yes. It's $21 million to the CTA and $6 million to Pace.
The wheels on Thee Erin's bus will continue to go round and round
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what did you think was going to happen?
The CTA is never going to get full funding. End stop.
Goddamn stopgap solutions like this only put the RTA into a bigger financial hole and solve absolutely nothing.
It just makes me more determined to ride a bicycle all winter.
Chuck-mas, hats off to you sir! If I could be so brave!
P.s now every body can go back to sleep for now. How bout the bears, bulls or what ever
"Transit officials said they were reviewing the offer, which would need federal approval, and had not yet called off scheduled service cuts and fare hikes set for Sunday."
So theoretically, cuts and hikes could still happen?
Somebody on CTA Tattler posted this G-Rod quote:
"If they turn down millions of dollars of help and force their riders to find other ways to get to work, then shame on the RTA and the CTA, and maybe there should be some new leadership in those two organizations," Blagojevich said.
WTF, Rod, WTF.
The feds still have to sign off--at least they did as of noon.
Some questions:
--This money apparently comes from cap funds. Will that hole be replenished, or is this another instance of cap going to operating funds?
--Why the FUCK can't these jackasses get their act together--it's been months, if not years, since the problems was identified.
--If mass transit is linked to road programs, what will be the funding ratio? 10 to 1? 6 to 1?
--Will we get a gas-tax-based formula or some version of sales tax?
--Watson wants a fare increase, which he calls modest. What does that mean? [I think a fare increase is a good idea, as long as it is reasonable and hits cash fares hard.]
--What does this mean for the proposed CTA pension deal?
We all need to keep making those calls and writing those letters. This is far from over. All you need to do is dedicate 5-10 minutes a day to this task.
Blago is playing games again. This is a joke. let the service cuts happen and that will really force the gov and legislature to get things moving. Funding mass transit operations by taking money away from capital projects like repairs is going to lead to a disaster where people die. But that is probably what it will take to get this group of idiots running the state to do something.
Fed up: I think you are right on about the potential for accidents. The feds said as much when they released their Blue Line report. If I had to think too much about it, I would be very paranoid about riding the CTA.
Plant all the pretty flowers you want, and build all the cheap condos you can squeeze into re-zoned parcels: Chicago is, fundamentally, in a fragile state when it comes to finances and infrastructure, and I think [hope?] people are starting to wake up to that fact.
We could be one of the greatest cities in the world if we wanted that, great like Chicago was 100-140 years ago. For some reason, the city decided it didn't want to be great anymore, but would rather lurch along and pretend to be great. I think the truth is starting to come out, and some illusions are dying.
I don't know why but I have faith that this will ultimately get worked out. People are truly up in arms about this and they will not be ignored. The media is also up in arms about it. Put those two together and you have something. It'll happen, the stop gap is good for now and it'll all be worked out , no doomsday in January.
matilda-"I think a fare increase is a good idea, as long as it is reasonable and hits cash fares hard."
Why do you want the cash fares hit hard? Aren't the folks who pay with cash more likely to be the ones who are most damaged by the cuts?
I hope they don't accept it.
wouldn't accepting this make an EVEN BIGGER doomsday in January?
I'm only seeing this perpetuating the problem.
Sad.
Matilda, great like we were 140 years ago? As in 1867?
What was great about Chicago in 1867?
I try not to think too much about it but I too am waiting for the accident to happen.
This might also be the time to say it's absurd for conductors to announce that the Red Line is going to be slow from North/Clybourn to Clark /Division, when the Red Line is slow the entire ride! Except between Grand and Lake. The Grand to Lake moment is prelapsarian, orgasmic, pristine public transport beauty offered to sad Red Line riders as a cruel joke. I look forward to it every morning more than coffee.
E: I want cash fares hit hard [at least 100%] because usually it is cheaper in mass transit system to accept non-cash fares, thereby helping reduce overall costs, at least a little bit. Feel free to pick up the phone and talk to transit managers throughout the USA. I have. I have in recent months spoken to transit managers in DC, Boston, Atlanta and NYC, as well as Paris and Berlin, about this issue and others. [Part of this is related to my consulting job, but much of it was just me trying to be an informed citizen.]
I don't buy the argument that people are too poor to get some kind of fare card, either one with a mag stripe or one with a chip. People can afford cell phones but not a fare card? Yeah, right. And if someone is poor, that person probably is relying on mass transit more than rich people, meaning that person should be encouraged to get the discounts that often come with fare cards.
This said, I think cash fares are a relatively minor part of the overall problem the RTA agencies face.
Come on Huberman. Whatever happened to "no more bandaids"? I'd rather deal with the major inconvenience of Doomsday I, so the effing morons all over this state can see how important public transit is to the 18 largest economy in the world.
I'd rather deal with the major inconvenience of Doomsday, too. But in June.
CTA,
Here today,
Look out for tomorrow,
Hipster asses cryin' in sorrow.
See a brotha,
Lock 'em up,
Whyn'cha tell Daley,
He know wassup.
I'm jus' sayin'.
JP2: What was great about that time was the bold energy and optimism one could find in Chicago, and how the rest of the country, and perhaps some places in Europe, looked upon Chicago as a place of the future, not some tired place of the past. Granted, Chicago did not hit its "classic period" until after the fire and the rebuilding, but the energy certainly was there in the immediate post Civil War period. Chicago was growing in ecomonics and political influence in ways that are not happening now. Yes, it was a very different economy--much more industrial and ag--but I hope you get my point.
The city simply does not have the same level of bold energy. Rather, it is a tired old man clinging to outdated ways. [A notable exception is culture, I think--writing, plays, art, food, music, etc.--but even cultural energy can escape injury should the economy and infrastructure suffer.]
If there are politicians who do not understand how important it is for people to get to work in a reasonable time, they should not be in office. I still have the Kimball and Irving Park lines (though we'd miss the Irving Park X) I can imagine how awful it would be if you only had one line near your place, and that's the one that's being axed. Why do we need to be the pawns? They should be taking the funds from their salaries (and no, not the CTA pensions.)
Ladies and Germs, please Meet Matilda, Chicago's eldest hog-butcher to the worl', and stackah of wheat. She all our oldest livin' Chicagoan, talkin' like she was 'round way back when the brothas originally come up lookin' for a better op-P.O.-tune-ity.
I'm jus' sayin'.
SPOOK: How's puberty treating ya?
On my way tonight, I got on a train that was plastered with those No Band-Aid posters. It made me mad.
Matilda, thanks for the info. That does make sense. I just worry about the move away from cash in our society in general. Between the cameras Daley wants and the easily supoenaed I-Pass and Chicago Card records, I feel the cold stare of Big Brother.
Not that Big Brother can get me to work on time.
To whoever asked:
Illinois First, as I understand it, funded roads to transit 2:1.
SB 1110, which is the most recent capital bill proposed: 10:1.
It's an outrage.
"Why do you want the cash fares hit hard? Aren't the folks who pay with cash more likely to be the ones who are most damaged by the cuts? "
E:
What are you talking about? The people who pay with cash are usually tourists or other riders who use tranist very little and therefore haven't bothered to get a transit card or Chicago Card. Why in the world would you think that they are more likely to be poor(which is apparently what you are implying)? I have heard people make that argument before but I have never once heard anybody explain exactly why poor people would somehow be less likely to have a transit card or Chicago Card. I just think it comes from an elitist attitude that poor people are somehow less smart and less able to figure out how to do simple things. The people that have this attitude tend to be upper middle class or rich liberals who want to make themselves feel good and therefore subconsciously try to convince themselves that they are superior to poor people and that are looking out for what they subconsciously consider lesser folks(I'm not saying that this description neccassarally fits you, I wouldn't be able to judge that simply from two sentences). It is quite clear, in fact, that those who would be more likely to be hurt from a higher fare would be more likely to do something to avoid it. That is just common sense.
The danger with increasing cash fares is that you are discoraging the people who are least likely to use public transportation from doing so. Many tourists are not going to want to spend a significant amount of time hunting down tranit cards in order to pay a lower fare. Therefore, if they don't think the price is worthwhile (and if there are several people in a group an increase in the cash fare can definetely make a big difference) then they will take a cab. But I would guess the revenue gained from a cash fare increase would outweigh the loss of ridership. And most of the tourists ride the train rather than the bus anyway. The reality is, however, that only a very small perventage of riders use cash anymore so there certainly would not be a huge increase in revenue by increasing this fare.
Huberman is effin hot! I want to have his mouthbabies!