Give Us Hell, Hubie!

By Shannon in News on May 3, 2007 3:00PM

As far as we know, we never rode a CTA train or bus in the presence of Frank Kruesi. Rumor has it he did it quite often, judging by the kinds of comments we heard when he was fired. We imagine the yellow jacket would be hard to miss. In the past, we doubt the CTA's new sheriff in town rode much with Kruesi, either. Ron Huberman (who for all the world looks to us a tiny bit like Vin Diesel) apparently used to poopoo public transit. However, after being summarily knighted on Tuesday, he claims that he will take nothing but.

In an interview with WBBM, Huberman outlined some of the things he'll have to deal with now that he's CTA President. There's the Circle Line, of which we've not heard much lately, in the wake of the Brown Line cluster and the painful slowdowns. There's the looming budget crisis that would scare the willies out of any successor. We don't envy him there, but he seems to be willing to jump right in. Here's hoping he can sweet-talk legislators downstate for funds better than Kruesi did.

Of utmost anathema to the lot of us sane city dwellers who live, work and play in Chicago and don't just have layovers here, Huberman insists that the Block 37 superstation will be finished. Great! Fabulous! We've heard so much baseless blather about it for so long we forgot what the fuck it's supposed to do! Hell, part of us still hopes that the whole block is somehow cursed, and that this whole CBS Tower/CTA tubage thing will never come to pass. We all know Block 37 will never be happy until we take over for the old Times Square, creating a solid smut block of brothels and beer gardens. ... But that's the evil Chicagoist talking.

We know it's too early to tell, but we're still basking in the afterglow of Kruesi just ... not having power. And Huberman may be spouting mere lip service, but we do believe the quickest way to find out what's truly wrong with the CTA is to ride it, day in and day out, like any average citizen. We'll be looking for you, Ron. Don't disappoint.

Image courtesy of josephp.