City of Chicago & CTA

[NewFlyerMCI]

There really wasn't a relevant topic to put this, so I created one.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/03/04/rahm-emanuels-remarkable-confession/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_1_na

Any possible effect on CTA right now or in the future?

[Busjack]

There really wasn't a relevant topic to put this, so I created one.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/03/04/rahm-emanuels-remarkable-confession/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_1_na

Any possible effect on CTA right now or in the future?

I guess you aren't local enough to have seen the commercials.

I've noted for about 3-1/2 years that Emanuel has an autocratic view of the CTA, even though by state law, it is not a city agency, but supposed to be an independent municipal corporation.

That apparently hasn't made transit an issue (except in the 47th ward, where Terry Peterson, supposedly head of the Chicago Transit Board said he listened at the public hearing on canceling the 11 bus, but obviously had his hearing aid turned off), but the similar autocratic style with regard to the schools and red light cameras now has him on the hot seat. The schools also prove that the only way you get his attention is with a showing of force, in that case a teachers' strike, and when the teachers' union president was physically unable to run for mayor, backing Garcia.

However, getting back to the commercials, he says he understands that he doesn't listen when he should, but he basically says you need his attitude to get anything done. So, does anyone think he is going to listen now?

Since his attitude is basically, if you don't like it, vote me out, the questions are whether that is possible, whether Garcia has a transit plan (I haven't heard one), and whether anyone wants to run the CTA in a manner that is in accordance with the law. Finally, Emanuel has made it quite clear that any effort at regional transit reform is dead as far as he is concerned, again showing the autocratic streak.

As implied by the article to which you linked, the "humility" bit is fake.

[garmon757]

There really wasn't a relevant topic to put this, so I created one.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/03/04/rahm-emanuels-remarkable-confession/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_1_na

Any possible effect on CTA right now or in the future?

This has to be a f'ing joke right??? My goodnees, he's running scared.....

[Busjack]

This has to be a f'ing joke right??? My goodnees, he's running scared.....

Aside from whether it is a "f'ing joke," many of the political commentators said, around Feb. 25, that the 2 candidates would now have to discuss the issues. About 2 weeks later, I haven't seen any evidence of that, and this commercial certainly does not. By "discussing the issues," I thought it meant how is a broke city going to pay the pension debt, avoid closing schools, hire more cops, etc.

Maybe "running scared" is indicated by the reports in the late Sunday morning news that 50 out of 350 red light cameras are to be yanked out, including a whole mess on Ashland. This is a couple of days after Emanuel said that they were all about stopping T-bone accidents.

Do you think that the Justice Department report on Ferguson, Mo., saying that the police force was there as revenuers in the pockets of Black drivers had any connection to this report?

[garmon757]

Aside from whether it is a "f'ing joke," many of the political commentators said, around Feb. 25, that the 2 candidates would now have to discuss the issues. About 2 weeks later, I haven't seen any evidence of that, and this commercial certainly does not. By "discussing the issues," I thought it meant how is a broke city going to pay the pension debt, avoid closing schools, hire more cops, etc.

Maybe "running scared" is indicated by the reports in the late Sunday morning news that 50 out of 350 red light cameras are to be yanked out, including a whole mess on Ashland. This is a couple of days after Emanuel said that they were all about stopping T-bone accidents.

Do you think that the Justice Department report on Ferguson, Mo., saying that the police force was there as revenuers in the pockets of Black drivers had any connection to this report?

Well, that just helps a lot. I'm confused about the Ferguson scenario that you've brought up. You're right about witnessing no evidence about discussing issues though.

[Busjack]

Well, that just helps a lot. I'm confused about the Ferguson scenario that you've brought up. ...

CNN has a version of the story.

If the police down there don't like how Black people walk in the street, you better not be taking a bike trip in that direction.

[NewFlyerMCI]

CNN has a version of the story.

If the police down there don't like how Black people walk in the street, you better not be taking a bike trip in that direction.

Oh, I saw that on GGWash, that was interesting. I just got my new bike too, I'm not sure what I would be able to do in Ferg.

[Busjack]

Oh, I saw that on GGWash, that was interesting. I just got my new bike too, I'm not sure what I would be able to do in Ferg.

My impression is get down on the pavement face down with your arms extended. Also, have sufficient access to funds to pay off the municipal court.

My first impression was "another small town with redneck cops," and while that didn't play out in the Michael Brown matter, the supplementary Justice Dept. report sure so indicates.

But the only relevance here is the charges that Rahm is doing similar picking of pockets.

[garmon757]

CNN has a version of the story.

If the police down there don't like how Black people walk in the street, you better not be taking a bike trip in that direction.

Oh Lord, don't even get me started with that because it's freaking sad and a disgrace towards this country.

[BusHunter]

Aside from whether it is a "f'ing joke," many of the political commentators said, around Feb. 25, that the 2 candidates would now have to discuss the issues. About 2 weeks later, I haven't seen any evidence of that, and this commercial certainly does not. By "discussing the issues," I thought it meant how is a broke city going to pay the pension debt, avoid closing schools, hire more cops, etc.

Maybe "running scared" is indicated by the reports in the late Sunday morning news that 50 out of 350 red light cameras are to be yanked out, including a whole mess on Ashland. This is a couple of days after Emanuel said that they were all about stopping T-bone accidents.

Do you think that the Justice Department report on Ferguson, Mo., saying that the police force was there as revenuers in the pockets of Black drivers had any connection to this report?

I don't know what the big deal is with red light cameras. I never have got a red light ticket. I'm more concerned with the speeding cameras though. Those need to go as they can be deceptive and they put them in sneaky locations like Belmont/Knox.

The media likes to stir up trouble. Rahm could've put the kibbash on Chuy, if he would have ran commercials before the last election. That may prove to be his downfall, if there is a downfall. That's one thing that really hurt him, no campaign signs anywhere. Just Chuy ones. You go to vote and you see Chuy signs!!

For me I agree, they need to discuss the issues.

[Busjack]

I don't know what the big deal is with red light cameras. I never have got a red light ticket. I'm more concerned with the speeding cameras though. Those need to go as they can be deceptive and they put them in sneaky locations like Belmont/Knox.

The media likes to stir up trouble. Rahm could've put the kibbash on Chuy, if he would have ran commercials before the last election. That may prove to be his downfall, if there is a downfall. That's one thing that really hurt him, no campaign signs anywhere. Just Chuy ones. You go to vote and you see Chuy signs!!

For me I agree, they need to discuss the issues.

The main stink on the red light cameras was that a yellow was supposed to be 3 seconds and wasn't. Apparently even the hearing officers were throwing out the tickets if one showed up to contest the ticket. Also, they seem to be everywhere.

You must have had your nose in your device if you missed all the Rahm TV and radio ads before the Feb. election about how some woman says Rahm made sure she made $13/hour [didn't say in 2019], a bunch of people from the minority community saying that "Rahm is a litle Rocket," and a Rahm ad saying that Chuy voted for some huge property tax increase when he was on the city council at least 20 years ago. Maybe with all his money spent on TV, he didn't think lawn signs were necessary. But, with all his money, he should have had better polling. If nothing else, it would have shown that the "little rocket" does not have a guidance system.

One could probably argue that a Chicago voter was pretty oblivious if he or she did not know who Rahm was.

[Busjack]

I forgot the one commercial relevant here: Emanuel: "I rebuilt the Red Line in 5 months."

[Guest]

I forgot the one commercial relevant here: Emanuel: "I rebuilt the Red Line in 5 months."

Yeah ok Rahm as always giving himself too many patts on the back!!! OMG!

[Busjack]

Yeah ok Rahm as always giving himself too many patts on the back!!! OMG!

Especially in this case. I don't know what engineer did the project timeline, nor who convinced people on the south side not to riot because their line was shut down, but it wasn't his money, but state money. Quinn didn't win reelection based on "Gov. Quinn's Build Illinois" program, and the money actually came from people who play video poker, and buy license stickers, booze, pop, and candy.

Note also that Rahm hasn't figured out how to prevent the Blue Line project from taking over 4 years.

[juelzkellz]

Especially in this case. I don't know what engineer did the project timeline, nor who convinced people on the south side not to riot because their line was shut down, but it wasn't his money, but state money. Quinn didn't win reelection based on "Gov. Quinn's Build Illinois" program, and the money actually came from people who play video poker, and buy license stickers, booze, pop, and candy.

Note also that Rahm hasn't figured out how to prevent the Blue Line project from taking over 4 years.

To be fair, they have to spread the Blue Line project out. What made the Dan Ryan reconstruction easier and quicker to do was that the Green Line parallels the Dan Ryan branch for half of it's route. The CTA could do their work and still have some semblance of service. The Blue Line has no paralleling lines and is the only realistic, efficient way to access O'hare via public transportation. If you were to put people on shuttle buses, O'hare is congested as it is and there's nowhere for all of those buses to go.

[NewFlyerMCI]

To be fair, they have to spread the Blue Line project out. What made the Dan Ryan reconstruction easier and quicker to do was that the Green Line parallels the Dan Ryan branch for half of it's route. The CTA could do their work and still have some semblance of service. The Blue Line has no paralleling lines and is the only realistic, efficient way to access O'hare via public transportation. If you were to put people on shuttle buses, O'hare is congested as it is and there's nowhere for all of those buses to go.

Metra wouldn't be upset. And that might actually push CTA to send more, and newer buses to FG, especially on 56 to shore up service and shuttles

[juelzkellz]

Metra wouldn't be upset. And that might actually push CTA to send more, and newer buses to FG, especially on 56 to shore up service and shuttles

Like I said before, I believe equipment upgrades happen in "cycles". There's not enough money and/or equipment to go around. Somebody is going to draw the proverbial short straw. This time, it happens to be FG. The one reason I can see CTA sending and keeping all of the old Nova's at FG is that only one route, the 56 goes downtown. The majority of the buses just stay in the area, mitigating wear and tear. Also, people aren't really complaining about it so CTA doesn't see it as an issue. I think the best thing to do in this situation is to be like Elsa from Frozen and "Let it Go"! lol

As far as Metra service to O'hare. There are several problems. First off, even if Metra wanted to boost service to O'hare in the event of Blue Line construction, they wouldn't be able to do so because they barely have enough equipment to run the service they have. Much less run service to O'hare on CTA-like headways. Second, Of the three routes that go near O'hare, The MD-W, NCS, and UP-NW, two of them the MD-W, and the NCS have nowhere to turn trains and there is too much existing commuter and freight traffic and there's no way CN and CP will allow more trains. As far as the UP-NW is concerned, there is also no place to turn trains and you would still have to take a bus to get from Des Plaines to O'hare proper so that defeats the purpose.

The only solution is to build a new line. I know it's expensive, but eventually you run out of proverbial bubble gum and duct tape.

[Busjack]

Like I said before, I believe equipment upgrades happen in "cycles". There's not enough money and/or equipment to go around. Somebody is going to draw the proverbial short straw. This time, it happens to be FG. The one reason I can see CTA sending and keeping all of the old Nova's at FG is that only one route, the 56 goes downtown. The majority of the buses just stay in the area, mitigating wear and tear. Also, people aren't really complaining about it so CTA doesn't see it as an issue. I think the best thing to do in this situation is to be like Elsa from Frozen and "Let it Go"! lol

As far as Metra service to O'hare. There are several problems. First off, even if Metra wanted to boost service to O'hare in the event of Blue Line construction, they wouldn't be able to do so because they barely have enough equipment to run the service they have. Much less run service to O'hare on CTA-like headways. Second, Of the three routes that go near O'hare, The MD-W, NCS, and UP-NW, two of them the MD-W, and the NCS have nowhere to turn trains and there is too much existing commuter and freight traffic and there's no way CN and CP will allow more trains. As far as the UP-NW is concerned, there is also no place to turn trains and you would still have to take a bus to get from Des Plaines to O'hare proper so that defeats the purpose.

The only solution is to build a new line. I know it's expensive, but eventually you run out of proverbial bubble gum and duct tape.

The only potential Metra line is NCS, but the only constraint is that CN won't allow more traffic on it. Otherwise one gets into the Block 37 fiasco that Daley wanted some train but had no idea what he wanted.

[strictures]

Like I said before, I believe equipment upgrades happen in "cycles". There's not enough money and/or equipment to go around. Somebody is going to draw the proverbial short straw. This time, it happens to be FG. The one reason I can see CTA sending and keeping all of the old Nova's at FG is that only one route, the 56 goes downtown. The majority of the buses just stay in the area, mitigating wear and tear. Also, people aren't really complaining about it so CTA doesn't see it as an issue. I think the best thing to do in this situation is to be like Elsa from Frozen and "Let it Go"! lol

I wish Metra had bought all the coaches that LA Metrolink got rid of due their incessant grade crossing crashes, due to the bizarre fact that LA area drivers simply don't understand they should stop when the lights flash & the gates come down.

Those coaches would have been perfect for the UP North Line which has the lowest amount of freight interference & the fewest grade crossings, other than the Metra Electric which has no grade crossings or freight interference.

That would have given Metra maybe 100 extra, fairly recent coaches, even though those double deckers are very different than the bilevel gallery cars used here for 60 years.

[andrethebusman]

Ah, yes, the red light cameras. Note that a majority of those "disappearing" are in Hispanic areas? Just a coincidence that Chuy, who has said he would get rid of all red light cameras, is Hispanic? Rahm is a hypocrite, me thinks. Just listen to his recent commercial, about how he is really such a nice guy. Politically astute? Absolutely. A "nice guy"? I don't think so.

If Rahm want to make some points, he should put the kibosh on Ashland BRT, which seems to have no popular support whatsoever.

[Busjack]

I wish Metra had bought all the coaches that LA Metrolink got rid of due their incessant grade crossing crashes, due to the bizarre fact that LA area drivers simply don't understand they should stop when the lights flash & the gates come down.

Those coaches would have been perfect for the UP North Line which has the lowest amount of freight interference & the fewest grade crossings, other than the Metra Electric which has no grade crossings or freight interference.

That would have given Metra maybe 100 extra, fairly recent coaches, even though those double deckers are very different than the bilevel gallery cars used here for 60 years.

1. You seem to forget all the Metra rail crossing accidents.

2. They aren't compatible with what Metra already has, and most of the UPN cars are comparatively new.

Just guess what would have happened if those cars overturned on the derailment yesterday (which I see nobody here has mentioned), not to mention the LA area crashes between the cars themselves and the cars with freight trains.

Also, as indicated by the Ann Arbor and other stories. there are plenty of compatible ex-Metra cars Metra could purchase if it wanted.

Finally: What does your fantasy have to do with the election and CTA? Is Garcia planning to use city funds to buy LA junk for Metra? I haven't heard that announcement.

[Busjack]

....

If Rahm want to make some points, he should put the kibosh on Ashland BRT, which seems to have no popular support whatsoever.

Maybe the interesting thing is that a good number of them are on Ashland. Somehow he thinks that Ashland traffic shouldn't be clogged up with red light cameras, but should be with BRT.

However, with the articles on the Loop Link indicating that nobody has mentioned the Ashland BRT for a while (and before that Emanuel did mention that this is not necessarily the plan), maybe he has already shoved it under the rug as consultants having gone amok (as they usually do). However, unlike Carole Brown saying about 9 years ago that she couldn't support the consultant's report on the Airport Express without major conditions attached, Terry Peterson knows that he will lose his $25K/year do nothing job as CT Chairman if he crosses Emanuel and does anything other than stand behind him during a press conference. Same for Claypool, except it is a $214K job. Thus, while I was not a fan of Carole Brown, Rahm has made CTA governance infinitely worse. Which I thought was the topic of this thread.

[BusHunter]

What does removing 50 cameras in hispanic areas do for you though? All Rahm needs to do is maintain what he has and he will win. He should've came out with a list and said these are the safest intersections due to my camera program and took away their cameras. This way it does look like it's in the interest of safety. But I would focus more on the non hispanic areas as those hispanic areas are likely chuy voters.

[Busjack]

What does removing 50 cameras in hispanic areas do for you though? All Rahm needs to do is maintain what he has and he will win. He should've came out with a list and said these are the safest intersections due to my camera program and took away their cameras. This way it does look like it's in the interest of safety. But I would focus more on the non hispanic areas as those hispanic areas are likely chuy voters.

I don't agree with Andre's racial analysis of this, especially since the maps showed that Hispanic areas already voted overwhelmingly for Garcia. Some analysts say that Emanuel got about the same percentage of the vote on the north lakefront as in 2011, but he is going to have to get out more voters.

However, from what was reported yesterday, that's exactly what Emanuel is saying, i.e. based on State Police criteria, these 50 cameras were no longer needed. However, the reporters pointed out that that was a day after Garcia said he was going to get rid of all of them, so the reporters were suspicious. However, the reporters then turned and said that Garcia didn't say how he was going to make up the $70 million in revenue.

[jajuan]

What does removing 50 cameras in hispanic areas do for you though? All Rahm needs to do is maintain what he has and he will win. He should've came out with a list and said these are the safest intersections due to my camera program and took away their cameras. This way it does look like it's in the interest of safety. But I would focus more on the non hispanic areas as those hispanic areas are likely chuy voters.

I think Rahm has to do more than simply focus on non-Hispanic areas because before the February 24th election rounds I've been seeing a lot of Chuy signs up in my part of town, and I'm living in a part of the north side that's not necessarily looked upon as a Latino voting bloc stronghold. And to that that I've been hearing a lot of anti-Emanuel buzz long before February 24, and that indicates to me that while there may be some element of Chuy getting a substantial part of the Latino vote at work, Chuy's support has come from a lot more than just Latino voters and the mayor was quite simply in more trouble than he and the local media realized. Let's not forget that 55% of voters voted against Emanuel in that first round even if they didn't necessarily vote for Chuy. They may not have all voted for Chuy but that's still 55% that said they no longer want Emanuel to be mayor of this city, and some within the media very correctly picked up and pointed out that when looked at from that angle the advantage would seem to be with Chuy if he can successfully maneuver and play on the fact that 55% of voting Chicagoans said they wanted to have someone other than Emanuel to be mayor of this city despite Emanuel spending millions and having the big funding advantage in the race. And that's why you're seeing the commercials with Emanuel trying to show a kinder, gentler side than that little tyrant we've all seen and that he says may have caused him to make some missteps in "working hard to improve the city he loves and cares about."