It looks as though there's little hope left for those who got laid off as a result of the CTA service cuts on Feb 7. As service cuts head into their third week, laid off CTA workers see little hope in coming to a solution between management and unions. There were approximately 250 CTA bus workers, both employed and laid off, who attended a rally Saturday at Operation PUSH. The Reverend Jesse Jackson said he was reaching out to state and federal officials to bring more money to public transit.
"Why would you build a new rail system from Chicago to St. Louis without fixing service to 63rd Street?" Jackson asked, referring to a recent $1.1 billion federal grant for higher speed rail in Illinois.
Asked about the impasse at a North Side event Saturday, Mayor Richard M. Daley noted both sides have been discussing the budget problems for three months, but that union members have said "no" to taking unpaid time off and "you have to respect that."
Jackson and the unions hope to meet again on Tuesday but as of yet, no improvements have been made and believes too much is being asked of CTA workers.
if they gave up a 3.5 percent pay hike and agreed to 10 furlough days, that alone would only bring back 200 of 1,057 laid off workers. The civil rights leader noted workers are also being asked to pay increased health costs and give up holiday pay and paid lunch time.
In order to make up a $95.6 million budget deficit, the CTA cut bus service by 18 percent and rail service by 9 percent as well as laid off workers on February 7. This was in result to the lower sales and property transfer tax revenues due to the ailing economy.
As Sofia Resnick notes in her great post, getting around via public transportation in Chicago just got a lot harder this week as commuters must struggle with eliminated bus routes and less frequent trains. According to the CTA's Web site, the following express routes, many running through the South and West sides of the city, have been eliminated:
#X3 King Drive Express
#X4 Cottage Grove Express
#X9 Ashland Express
#X20 Washington/Madison Express
#X49 Western Express
#53AL South Pulaski Limited
#X54 Cicero Express
#X55 Garfield Express
#X80 Irving Park Express
There have been cutbacks on suburban Pace bus routes and El service as well. According to a CTA statement, "service is operating less frequently on 119 bus routes and seven of CTA's eight rail lines. In addition, 41 bus routes have reduced hours of service - routes either are starting service later, ending service earlier at night or both. Nine weekday express bus routes that have corresponding local service have also been eliminated."
Editor's note: This article was written by Sofia Resnick. Multimedia slideshow by Chris Neary.
Starting this week, getting around on city buses and trains will be challenging to those who value efficient and reliable public transportation. If they're to believe the Chicago Transit Authority's promise for 18 percent less service on buses and 9 percent less service on trains, riders can expect to wait longer for even more crowded buses and trains. Who knows how many riders will abandon public transit for the warmth and comfort of their cars, the speed of their bicycles or the self-reliance of their own feet.
Not every commuter in Chicago has the luxury of choice when it comes to transportation.
People with disabilities who depend on an alternative door-to-door service — what's known as paratransit — can't alternate their plans when service plummets or fares climb, as they did at the end of 2009. Pace, the transportation agency most people associate with suburban buses, runs Chicago paratransit. As with the CTA, a troubled economy has driven Pace's budget so far into the red, riders have become accustomed to almost yearly declines in efficient, affordable service.
One paratransit rider, Dr. Ayo Maat, has a plan to bring affordable, reliable and eco-friendly transportation to Chicago's disabled community. Maat is proposing an alternative to the current paratransit system that would bring independence to riders with disabilities, by having them run their own service.
President Obama awarded $8 billion in high-speed rail grants to 31 states last week -- and the Midwest was not forgotten. The region was awarded $2.6 billion in total to build four major corridors: Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City, Minneapolis-Milwaukee-Chicago, Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati, and Detroit-Chicago. In a fairly major victory, Illinois received $1.13 billion to look at the Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City corridor (pdf). The money will look at phase one of the plan to improve tracks, signal systems, and existing stations on the current Amtrak line.
Two local articles -- one from the Chicago Tribune and one from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- highlight some important issues that legislators need to consider to ensure high-speed transit in the Midwest is successful.
In a nice analysis piece, the Chicago Tribune's Blair Kamin argues that stations and architecture need to be thoroughly thought out and planned in order for high-speed transit to have any impact on the average person's commute:
This isn't just fixing crumbling roads and bridges. It could revolutionize the way we move and live. But if a new order is to replace the old one, much more needs to be done than speeding up the trains. The entire passenger experience has to be thought through, from curb side to the train shed. If you doubt that, take a look at the mess in Union Station, the likely hub of Midwest high-speed rail.
Members of Citizens Taking Action and the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) will be protesting planned CTA reductions Wednesday morning. According to an e-mail sent out today by organizers, planned service reductions will affect communities that need and rely on mass transit the most. Organizers argue these reductions will result in:
Twice the wait time on 119 routes
Elimination of express routes
Overcrowded buses and trains
Stranded riders as a result of shortened hours of operation for 41 routes
Elimination of 1,000+ transit personnel, resulting in 40,000 less manpower hours each week
Closing of a major bus facility on the southwest side
At least 275 buses taken out of service
The rally is scheduled from 10 am to 12 pm at the CTA Headquarters, 567 W. Lake St. It comes just two days after activists gathered outside of City Hall on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to protest service cuts and biased funding.
In case you missed it, freelance writer Jessica Pupovac penned an interesting piece in this month's Mindful Metropolis. In the article, Pupovac looks at how $8 billion in federal stimulus money could finally bring high-speed rail to the Midwest. If successful, Americans might finally break their dependence on the automobile, and the money could help America catch up with other high-speed rail hubs like France and Japan (whose notorious bullet train is pictured above).
According to the article, a high-speed line between Chicago and St. Louis could be running very soon since it could rely on existing Amtrak tracks. Pupovac also notes in her article:
Many in Illinois are hoping Illinois is a lead contender among the more than 34 states that submitted applications totaling more than $57 billion. Illinois is asking for $4 billion, or half of the totally kitty, to build out a second, high-speed track from Chicago to St. Louis. The funds would purchase or upgrade the actual tracks, purchase new trains, install new signaling mechanisms and make a host of related improvements necessary to safely and efficiently run a train capable of traveling up to 110 miles an hour between the two cities.
But not everyone sees a future in high-speed rail. Pupovac also quotes Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow with the Conservative think tank Cato Institute. O'Toole, who wrote the study "Taking Illinoisans for a Ride: The False Promises of High-Speed Rail," argues that the hefty cost of high-speed rail far outweighs any environmental benefit.
A class action lawsuit filed yesterday against the State of Illinois, IDOT, RTA and Metra argues that Chicago's method for funding mass transit discriminates against Latino and African American passengers.
According to the lawsuit, the city's mass transit scheme, adopted in 1983 and re-enacted in 2008, overfunds the Metra, which serves predominately white residents who live the suburbs. As a result of this overfunding, the CTA has "continually tottered on financial ruin -- having to increase fares and having to cut back on services, both of which have had substantial impacts on African American and Hispanic residents in the CTA service area."
The lawsuit points to some key moments in Chicago history, including the formation of the RTA, which was established in 1974 by the Illinois General Assembly to save cash-strapped bus and rail lines, and the Council Wars of 1983, which blocked many of Mayor Harold Washington's appointments to several boards and commissions, including the CTA. The lawsuit notes that soon after Washington won the Democratic Primary in February 1983, politicians began discussing changes to the RTA at a transit summit. During that time, "the predominantly white suburban commuters felt that they had been overpaying for their train service and that they needed to get a much larger share of RTA funding."
In November of the same year, the Illinois Senate adopted new RTA legislation that has lead to the CTA's financial disrepair, and has disproportionately hurt Latinos and African Americans, according to the lawsuit. Prior to the 1983 legislation, the CTA had received 70 percent of suburban Cook County tax revenues while Metra received 30 percent. But under the new legislation, the CTA receives 30 percent of the sales taxes collected in suburban Cook County while Metra/Pace receives 70 percent.
The lawsuit goes on to mention that as a result of this funding method, from 1985 to 2005, CTA riders faced four times more fare increases than Metra riders. During that same time, the CTA increased its fare charges by 122 percent while Metra increased its fares by 30 percent.
Some updates on union contract negotiations around town:
[CTA Tattler]: CTA bus drivers union weighs strike to protest layoffs
The union president, Darrell Jefferson, goes on to insist the CTA's budget deficit is actually $500 million, not the $300 million cited by the CTA. But the union will continue to resist any givebacks, including furlough days.
[Chicago Tribune]: Hotel workers authorize strike at downtown Starwood hotels
Chicago hotel workers voted Wednesday evening to authorize a strike at five downtown Starwood hotels.
A union spokesman said if contract negotiations drag on, similar votes could occur at downtown Hyatt and Hilton hotels. Union contracts covering 6,000 workers at 31 hotels in downtown Chicago expired Aug. 31, and the union has said a settlement is far from sight.
With a federal mediator in place at the end of the table, the Union and Management traded barbs as the contract stalemate continues. AFSCME continues to demand that management provide us with an updated wages proposal, which the county will not as the tax issue continues to drag on before the county board.
This is another example of the trouble the labor movement has. The private sector has carved out a legal regime that makes it easy and painless to bust unions and squash workers' rights to organize in the workplace. Because we don't allow our government to violate a worker's right to organize, it is much easier to organize in the public sector. As a result, we end up with high unionization rates in the public sector and low union density in the private sector. Since public employees get paid by all of us, it is easy to stir up resentment against public sector workers--why should they have it so good? Why should they get defined benefit pensions?
Rather than try to pull everybody up to the decent living standards that public sector workers get, conservatives advocate for dragging everybody else down to the lower living standards. Private sector jobs not covered by collective bargaining agreements, the argument goes, have their value determined "rationally" by the market, whereas union contracts "artificially" inflate wages and benefits. This is of course absurd; collective bargaining agreements are entered into voluntarily, just like any contract, and if using your size and bargaining strength to improve the deal you get is "artificial" then a certain big blue discount super retailer from Bentonville, Arkansas should be the archenemy of conservatives and libertarians everywhere.
Don't be surprised if CTA employees' refusal to give up what they've earned over years--decades--of work ends up being blamed for the fare hikes or service cuts. These workers are very convenient scapegoats. Easier to beat up on people earning the median income than force the powerful to pay their fair share, or make tough decisions.
I had the pleasure yesterday, in between e-mail and a client meeting, to take in the 7th Annual lunchtime media briefing by Chicago Metropolis 2020. CM2020 is a non-profit organization originally established by the Commercial Club of Chicago "to promote long-term planning, better regional cooperation, and smart investments in the Chicago region and its people." The briefing, attended by a number of notables on the Chicago journalism scene, promised presentations on criminal justice reform; campaign finance limits; housing policy, early childhood education, and the Burnham Plan Centennial.
Adele Simmons, VP of the Burnham Plan Centennial, combined a general welcome with an overview of the mission of the Centennial, which is to carry on the legacy of legendary planner Daniel Burnham by focusing on innovative regional solutions for the Chicago metro area, saying, "The choices we make today will shape the future." While that statement might seem tautological at first, the emphasis was on bringing to the forefront of our decisionmaking the long-range, rather than short-term drivers.
Pro Publica has the breakdown of stimulus money that has come into Cook County. By number, it looks like higher education and housing are the big recipients--in the form of Section 8 and Pell grants.
Although, here are some big ones that warmed my heart a bit:
CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY $48,931,728.00 Grant INFRASTRUCTURE RENEWAL, PREVENTATIVE MAI
COMMUTER RAIL DIV OF REGIONAL TRANSP AUTHORITY $46,603,124.00 Grant FY 2009 BRIDGE REHAB/SIGNAL UPGRADES
CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY $191,300,192.00 Grant PURCHASE BUSES, SUBWAY REHABILITATION
I find this bit in a story in today's Chicago Sun-Times on the Cash for Clunkers program surprising:
Illinois ranks sixth among states in the number of cash-for-clunker dollars going to buyers: $2.44 million. It follows No. 1 Michigan ($3.4 million), Ohio ($2.93 million), California ($2.64 million), Minnesota ($2.62 million) and Texas ($2.5 million).
That puts us ahead of states like Wisconsin, Oregon, and Washington --places where I'd assume there'd not only be enthusiasm for environmentalism and/or fuel efficiency but also a lack of conservative skepticism toward the program. Personally I can't think of any really good explanation for any of the states I mention except maybe Oregon which is basically bicycle central. But for the rest, what's the deal? Why is Illinois, whose biggest city has a fair (but far from perfect) public transport system doing more trading than these other ones? Do that many people have more SUVs to trade in?
USA Today reports that a group of governors from around the Midwest met in Chicago today to create a group that will lobby for a unified high speed rail system across the region.
The group's participants, the governors from Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio (6 Democrats and 2 Republicans - but hey, who's counting?) are all from states hit hard by the shuttering of the once-massive US manufacturing sector. The Rust Belt, as some suggest, could benefit from encouraged mobility and possible job growth. (Is it just me, or does every single project announced in the Midwest these days seem to include the words "job growth"? I'll believe it when I see it.)
Of course, conservatives are criticizing the cost. The article quotes John Tillman from the Illinois Policy Institute, who says, "They don't want the price tag out there when everyone's talking fiscal restraint." Yeah, fiscal restraint. How come I don't hear all these libertarians calling to cut back on highway spending? According to IDOT's own 2007 Fiscal Year report, Illinois spent over $5.3 billion on Blago's "Congestion-Relief Program" - also known as Open Road Tolling.
And yet every time someone suggests that we fund transit at an operational level, like the CTA, we hear no end to the demagoguery. Or when an opportunity develops to invest in fast, modern, environmentally-friendly travel options for our region - we hear the same, tired arguments over and over.
Hopefully, our willfully incapable two party system will actually do something the Midwest desperately needs - lead. After all, Chicago may be the biggest city on the "third coast", but as Detroit's meltdown shows, it's not the only dog in the neighborhood. We should encourage more cross-pollination of ideas, resources, and economies with surrounding communities to foster a more robust industrial heartland once again.
An article in the San Francicso Chronicledetails a plan to relieve parking congestion by allowing neighborhoods to decide how much to charge for parking, and adding "perks" that would come along with the privilege:
They suggest replacing the 1970s-era lettered parking sticker program with "parking benefit districts," a boutique approach to parking in which residents decide how much to charge for parking in their neighborhoods, the boundaries for paid parking and what perks should come to those who pay premiums to park.
The idea is to raise money for the city, make it easier for people to park in front of their house, and also reduce pollution by encouraging transit use, said San Francisco County Transit Authority planner Jesse Koehler, who presented his three-year report Tuesday to the authority's plans and programs committee.
At first glance, applying this to Chicago, this just struck me as a terrible idea that would further segregate the city. But...
Parking is scarce in part because residential parking permits are so cheap, Koehler said. For $76 a year - pennies a day - people can park all day on their streets, in some cases using their garages for workshops or storage.
Good point. Seems the problem starts at the level of demand--we need to discourage car ownership by making transportation not only in Chicago but in the region swift and simple. Will fees discourage car ownership without matching it to better public transport?
Why do conservatives hate trains? Not sure; but there's no doubt they do. Maybe they just love atomizing transportation, as they love atomizing everything else. But there's no doubt that high speed rail has been a solution to many of our infrastructure, congestion, and environmental problems, and that a lack of political courage has been the major stumbling block to its coming to fruition. There was a time when businessmen used to take the train everywhere; then the defunding of Amtrak in the 1970s essentially destroyed our country's rail infrastructure.
Trains traveling at 110 m.p.h. on Illinois' first high-speed corridor would make the 284-mile trip between Chicago and St. Louis in about four hours -- shaving 1 ½ hours off current travel times by Amtrak trains now running up to 79 m.p.h., according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
By going 220 m.p.h., however, those improved trip times would be cut roughly in half, to 1 hour and 52 minutes, according to the association. The estimate includes making intermediary stops in Champaign and Springfield, while providing customers with downtown-to-downtown service and beating the door-to-door trip times of airline travel.
The trip between Champaign and Chicago would take 45 minutes; and 90 minutes between Springfield and Chicago, the study said. The study estimated the cost of building the 220-m.p.h. Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor at $11.5 billion in 2012 dollars. It does not include the cost of new trains, maintenance facilities and other expenses.
Five local transit and planning advocates held a media briefing via conference call on June 25 to elevate the attention level of House Transportation Committee chairman James Oberstar (D.-MN)'s $500 billion surface transportation stimulus/funding bill, as well as to call for improvements in the bill. The consensus of the panel was that the bill provides much needed funding but still lacks some key elements, most prominently performance measures and a heavier mass transit emphasis, to effect meaningful change in national transportation policy.
Oberstar and Rep. John Mica (R.-FL) released the full draft text of the 775-page Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009 ("STAA") on Monday, June 22. A shorter 17-page summary was made available the week before. Fuller account below.
The CTA unveiled last night its preliminary concept for a significant extension of the Yellow Line, a/k/a the Skokie Swift, from its current terminus at Dempster Street in Skokie, to Old Orchard Road, just east of the Edens Expressway. The authority rolled out its presentation at a public meeting at Niles North High School, near where the extension would end. Approximately 50 members of the public were in attendance, along with what seemed to be at least a dozen CTA staffers and consultants. Public officials were notably absent, except for Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen, a longtime booster of more rapid transit to the inland North Shore burb, and an aide of State Rep. Lou Lang.
Here's the story: Governor Quinn originally promised to use some stimulus funds both on roads around Illinois and on city transit mainly in Chicago. Both could use some funding. A little while ago, Governor Quinn went back on his original promise saying that funding public transit wasn't quite possible and then committed the majority of the money to the roads instead.
Quinn's office is arguing that there are financial constraints from putting the money to fixing the CTA (does that make any sense to you because it's not supposed to). Greg Hinz has the details:
Mr. Quinn's spokeswoman says road work can begin right away because the state's road fund has existing revenue sources that can support $640 million appropriated for road projects. Mr. Quinn "believed it was critical to pass the Jump Start Capital Plan to get shovel-ready roads projects going in May so we can start putting people to work," she says.
But the transit work is different, according to the governor's office. It requires the Legislature to pass "revenue enhancements" to pay off the bonds, and that has not yet occurred, the spokeswoman says. The transit agencies can use the time to get their projects shovel ready, she says.
Notice the last part which I bolded and underlined. I did that because in actuality the transit agencies DO have shovel ready projects. Now, I accept that there are some things that I, a humble college student miles away from his Hyde Park, Chicago home, does not know that the Illinois Governor very well might. But Michael Madigan says Quinn is wrong too (quote from Hinz's story):
As the media caught on Quinn's office backtracked and said, basically, that the Governor has every intention of eventually putting much needed money into rails. I'm going to go out on a limb here and by bet that every intention means never.
Adam Doster at Progress Illinois points out that this is yet another example of how state governments are set up in a way that transit funding gets to city transit agencies the long way. It's not at all unusual. New York is having a very similar problem right now. What would make more sense would be if public transit funding went to the areas of a state where the public transit is used most (cities).
The best argument against the bill seems to be that accepting credit cards would that Metra would have pay a processing fee. According to Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet, "Coming up with the funding for several million dollars when we're already $50 million in the hole is difficult." I guess I understand that but I'm also inclined to think that when word got out that the Metra allowed plastic, there would be a rise in ridership that might balance out the processing fees --given the economy and the undependable price of gas these days.
Greg Hinz reports that Chicago Aviation Commissioner Richard Rodriguez could succeed Ron Huberman at the CTA. Rodriguez is a much better match for the CTA than Huberman is for the the Chicago Public Schools. Rodriguez has also served as the Commissioner of the Department of Buildings and held earlier posts in the Chicago Housing Authority and the Real Estate and Planning Department within the Department of Aviation.
Well, aviation isn't the same as transportation, but it's a hell of a lot closer than education so this could be a better fit. This is probably a fairly wise pick -- since Daley wants to get the 2016 Olympics, he's likely to choose someone competent enough to bring the CTA up to snuff to make the city worthy of hosting the Olympics.
The Friday board agenda on CTA's website says Dorval Carter, currently a CTA Executive Vice President with many years of experience in the transit industry, will be appointed Acting President.
In shifting Mr. Huberman, Mayor Daley candidly admitted he believes that educating kids is more important than getting people to jobs.
"The most imporant aspect of life is a quality education," he replied when I asked him if having both good schools and good transit wasn't important. "Education is the answer to all the ills."
I don't know if you can interpret that as Daley prizes education above transportation. Transportation is crucial for a city to function, and a fool our mayor is not. He's on the money earlier in the same piece:
At the CTA, Mr. Huberman wasn't perfect but he was a breath of fresh air.
Unlike his immediate predecessors, he recognized that the CTA is in a consumer business, a business in which good service is required. Thanks to him, those slow zones on miles and miles of el lines are gone. Articulated buses get fixed fast, rather than breaking down every day. The amount of service has increased. And, while fares went up, the system's basic finances are in the best shape in decades.
Even bigger were his dreams for the future, dreams of clean, high-tech service like other cities have on existing and new lines. At least some of those dreams were starting to come into focus with the prospect of billions of dollars in federal aid under President Barack Obama.
Is it too much to ask to keep the somewhat competent people in the places where they actually are competent? I'm going to channel Daley right now and say "yes."
We're chasing sources to get the word on who will replace Huberman at CTA -- he's almost certainly lined up a replacement, don't you think?
Well, Chicago's excellent local beat reporters will probably beat us to it, except we have one great resource -- you guys! Any Transit folks out there willing to spill what they're hearing?
The tone seems to be pretty benign about Ron Huberman's appointment to lead the Chicago Public Schools, but really, is this anything but Daley-style machine politics?
Come on now, how exactly is education related to transportation? And beyond that, despite some serious improvements (slow zones, an ambitious digital tracking system), there's much work to be done. It's not the time for a leader to move on to something new and different.
