Posted by Jimmy Greenfield - 11:57 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 27

Here's a must-read story for anybody who uses the CTA.

An excerpt:

"CTA officials said Wednesday that a new round of service cuts and fare hikes being prepared for January would make the "doomsday" scenario set for Nov. 4 seem relatively minor."

So if $3 fares and 39 bus routes being cut are relatively minor, that must mean we're looking at fares of $3.50 and about 60-70 bus routes slashed.

Meanwhile, Mayor Daley is virtually silent on the issue. I know many readers here don't blame him for the CTA problems but I don't join you in giving him a pass.

What he wants to get done, he gets done. Either he doesn't care about the CTA or is incapable of doing anything about it. Either way, I don't understand why voters never hold this against him.

No, Mayor Daley is too busy fighting "a fight for the future of this city" -- over a museum the size of a large supermarket. Need $110 million? A 3% city gas tax or a $0.60 toll on the Kennedy and Dan Ryan would handle that.

But somehow, as Jimmy points out, no one seems to hold our politicians accountable for the CTA's woes. Instead, public anger over CTA seems to manifest itself solely in cynical whining posted by paper tigers, sniping away their hours on blogs.

JIMMY'S REPLY: Paper tiger? On a blog?

You're not alone!!! The CTA is the MAIN reason I oppose Daley and refuse to vote for him. Well, along with his TIFs.

When the CTA doomsday stories started to come down 2-3 years ago, I wrote the Mayor. His office's response? The CTA is a REGIONAL issue, not a city issue. Granted, that's true but, as I responded to the letter, when the media has pictures of people in the snow, trying to get to work, they won't be calling it a Chicagoland problem - it will be a CHICAGO problem.

Sure, Daley appeared at one rally, but he's displayed none of the rage shown over the Children's Museum issue. If he truly wants to host the Olympics, he better wake up fast.

In the meantime, CTA riders need to hold his feet to the fire.

Let's face it, Daley isn't concerned about this at all. If he had been, he never would have put Ron H in the top position - rather, he would have put someone with experience with managing mass transit systems in there.

Further evidence that he doesn't care? Well, rather than looking at how the city can spend money on a new museum, he could be spending time looking at how the city can invest in supporting mass transit - but that isn't happening. Nope, he wants Springfield to bail us out while he spends wildly on his pet projects.

Here we go... The same old tired song and dance with Ron Huberman playing chicken little & the boy who keeps crying wolf. How many time is the state going to fall for this? Let the CTA crash & burn!!! Then hopefully a proper public transportation system can be built from the ground up.

Let the CTA shut down. Then Daley can wonder why the snot nosed rug rats aren't coming to the Children's Museum. Yeah, that's all we need on the CTA, more strollers and parents who can't control their screaming & crying brats. Daley should worry about the CTA, not a museum for rug rats. Let the museum move to the burbs. Or the kids can go play with a giant rat at Chuck E. Cheese.

New York Subway Fare: $2.00
New York Sales Tax: 8.38% *Includes a transit authority tax

Chicago Subway Fare: $1.75 (with card) $2.00 (without card) 0.25 transfer fee
Chicago Sales Tax: 9%

So you're going to increase to $3-$4/ride, raise sales tax? All of this while 2 major highways are under construction (90/94 south and the Edens)? The only thing you're promoting is getting folks out of Chicago and into better managed cities that HAVE BUDGETS DECIDED UPON ALREADY.

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