Thursday, February 14, 2008
News / Clout City "Costly and inefficient"
Posted by Mick Dumke on 02.14.08 at 06:02 PM
When Mayor Daley says, "Ours is a 1920s system. It's costly and inefficient," you'd be excused for thinking he's talking about local government.
Instead, it's the CTA, which the mayor has suddenly realized is a mess.
This afternoon he announced that the agency will borrow and bond its way to improving service. This will be welcome news to riders who have watched the transit system deteriorate dramatically over the two decades Daley has been in office, and perplexing news to everyone wondering why Daley has been unable to find a management team interested in doing this before now.
For all practical purposes, Daley has had control of the CTA since he was elected mayor in 1989, since he picks its executive and the majority of its board members, including the chairman. He's probably right in saying, as he has repeatedly, that the federal and state governments haven't kicked in enough--but it's also true that management is a huge reason why this operation is in rotten shape.
What do I mean? I was recently headed north on the 147, an express bus that makes no stops from the end of the Mag Mile until getting off Lake Shore Drive at Foster. As usual, the bus was packed with far-north-siders eager to get home from work. But after we pulled up next to the Dominick's at Foster and Sheridan, about halfway to the end of the route at the Howard Red Line station, the bus sat for a minute. And then another, and then another. The driver unfastened his seat belt, stood up, and stepped off.
No one knew what was going on; the people unlucky enough to have to stand were particularly displeased.
After about tenminutes, the driver appeared again. "There's another bus coming, and you may want to get on it, 'cuz I don't know when this one's moving again," he said.
The other, equally packed bus stopped beside ours, and people poured into it, some professing their disgust, others their disbelief. A few heaped curses upon the driver and his progeny.
It wasn't his fault, though.
Turns out his shift had ended--right there, in the middle of the route. And his replacement was apparently late for work.
"I'm trying to go home, just like you guys," he said.
First he had to catch a west-bound bus to his home base, a CTA garage on Kedzie. And since he couldn't leave the bus he'd been driving, he'd just missed the one he needed to get there.
Why would his shift end before his route did? "I have no idea," he said with a shrug. "You'd have to ask the people downtown."
The second 147 bus drove off, so full it looked like it would sink to the ground before getting another block. About five minutes later our replacement driver hopped off an eastbound bus and hurried over to ours, and not long after that the four of us still left on it continued our ride homeward.
Comments (39)
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It's the idiots. More precisely, it's the fucking idiots. HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
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You must be ONE of them. Using that TIRESOME, PRO-TONY PERAICA BS mantra. But when your "personal deity" such as Tony Peraica, Who's associate can't even file his case right & LEAPFROG into the more higher court realms. OH, NOOOOOO!!!!!, WE CAN'T SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT TONY, HE'S OUR JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!, YEAH RIGHT.
Remember that VICTOR REYES was on the CTA Board--they actually dressed up like a pig to the meeting. He made millions while on the board. What a criminal.
Ron Huberman for Mayor. Gentle Ron could lead the city well, if Daley retires . most of all he is a team player
Tony has his issues ,but not as many as Hack canidate Anita Alvarez. Ask Ms Alvarez about her concealing evidence in criminal proceeding, to protect Devine and Daley. Alvarez's reward the boys in the 19th were running her campaign. For some reason the boys in the 19th didn't want Milan, probabily one of those inner Irish feuds. Skinny Sheehan ran her campaign. Also Brookins campaign was run by Michael Madigan and a HDO political operative name Mike noonan, foe resolute consultants partly owned by Vic reyes. The machine took no chance all of the States Attorney candidates were Hacks,except maybe Tommy Brewer.
Say all the bad things you want to about Peraica, but the one 'bad' thing you can't say is that he's sucking the Daley/Madigan/Stroger/et al tit. For the umpteenth time, we don't need a 'Jesus Christ-type', 'turn the other cheek' Cook County State's Attorney, we've already had a 'See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Do No Good' munchkin in that office for decades. What we need is someone who'll 'get medieval' on the asses of the city and county elected criminals who've run rampant for the past 50+ years. What we need is to restore the checks and balances inherent in having an opposing party candidate as our next Cook County State's Attorney. If this city and county of corruption were controlled by Republicans, we'd need a Democrat as our county State's Attorney. The fact that our city and county governments are corrupted by Democrats is the only reason we need a Republican holding that office. If there were an authentically Independent and Honest and Aggressive candidate for this office, he or she would be the best choice, but, since the electorate has yet to prove their commitment to electing Independent, Honest candidates to any office, Peraica, being the Republican candidate, is the best choice we have, at this point in time. If Alvarez wins this election, things will continue to remain the same. Elect Peraica and let the games begin.
That nut case that foams about Peraica every chance he gets, writes like he talks--- like one of them north side "ski's" with sweaty hands, who pushes his mother around and wishes he was a mustache.
Back to the topic at hand..... Little Mick using the literary device of a red-herring, uses the example of a peon bus driver to try to make a lame point. Sort of like asking a grunt infantry man whose unit was overtaken in the Ardenne forest what he thought of the US war effort in WWII.
Same Battle Plan. CTA is broke, the Daley people claim. The cry to the taxpayers , they cry to springfield, they cry to the City Council. " Doomsday" they scream ! Than after getting the taxpayers to buy into the spin. Whats the first thing the Daley people do with the new found money for the CTA ? The spend $ millions of dollars $ on contracts with their freinds and family. maybe MSS and Patrick daley have a contract at CTA too! Same story with " SHORT FALLS" at the Park Dist.,O'Hare Expansion, and Budgets every year. The Daley Crew cries broke , than gets the money , the over spends the money on family and friends . Orion, your right , they are the greatest Crooks I have ever seen sonce AL Capone! Let the attacks begin!
Like St.Tony Peraica, The patron saint of gunrunners will be your savior, Freaking sick bastards.
Nuts to the driver that abandons a bus full of people because his shift ended - these are the people who PAY HIS SALARY. What would he have done if he was a pilot, jumped out with a parachute? I think it's very easy to cast wide overgeneralizations about slacker CTA employees, but there are definitely more than a few bad apples. I recall vividly 8 Halsted bus drivers in the late 80s who would stop the bus to get hot dogs from street vendors, stop the bus in the middle of f'm nowhere as they were "ahead of schedule", and it seems little has changed. Is it too much to ask CTA employees to use their brains & common sense?
Hey "Get Lost Cowards": Lay off the plum juice and potato wine.. its a bad mix...and then be respectful to the women in your family.
I am not sure that Barack Obama has brought all these new people into the political process. There are certainly more young people that are pro-Obama but they may have well gone for another candidate if Obama was not in the race. Ralph Nader, and more specifically Ron Paul this election have brought new people into the race. I think this point is right on the money. Everything that Obama talks about in broad strokes of rhetoric he has not done at home and has not only turned a blind eye but participated in or put his head in the sand like an ostrich. The early primary in Illinois, ostebsibly to help Obama, that Obama supported--was an incumbent protection plan that made a primary and more importantly campaigning in a short and cold truncated process. It does not allow challengers to get their names out there or to build name recognition or even an effective campaign. The level of political discourse, outside the internet depth at times and policy orientation left to right of the Kos or conservative bloggers or the Ron Paul bunch--most people only hear monologue platitudes from Obama (not to say he is not intelligent nor has policy white papers written for him with details) BUT the Obama camp has had "Obama girls" and trampy girls doing campaign ads and the so called young participation has not been substantitive. It kinds of reminds me of the MTV Rock the Vote when Madonna was dancing with the American (US) flag (something many felt disrespectful) scantily clad and disrespectful with two well built effeminite black men telling them to vote--yet she never registered to vote. It is great to bring young people involved and talk about hope but there must be substance. The issue of corruption is hypocritical with Obama to the extent he has been part of the Machine and has knocked off canidates off the ballot like progressive Alice Palmer in 1996. He was a student of Sen President Emil Jones who has given his step son 50,000,000 in computer contracts, girlfriends jobs, and partronage, nepotism, pinstripe patronage, contracts galore. Jones has been in bed with utilities, gaming, and lobbyists--not a peep from Obama. Obama has endorsed TODD STROGER and not a peep on layoffs, quality of health care, or corruption. Obama has RAISED THE MOST MONEY of any Democrat and Republican and not from "average folk" but from high powered lawyers and lawyers and companies that want things. Plenty of articles exposing that including the Sun Times. The fundraisers and chairs are big names who get benefit from government and are wealthy oligarchs from families who play the system not reformers. Barack Obama has been silent on Rod Blagojevich and their shared fundraiser Tony Rezko and activities including real estate deals that were very recent only to say it was a mistake and lapse in judgment. Barack Obama has been silent on Richard M. Daley and influence and lobbyin and corruption and cover ups including the torture by Jon Burge and detectives at Area 2 and Area 3.
There are 2 points of view at play here. 1. Public Services, being paid for by the public, via taxes imposed upon same, should return value equal to said payments. 2. Taxes paid by the public are 'free' to be spent as those in control of same see fit, providing only as much value to those paying same as is necessary to ensure reelection, with the goal being to enrich those in control as much as is practical. Two conflicting points of view, one held by the payers of taxes and the other held by the receivers of said payments. A free market this is not. Thus, the inherent forces of a free market of services do not apply. Customer/consumer satisfaction, not all that important. Efficiency of the operations providing said services, not all that important. Intelligence in the managing of said operations, not all that important. Quality of said services, not all that important. Competence of the managers of said operations, not all that important. Competitiveness of said services, not a factor. Reliability of said services, not all that important. The only factor of importance is the providing of services, in such a way, as to minimize dissatisfaction. Public Service operations, by definition, are not-for-profit enterprises. What is the definition of a not-for-profit enterprise? Total Cost of Operation determines Required Income. Yet, much individual, personal gain, ie. personal profit, can be had through inflated salaries, bloated contracts, excess employees, unnecessary inventory, theft, kickbacks, useless expenditures, 'creative bookkeeping', etc.... Those whose point of view is primarily their own personal gain are 'managing' a not-for-profit enterprise as if it is a 'for-our-personal-profit' enterprise. Those who have the potential power to impose, (upon those imposing taxations upon them), their desires to be authentically, efficiently and honestly provided said prepaid-by-taxes services, namely the taxpaying public, have failed to exercise their Right to Vote in an effective manner. We, the taxpaying public, get not only substantially NOT what we're paying for, but also NOT what we are regularly promised, by those who seek our votes on Election Day, to be receiving. Here's an amusing little parable I found on the Second City Cop blog: "What the politicians and JFed are all about: While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance. 'Welcome to heaven,' says St. Peter. 'Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you.' 'No problem, just let me in,' says the man. 'Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity.' 'Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,' says the senator. 'I'm sorry, but we have our rules.' And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him. Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne. Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go. Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises... The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St.Peter is waiting for him. 'Now it's time to visit heaven.' So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns. 'Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity.' The senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: 'Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell.' So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above. The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. 'I don't understand,' stammers the senator. 'Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?' The devil looks at him, smiles and says, 'Yesterday we were campaigning........ Today you voted.' 2/14/2008 03:28:00 PM" So very true to life. HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
That's the big question, isn't it? What will Obama do, if he succeeds in becoming our next President? Will he bite the hands that have fed him? Will he effectively manage to resolve the conflicts between those who see governments as a source of immense personal wealth, by the fleecing of the taxpayers, and those who are those same fleeced taxpayers? We have yet to take seriously any candidate not incestuously entangled in the Democratic or Republican Party political enterprises. Do we have an independent of the Democrats AND the Republicans candidate for President? One that any significant number of voters will vote for? One that can overcome the idiotic attitude held by many voters, that attitude being that they don't want to 'vote for a loser', so they follow the biggest herd, just so they can feel that they've 'picked a winner'? The voters really, really, really need to pull their heads out of their asses, face the fact that we, as citizens purportedly living in a Democracy, have failed ourselves, by choosing to be the idiots that those who manipulate us depend upon us to be, by failing to inform ourselves, in a myriad of ways, about the realities of life, by consistently buying into the abundance of lies, deceptions and pandering bullshit that we are fed, by the media, the politicians, the business community, et al.. In a Democracy, the government's effect on the citizens' lives depends entirely on the natures of the individuals the citizens elect, and thus, empower, to 'govern'. Our elected officials constantly use the word 'govern' as a verb meaning to control, to impose, to direct, to compel, to instruct and to 'maintain civil order'. Is a Democratic government really meant to be all of these things? Really meant to be a force used to control the behaviors, actions and environments of the citizens of same? Is this really what a Democratic government is supposed to be? And, is this really the nature of Democratic governing that we, the people, want? Garbage In, Garbage Out is what we have, here in our 230+ year old Democracy. As long as we, the people, are putting garbage in, what else but garbage can we expect to get out of our elected governments, be they city, county, state or federal?
I am sick of the Mayor Daley Frank Coconate "Star Muscle" fetish. Both of you apes should get into a closet and 69 until you respect each other. Everyone knows you are a bunch of cupcake eating sissys. A little lube and respect goes a long way in the political process.
And the SAME ASSHOLES supporting this anal-retentive by KISSING ASS with him, That Staccato cocksucker extrodinaire.
Gentle Ron Huberman has done a lot for CTA I hope he wiped him seat after he finished. Daley is still trying to up stage JAMES LASKI, WITH HIS BOOK "HOW TO BECOME A MILLIONARIRE AND HELP YOUR SON"
"The anti-Peraica people on here are really crazy." Indeed. Besides their innate insanity, their total lack of integrity, honesty and common decency, what other causes may be stimulating this outpouring of venom? Might it be fear, of the possibility of the election of a Republican, one Tony Peraica, to the office of Cook County State's Attorney?
not sure what your example's intended to illustrate, since (a) this is how route changes have been handled ever since i've been riding the CTA (which is well over 40 years), the transition points usually marking the nearest point of connection to the area bus barn. and (b) the real fault belongs to the driver who's LATE, not the guy going off shift--what's he supposed to do? ... or, more relevantly, what happens when the replacement driver eventually DOES show up: does he call the police to report a missing vehicle? * stand around and have coffee? ... a system like this can work perfectly well if everyone's on top of the job ... but if everyone's not, then NO system, however well planned out, will work in any case
"a system like this can work perfectly well if everyone's on top of the job ... but if everyone's not, then NO system, however well planned out, will work in any case" How about being just a bit more optimistic? The CTA services consist of three basic formats: 1. Trains 2. Buses 3. Door-to-Door Special Services Trains run from one end of their respective tracks to the other. Buses, as a rule, run from one end of their routes to the other. Special Service Curb Pick-Ups are scheduled, by request, and can be intelligently sequenced. Why don't the 'shift changes' of the operators of trains and buses occur at either end of their routes? With the operators of same required to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the time of said shift change? With the arrivals of said trains and buses being staggered? And with management prepared to change specific assignments of said operators, when necessitated by a given employee's tardiness, by bumping individual assignments as needed?
DYNAMIC--just guessing, but if the bus operators, etc, are required to report to the distribution centers fore & aft, doesn't it make more "efficient" sense to post shift changes as close to the reporting depots as possible? * as for the system you're advocating: looks like the burden of "perfection" simply transfers from labor to, um, management--now THAT's optimism for you!
Well, in the REAL world, as opposed to the taxpayer involuntarily financed fantasy world of public 'services', management, being in substantial, if not absolute, control of every area of a given company's business activities, is totally responsible for the successful and efficient operation of said business. Successful being defined as the providing of the highest quality, most satisfying to the customer product/service and efficient, as in at the lowest cost across the board, both to the consumer and for the business, still maintaining said quality and customer satisfaction. Of course, since we, the customers/taxpayers have yet to hold the managers of our government businesses accountable for their mismanagements, let alone for their gross malfeasances, 'optimism' isn't exactly warranted at this time. But, it's possible. If, and only if, we, the taxpaying customers ever pull our collective heads out of our asses and realize that there is fresh, clean air to breath available, were we only to HAVE NO DOUBT and VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT. Am I being fantastically optimistic?
