In the last mayoral election, Chicagoans were presented with two options: Vote for Brandon Johnson and allow the Chicago Teachers Union to run the city or for Paul Vallas and have the city run by the police union.
Well, Johnson is not working out very well, but Vallas’ Dec. 4 op-ed “What can be done to restore faith in Chicago’s justice system?” shows why his election would not necessarily have been a better choice.
Vallas describes what he calls a “revolving door of criminality” and says it is “a financial disaster.” He correctly states that “Chicago has spent over a billion dollars on police-related settlements and judgments.” He then decries the SAFE-T Act and the federal consent decree, writing that they create “more lucrative paths” for suing the police and the city. Nowhere does he mention that the vast amounts in police-related settlements and judgments are due to actual police criminal activity, such as what former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge and former Sgt. Ronald Watts were involved in and the murder of Laquan McDonald, and police misconduct, such as the horrific arrest of Anjanette Young. And such felonious activities have been allowed to continue. The code of silence protects officers from discovery and prosecution.
Vallas lays the blame not on the Chicago Police Department but on those who would make it easier to sue the police and the city. Want to reduce the amount spent on settlements and judgments? How about subtracting that money from police salaries? Then officers might have an incentive not to violate laws or look the other way when criminal activity by their peers occurs.
Vallas notes that the clearance rate for nonfatal shootings was around 6% when last reported. He then cites the justice system’s use of “electronic monitoring or nominal court supervision.” It is unclear what this has to do with CPD”s clearance rate.
Studies have shown that CPD’s clearance rates for such crimes as homicide and aggravated assault are among the lowest in the nation. Is it any wonder? Until the reputation of CPD improves, we cannot expect CPD’s clearance rates to get much higher. The relationship between CPD and the citizens in the communities where most of these types of crimes occur is such that people are not willing to assist the CPD in its investigations. The problem is not with the people, but with the department.
One way to restore faith in Chicago’s justice system is to insist on a better police department.
— David Grossman, former chief investigator, Chicago Police Department, Office of Professional Standards, Chicago
Impacts of data centers
Illinois policymakers have entered a pivotal window to determine how data centers will impact our electric grid. The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) is weighing proposed changes to ComEd’s rate structure, while lawmakers are crafting legislation to establish long-term rules. Together, these choices could shape Illinois’ clean energy goals, grid reliability and our electricity costs for years to come.
When a data center comes to town, it brings three major energy challenges. The first is cost. ComEd’s price per kilowatt-hour is up 47% since last October, and it has proposed $500 million-plus in transmission projects for individual data centers — costs it will eventually pass on to customers. This is categorically unfair and must be addressed by lawmakers.
Second is reliability. While Illinois hasn’t faced this yet, data centers in other states are pushing their grids to the limit, raising concerns about reliability here at home. We have to keep the lights on.
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Third is environmental impacts. A race to power data centers risks leaning on aging coal plants and building new natural gas plants, forcing Illinoisans to shoulder the costs of polluting, unhealthy and expensive generation by fossil fuels.
Fortunately, Illinois has two opportunities to set the state on the right course — ICC action in January and legislation in the spring. Two reforms stand out.
First, data centers should pay directly for the infrastructure they require. This is basic fairness – everyday households should not pay for the lines, poles and wires required to hook a data center up to the grid. Lawmakers must close this loophole that allows data centers to socialize their infrastructure costs.
Second, data centers must bring their own clean energy. If a developer wants to plug into our increasingly crowded grid, they should supply the clean power needed to meet their demand. Illinoisans shouldn’t have to subsidize their electricity or breathe the pollution from the fossil fuel plants built to serve them.
Adopting these reforms would make Illinois an attractive place for responsible clean data centers. Currently, there’s a long wait for data centers to connect to ComEd’s grid. These changes could let projects that meet the state’s standards connect more quickly — promoting both efficiency and fairness.
Illinois can support economic growth without sacrificing affordability, reliability or its clean energy leadership — but only if Illinois regulators and lawmakers act quickly.
— Brad Klein, managing attorney, Environmental Law and Policy Center, Chicago
How US moves freight
John Lippert’s reporting brings forward voices I deeply respect — Anthony Hatch, Larry Gross and Bill Stephens — and his framing of the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger is exactly right (“Rail merger could have lasting impact on city,” Dec. 1). Yet the issue is far larger than any one article can capture.
What we need now is a national conversation about the entire U.S. freight network: its decades of deregulation, the unintended consequences and whether it is finally time to toll the Interstate Highway System. The UP-NS merger won’t pull trucks off the highway, and still, I support it. Those two statements are not contradictory.
The UP-NS merger is neither a silver bullet nor a death blow. It is the next logical step in a freight ecosystem distorted by 40 years of policymaking that artificially cheapened over-the-road trucking through taxpayer-funded highways while rail was left to finance its entire fixed plant. Chicago — the most essential and most dysfunctional node in American logistics — embodies this imbalance. UP-NS is correct: A single-line transcontinental network will reduce touches, shorten dwell and cut crosstown drayage. But it will not materially shift freight from truck to rail without federal policy changes that force trucking to pay the true cost of the infrastructure it consumes.
As Gross notes, rail’s long-haul share has been eroding for years while trucks, operating on subsidized pavement, have dominated freight even when they are the least efficient option. If the U.S. is serious about congestion relief, emissions reduction and supply-chain resiliency, then tolling the Interstate Highway System is inevitable. Rail cannot compete until trucking is priced honestly — every Class I CEO and state Department of Transportation engineer knows this.
Lippert’s piece also highlights deeper structural questions: Will we continue with a balkanized rail network stitched together by temporary alliances or finally accept that a coast-to-coast architecture is the logical evolution of the system? And will we keep ignoring the competitive distortion created by BNSF Railway-J.B. Hunt Quantum — a vertically integrated intermodal juggernaut built on guaranteed NS access?
Former Surface Transportation Board Chair Marty Oberman is right: The STB will review this merger rigorously and independently. That integrity is essential because this merger forces the country to examine competition, gateways, labor, service, environmental impacts and the geometry of the national network itself.
I support UP-NS because it forces questions about how America moves freight. This debate is long overdue — and far bigger than Chicago or any two railroads.
— Brian Watt, managing partner, 1634 Company, Winter Haven, Florida
We need peace here
“Pope brings Lebanese vital message” was a headline in Monday’s Nation & World section of the Tribune. I would love to read: “Pope brings America a vital message of peace.”
— Barbara E Silvestri, Lombard
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