The CTA hopped on the 1990s nostalgia bandwagon Wednesday, posting footage of trains, passengers and our city from back in the day.
The video shows clean stations, platforms and trains, happy riders and order, as well as the old school tokens and tickets. All in all, riding the train looked pretty good — and very safe.
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It made us feel nostalgic, too. It’s easy to romanticize the past — even if Chicago was plagued with even worse crime in the 1990s than it faces today. Still, the ideal of a city where Chicagoans and visitors can get around safely is something to which we should aspire. That problem extends beyond trains and buses.
A series of recent incidents on trains, buses and, now, even in parking garages makes the idea of carefree commuting feel far away, and as reports of violence tick up with the warming weather and impending summer holidays, there is reason for concern about what the coming months will bring. City leaders must show, before summer arrives, that they have a clear, concrete plan — more visible policing, coordinated CTA security and targeted enforcement in known trouble spots.
For many visitors, getting downtown still means driving and parking, an experience that increasingly comes with a sense of risk. As news of car thefts from city garages spreads, some operators say demand is falling. City garages can feel dystopian in the best of times, especially late at night.
“Our lots do not have as much business as they used to, because word gets around in the neighborhood that these lots get targeted,” Mark Galas, vice president of Hunter Parking, told CBS Chicago.
Police in late March warned of a string of vehicle thefts across the Loop and South Loop.
More alarming still, police said a man attacked and attempted to sexually assault a 20-year-old woman who had parked in a parking garage near Millennium Park around 6:30 a.m.
That doesn’t inspire confidence in using Chicago parking garages. That affects downtown workers and would-be tourists alike. Millennium Park, of all places, is a hot spot for visitors.
Safety isn’t just about perception — it directly affects downtown’s economic recovery. The city of Chicago collects significant revenue — a projected $136 million in 2023 — through its hefty parking tax. Revenue plunged during the pandemic and has yet to fully recover to prepandemic levels, and Chicago can’t afford to endanger any revenue source given its precarious financial position. More importantly, though, downtown needs all the help it can get attracting people back.
Chicago doesn’t need to return to the 1990s. But it does need to restore something that videos from then captured clearly — a transit system and a downtown where people felt safe showing up.
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