We used the Blue Line this week to go downtown with a visiting relative and were quite embarrassed by the gagging putrid smell of urine at the Washington station platform. The length of it was rank. Hours later, it was just as bad, if not worse. This is the worst I’ve experienced in my over 31 years of CTA rail service.
Who would electively use the service again after this?
This problem should have been addressed in a timely manner by the maintenance department. But was it even reported? Station personnel are required to monitor their stations and platforms.
But besides that, the CTA should make bathrooms available at specific places for its riders. This practice was eliminated over a half century ago and should be revisited.
This lack of customer focus is particularly irksome as the CTA previously spent millions of dollars on building customer service into its training for all employees — and it paid off as the agency raised ridership for five years in a row and led the national rail transit revival around 2000.
Now look. Do station employees ever recognize the customers in the stations? They are supposed to be available outside the kiosks when there is customer activity. The CTA wrote the national recommended practice for this job classification, but it seems that the agency’s pride in this regard has fallen off greatly.
The CTA used to have monthly meetings in which the managers and the president’s rides were posted for all to see. Does this happen now? Consistently, employees are stumped when I ask them who their local managers are and even the current executives. So who is monitoring the service and finding ways for employees to report problems firsthand?
Thankfully, the practice of running at maximum size is being revised. This practice overused the cars, creating maintenance issues and service. The train size should match the level of ridership. How does anyone feel being the only person in a rail car during off-hours? How secure is this? Whose idea was this, and who approved it from on top?
This is what happens when for a least a dozen years or so, non-customer-service-oriented leadership prevails.
— Fred Schein, former general manager of CTA rail operations, Chicago
The RFP for CTA’s turnstiles
I sincerely hope that the Tribune will assign one of its outstanding investigative reporters to examine a copy of the request for proposals the CTA is preparing to replace the 40-year-old turnstiles at its stations.
I am particularly interested in provisions to make sure these new gates are open in the event of a mass casually or emergency situation. I think that most of us don’t have a high level of confidence in the management of the CTA anymore.
— Ted Tatgenhorst, Wadsworth
School board endorsements
Thank you for publishing the list of candidates endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union and the Service Employees International Union (“CTU endorses 15 candidates for school board,” July 15). It will be a convenient reminder of for whom not to vote.
— Eric H. Weimers, Chicago
Preventing smoke-filled skies
Last Thursday, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency issued an air pollution action day for Chicagoland, with much of the Chicago area in the hazardous “maroon” category — the worst on the scale. Elders, children and anyone with heart or lung conditions were especially at risk.
Three summers in a row. Each one worse than the last. Last Thursday was the worst air quality day ever recorded in Chicago. This isn’t a weather event. It’s a climate pattern.
And yet, in Springfield and in board rooms across Illinois, decisions are being made every day that make this worse — or could make it better. Climate advocates including Third Act Illinois recently appeared before the Illinois Commerce Commission to oppose Peoples Gas’ latest rate request. This isn’t just about higher bills — though it is that, too. Peoples Gas is asking Illinois ratepayers to fund the continued replacement of its natural gas pipeline infrastructure, locking Chicago into fossil fuel dependence for decades to come at precisely the moment we should be accelerating away from it. Every dollar spent extending the gas network is a guarantee of more greenhouse gas emissions, more unhealthy air days and more summers like this one.
This fall, the Illinois General Assembly has an opportunity to pass the POWER Act (SB4016
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/HB5513), which would establish nation-leading guardrails on data centers, the fastest-growing source of electricity demand in our state, to protect families from higher utility bills, strained water supplies and increased pollution.As it happens, Chicago Climate Week is this week, a citywide series of events bringing together advocates, scientists, businesses and community members to accelerate solutions. The timing feels painfully apt.
I am among a group of Illinoisans over age 60 who remember when this city’s air and water were dangerously polluted and who remember the fight it took to clean them up. We did it before. We know it can be done. And we are not willing to hand the next generation a world with skies like last Thursday’s.
The planet doesn’t have time for us to wait. Neither do we.
— Susan Cotton, Third Act Illinois, Chicago
The challenges of livability
Politicians of all likes who have gotten on the “affordability” bandwagon are still one step behind. What they should be talking about is livability in the face of ongoing forest fires, raging floods, killer tornadoes, hurricanes and air quality shutdowns.
There is still much that can be done, but few are willing to face the real future that is certainly in store for all of us.
— David Kravitz, Chicago
Burden of property taxes
Recent Tribune content including a letter to the editor (“Fight for property tax fairness,” July 15) had to do with property taxes, but it all failed to see or address the real issue behind the problems with that tax.
Property taxes are the only tax that doesn’t take into account a person’s ability to pay that tax. I call it the absurd tax.
The only solution is to shift some of that burden to the income tax. But it needs to be a separate income tax; otherwise, some of that money will be spent elsewhere. I call it the PET, or public education tax.
Public education accounts for about two-thirds of property taxes. Removing that will keep homeowners quiet for decades.
— Larry Craig, Wilmette
Real problems Illinois faces
The commercials have hit the airwaves for Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias. His campaign messages focus on fighting President Donald Trump, supporting abortion rights, not allowing book banning, respecting women’s rights and more of fighting Trump. That’s it?
Giannoulias is ignorant of the real problems we Illinoisans have faced and continue to face. Illinois, along with California and New York, is among the highest-taxed states in America. Corporations such as Morton Salt, Boeing, Guggenheim Partners, TTX Co., Caterpillar, Citadel and Tyson Foods have left Illinois. Tens of thousands of high earners have left Illinois in the last 15 years.
At one time, Illinois had 27 members in Congress. Today, Illinois has 17. Thirty-three counties are exploring forming a new state. Illinois has about 7,000 taxing bodies and about 850 school districts; both should be reduced in half. Public pensions are drastically underfunded. Unemployment at 5.1% is among the highest in the nation.
Fighting Trump will not alleviate the aforementioned problems. They have been created by our politicians. They and they alone need to find financial and moral discipline and make Illinois a desirable destination for business and people.
Also, Darren Bailey hasn’t a clue about the plight of Illinois, either.
— Joseph A. Murzanski, Orland Park
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