I always like to recommend the best events around Chicago to attend and plan your weekends and vacations with but sometimes I have to call out the details about Chicago that are less than ideal. Today’s complaint is about the Chicago CTA bus service.

I have a love hate relationship with public transportation to begin with so lately when the 121 bus is nowhere to be found I become even more frustrated with the system that is supposed to move 3 million people around the city every day.

I have taken the Metra in from the suburbs to work every day since I moved out there a few months ago. The Metra Trains only run 3 times per hour so you don’t have any choice about when they run or when you arrive in downtown Chicago. This combined with the bus issues pushes my commute to Naperville to 2 hours each way regularly.

There is only one bus going to Michigan Avenue from Union Station, the 121 bus and it only runs 3 times an hour as far as I can find on any schedule. I don’t have a smart-phone so I can’t use the CTA bus tracker, I just expect that the CTA knows that there is a BNSF train with about 1,000 people on it that gets in every 20 minutes at Union Station and they would want to coordinate the busesthat stop there around those times. The BNSF line has more riders than any other Metra line in Chicagoland and runs the most people in and out of the city each day, it is well worth coordinating with.

Yet, they don’t.

No matter if I take the 7:00, 7:20, 7:40, 8:00, or 8:25 BNSF Metra Train, there is never a 121 bus available when I walk out of the station. Granted, the walk from the basement core of the station up 2 levels and out to the street level takes about 6-7 minutes as a bunch of trains unload and converge with Amtrak passengers with luggage and a bunch of luggage moving vehicles.

Why the last batch of AM trains come in at 9 am and the buses pick up and leave at 9:03 AM exactly I have no idea. You can’t possibly get out there fast enough.

There is nothing more frustrating than to be on the first car of the train, standing by the doors to get off first and then by the time I get to street level, the last 121 bus has left or the latest one is leaving and it will be 15-25 min before another one arrives and 15 minutes on that bus if it does eventually arrive. (and after 9 am sometimes they just don’t even though there is a 9:15 bus on the schedule). 

Likewise for getting back to the station. I spend a small fortune in cab fare to get to Union Station in less than 20 minutes. It is obsurd that they don’t know and coordinate busses picking people up and dropping off at the station with when the most crowded trains leave.It seems like you have to leave work and hour before your train in order to get the bus to Union Station. If I leave at 5:15 or 6:15 there are never busses to be found to get to the 5:45 or 6:50 trains, yet it only takes 10 minutes to get there.

I am not the only one with this problem. I see dozens of people arrive at the bus stop under Michigan Ave notice that nobody is there and leave to catch a cab. This is at totally different times every day too. There is no consistency to the schedule either. People also arrive at the stop, wait for 15-20 minutes and then abandon the bus to pay $8-9 for a cab to make the last express train home so they can actually see their kids before they fall asleep. 

In the AM people stand around at the 121 bus stop hoping there is another bus as promised and the 9:15 never shows and they never make it to work by 9:30 am as expected. Some give up and take cabs, others walk, but it isn’t fair either way.

There should be some digital communication between Metra, BNSF and CTA for these kinds of trip planner transfers to note when packed trains are coming in and leaving with thousandsof people and how to get them routed to the appropriate next leg of their journey. During peak hours this is 3 trains an hour per line and during off-prak times this is only 1 train per hour! (How much simpler does it get?)

I am not sure they have any interest in this since they still get my flat fee monthly fare payment even though I end up walking for a 1/2 hr most mornings now and get to work before the next bus would get me there. An equal opportunity rant for Metra would be appropriate since bringing in the trains at 8:50 rather than 9am would help a lot of people catch that 9:03 am 121 bus.

The city of Chicago is shocked and saddened right now by the news that the Sears Tower is going to be renamed the Willis Tower for the new company renting/leasing the major quantity of office space there. The Willis Group is from London and they plan on leasing 140,000 sq feet of space according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

The building at 233 S Wacker Drive in Chicago IL, 60606 may have a new name and signs soon but the people of Chicago will take a while to stop calling it the Sears Tower and going to the Sears Tower Skydeck. (How many years has it been and I still call Macy’s Marshall Fields?) 

The traditional Chicago Skyline Shot with the iconic Sears Tower now the Willis Tower.

I don’t think Chicagoans have a particular affinity to the Sears company, (judging by how poorly Sears has done in this market in the past 10 years) I just think they knew the Sears Tower building as an icon and point of pride for a city that was second or third place for everything else. 

The Architecture Firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill designed and built the building over 3 years for SEARS which was the largest retailer in the world then. From 1970-1973 the city watched and waited as this new modern design changed the way the world saw Chicago.

The image and pride was somewhat lessened when the Sears Tower was no longer the tallest building in the world and now with the name change it seems like it might eventually just be destined to become another tall building in a world of metropolises.

This also lessens the novelty of the Chicago Olympic Bid. Seriously, what did we ever offer the Olympics anyway?

The Sears Tower was sold from SEARS to AEW Holdings in 1995 and since 2001 the building has been low on tenants and had a lot of space available. I understand that the owners need to sell space and if changing the name gets them a better sq footage rate and closes the deal, we really don’t have any say about it.

In this recession economy the companies and the people in Chicago are really just trying to get by. Live and work smarter, more efficiently and see if we can survive this mess. We really can’t be too worried about iconography of any kind right now. We’re really in much more of a practical mood right now.

I hope the insurance brokers at the Willis Group understand that you can change all the signage quickly but it’s just going to be a long time before most people refer to your building as the Willis Tower rather than the Sears Tower. After all Marshall Fields still got searches on Google for years after it was folded into Macy’s.

Image Credits to Flickr.com wallyg and paulmcdee and glenharper and celkins. Seeing their photos reminds me of how many people see that building every day and how visible is it from every part of the city. I am also so impressed by the quality of photos on flickr of the Sears Tower from all over town.

This is a friendly reminder that the CTA train and bus fares will increase on January 1, 2009. Even though the state of Illinois approved the budget increases last year that prevented a fare increase then, the state revenues from sales and income taxes is down in 2008 and 2009 due to the current economic recession.

So, the CTA isn’t able to get the full amount of the funding and most estimates show that CTA public transit use it still up year over year even though the price of a gallon of gas has gone back down to about $1.70 in most areas of the suburbs and just under $2.00 in Chicago.

This means that the CTA fares have to increase to cover the gap between what the expenses are and what funding is provided from the state. Plus somebody has to pay for all those station improvements they started and the shiny new website design. Most people should be highly annoyed by the increase in CTA fares but it probably won’t keep people from going to work.

My daily commute is going from $3.50 to $4.50 per day. (still far less than driving and paying $25-$35 per day to park plus gas) My CTA Chicago Card Plus monthly unlimited pass will also go from $75.00 to $86.00. Most people pay for them pre-tax through companies like Wageworks though so you do save something on not paying taxes. (in an odd twist of fate keeping the CTA from getting more state funding) All of this will seem cheap someday when I have to take both Metra AND the CTA to work.

The people hardest hit are usually low income hourly workers that make around minimum wage. ($7.75) After the taxes and health insurance fees are deducted from a paycheck (if health insurance is even available) and they buy CTA fares and possibly buy lunch at work they are left with a very small amount of money each day.  I would guess about $800 per month is left for everything else from rent to utilities after “work costs” are considered. (plus uniforms are usually required to purchase) It is a meager life.

CTA Fare Types Current Fare Structure and Increases in January 2009

Full Fare Transit Card (TC) Bus Now: $1.75 January 2009: $2.00
Full Fare TC Rail Now: $2.00 January 2009: $2.25
Full Fare Chicago Card (CC) Bus Now: $1.75 January 2009: $2.00
Full Fare CC Rail Now: $1.75 January 2009: $2.25
Full Fare Cash (bus only) Now: $2.00 January 2009: $2.25
TC or CC Transfer Note #1 Now: $0.25 January 2009: $0.25
Chicago Card Bonus Note #2 10% Eliminated

1-Day Pass5 Now: $5.00 January 2009: $5.75
2-Day Visitor Pass Note #5 $9.00 Eliminated
3-Day Visitor Pass Note #5 Now: $12.00 January 2009: $14.00
5-Day Visitor Pass Note #5 $18.00 Eliminated
7-Day CTA Pass5 Now: $20.00 January 2009: $23.00
7-Day CTA/Pace Pass5 Now:  Did not exist, January 2009: $28.00

Full Fare 30-Day Pass Now: $75.00 January 2009: $86.00

U-Pass Note #3 15% Increase
Reduced Fare Note #4 TC or CC Now: $0.85 January 2009: Unchanged
Reduced Fare Cash (bus only) Now: $1.00 January 2009: Unchanged
Reduced Fare TC or CC Transfer Now:$0.15 January 2009: Unchanged
Reduced Fare 30-Day Pass Now:  $35.00 January 2009: Unchanged

Notes:
1 Transfer fare allows two additional rides within two hours of the first boarding
2 For every $20 purchase of pay-per-use fares, $22 of value is added to the card
3 Available through participating universities only; price change effective 2009 Fall Term
4 Reduced fares offered to eligible customers only
5 Only the 30-Day and the new CTA/Pace 7-Day passes will be valid on Pace beginning January 1, 2009. 

Happy New Year…

With the end of the year just around the corner, my mind has shifted from entertainment and events to the New Year’s Resolutions 2009 that we all plan to make.  I am thinking there are some New Year’s Resolutions in 2009 that Chicago should try this year too. Not just government and officials but all of us collectively as people. Well, ok some are specifically for government and elected officials since this whole Rod Blagojevich thing is out of control and so opposite how most people really are in Chicago. So, after all the New Year’s parties sit down and think about if these ideas could really improve your life and those of everyone like you in Chicago.

1. Resolve to share the power and redistribute wealth. Enough of this you pay me to do something I am legally not supposed to do bullshit. Yes, Rod Blagojevich I am looking at you, and Former Illinois Governor Ryan you too. I am guessing that Mayor Daley does this stuff ALL the time but he has enough clout that people won’t cooperate in catching him at it.

For god’s sake, if you know (work with) someone who does this kind of pay for play stuff, out them. Tell someone, tell the Tribune, Sun Times or NPR. Copy documents that verify it and send them anonymously to the press if you have to. Publish them on an anonymous blog. The only way that this behavior will stop is if people stand up to it and say no, I am not going along with this and make sure people know about it. It is your responsibility as a citizen and there are a whole lot more of us little people than there are powerful ones you know. And this was the whole point behind rallying for Barack Obama and Change. (and not just so people stopped knowing Chicago only for Al Capone, Oprah and Michael Jordan)

2. Get some more exercise. All of us, myself included could benefit from more exercise. This means walking rather than driving sometimes, going out to run once a week and generally doing things around the house to clean and fix it up. You would be surprised how much cleaning and fixing up the house can do for exercise. Walking every day to public transportation is also a great way to get exercise without knowing it. (which is pretty much the only way computer based people like me can do this) Laying off the deep dish pizza, foot long hot dogs and cold stone ice cream is probably a good idea too.

3. Save some money. Forget the economy and how 70% of the activity is from consumer spending. Just do what you need to do in order to be ready for layoffs since this is so common these days. Have 1 year of reserves in savings for daily expenses should you loose your job.

It takes a year or more for most people right now to find a new job since so many more people are looking than there are jobs. Also, have your vacation days saved up so that if they do lay you off they have to pay them out. It is the law. Most companies don’t offer any severance packages when they lay off people so your 2-3 weeks vacation time is your severance package now. Save it wisely.

4. Learn something new. This is harder the older we all get. I find it harder every year to learn something new that is an actual functional skill or knowledge useful on the job. It is just so much easier to do things the old way. It uses less energy and fewer brain cells. But you become obsolete so much faster, and in this economy that could mean a lot less money if and when you can find another job. So, whether it is community college courses, web research or just asking someone who knows cool stuff on the job if you could help out and get into a new project, it always benefits you in the long run.

What other resolutions do you have for yourself? And for Chicago?

I was just viewing this video from Leigh Hanlon on ChicagoCareless.com about how this year’s Macy’s window decorations suck since the company let go their former window designer Amy Meadows and cut the costs to produce the motorized diorama type Christmas holiday displays. In fact they imply that they are so sucky and cheap this year that it’s not worth making the trek from the suburbs or other parts of Chicago to see them. Ouch!

I have been going to see the Marshall Field’s and now Macy’s Christmas window displays for about 5 years now. (since I have worked downtown) and I have to say that every year along the way they have gotten cheaper or re-used displays from past years to save money. Guess why? The department store business isn’t very good these days. People don’t really want to shop at a store that they can get everything in one place for some reason, and favor specialty niche retailers now. So, Macy’s like Marshall Fields, is not selling as much merchandise or making as much profit so they have to keep cutting costs.  (and the recession really isn’t helping)

Plus, in another criticism of Macy’s is that they must pay a boatload of royalties to all the celebs they licence names from to promote their house brand products. (Martha Stewart, we’re looking at you) So, there goes the profits that would have been there in other years.

Personally I don’t know if I would go as far as saying the window displays ”suck” this year but they aren’t near the glory they once had. The designs look much less traditional and rely on a lot of cardboard cut outs and less of the dolls and actual moving parts. (this has been the trend for a while though) I have posted some pictures of the windows now and some from 2005 that I took before Macy’s bought Marshall Fields here.

So, if you want to go see the window decorations at Macy’s downtown in Chicago this winter with the kids or maybe haven’t seen their windows in the past, it is ok but not wow kind of work. If you used to love the attention to detail in the old traditional windows, you won’t be happy with these, and it is probably worth saving yourself the trip unless you really like going to the walnut room.

Wow Bao is a recent addition to the restaurants in the loop right next to the Chicago EL Train State and Lake train station. I pass the restaurant every day on my way home from work and thought it might be good to try. I like Asian food and Chinese dumplings especially the ones with a bread-like dough and BBQ Pork filling. I first tried these at my friend’s house in high school. She is Chinese and these type of buns or dumplings were a common snack or addition to a meal. Wow Bao calls them “Bao” but they are almost the same as a lot of dumplings you can find in any Asian market or Chinese food store. They also have Mochi (which is really Japanese) and everyone should discover these little round dough covered ice cream balls. Mochi are delicious and they have built in portion control.

I was suprised then when the prices were really high at Wow Bao in the Chicago Loop.  I spent $17 dollars (6 per box) to buy a dozen bao frozen to take home. I just wanted to try them so I paid the outrageous Wow Bao price but I would not pay that price again. The restaurant really doesn’t take into consideration that people in Chicago can’t afford food at prices like that anymore in this economy.

The directions for cooking wow bao dumplings are easy, just cover with a damp paper towel and microwave them. But watch out! The wow bao may feel cool to the touch on the outside but the inside filling is really hot! I burned the roof of my mouth terribly on a few of the dumplings. Wow bao also carries rice bowls (which you can get anywhere) and pot stickers. They are pretty expensive too for what they are and what they really cost in a Chinese grocery store.

The other problem I had with the Chicago Wow Bao loop restaurant location is that the wow bao staff doesn’t know what they are doing. They messed up 3 orders while we were waiting and we had to tell the guy what our order was again so he gave us the right food. This is a problem considering that there is a readout on a computer screen right there that tells you the order.

Anyway these same dumplings are usually sold for dimesrather than dollars at Asian grocery stores and I highly recommend buying them there rather than going to this over crowded restaurant and paying an insane price for what you get. Just to be fair, I tried the salad combo with 2 wow bao also and while the salad was good it was not worth the price. With the 2 bao it was $8.00. That was not really a full dinner either. You have to add another bao or some mochi to actually be full after a combo meal there.

Wow Bao is another concept from Lettuce Entertainment Enterprises where they take cheap food from other places around the world and make them upscale to people who have never been abroad and live in Chicago. They won’t know that dumplings made of pork scraps and dough aren’t supposed to cost $2.00 each. I admire Lettuce Entertainment’s ability to bring the foods of the world to Chicago, but they should do it at a reasonable price.

And I will also mention that their signs outside that read: “hot Asian buns” have been taken down. I thought that was bordering on suggesting p*rn or something and was completely inappropriate. I hope someone complained to the City of Chicago and that they were taken down for decency sake.

My offical review of Wow Bao is to skip it because it is not a good deal for the money. If you need a mochi hit in the lop downtown this is one of the few places you can find it. So, for Mochi I would go back, but not for any of the other food.

Governor Blagojevich’s plan to place speed cameras on all Chicago and Illinois Interstates will fail. It will fail because no one speeds anymore now that gas prices have gotten so high. (and fewer people are driving all together) That said, every citizen that owns a car in Illinois should still be going to the Illinois State Assembly site, locating their Representatives and senator’s email addresses and filling their inbox with email about how this program should never be approved in the first place. Yu can find contact info for your Illinois, government officials, senators, representatives at the site ilga.gov. Speed cameras on all the Illinois (interstate) highways (I-90, I-94, I-55, I-355, I-290, I-294, I-88, I-80) would be a useless waste of money and an incredibly bad move for politicians who are already pretty unpopular. Plus is is unconstitutional under the face your accuser part of the law. It is why when you get a ticket for airplane enforced speed traps you have the right to refuse the ticket unless the pilot comes down and writes it for you.

Usually, reducing crime and making streets safer would make a politician more popular. Instead in Chicago, Illinois these initiatives are usually known to be thinly veiled plans for revenue generation for pet projects and paid to government no-bid contractors for problems that may not even actually exist. (We have a history of Governors landing in Jail in Illinois, maybe that is the continuing trend?) The truth is, we don’t know where the money would come from in order to buy and post these cameras or maintain them and we don’t know where the money is going from the speeding ticket camera program.  

Governor Blagojevich said that the speeding ticket camera program will fund a new police task force that no one really wants or needs. Crime rates are falling in Chicago, Illinois without any new police forces, so I don’t believe that is where the money will go. So, where would the money really be going? If all the senators and Representatives place pork spending on the back end of every popular bill in an effort to hide and find personal pet projects, why would this situation be any different?

I think that the number of cameras (private and government) already tracking people’s every move all day is more than needed and redundant in Chicago and the suburbs. I think that adding more cameras for automatic speeding tickets without human judgement involved is a bad idea and would erode the public’s view of the political system even further. These type of cameras have been used for years in the UK and are routinely sabotaged, broken or torn down by residents and motorists because of the unfairness of the oppression on daily life and revoking of their freedom. Most people don’t speed in the UK or in the US but looking for a way to nickel and dime the tax paying law abiding citizens to death (who are already over taxed and have high gas, food and inflation costs to deal with in a bad economy) is completely unfair.

You may be thinking, why would I care if the State of Illinois wants to ticket speeders? I don’t speed. Well you don’t know what “they” consider speeding or how the traps will be set up. Many people who were abiding by the law got $100.00 tickets for making perfectly legal right turns after stopping at a red light at Boughton Rd in Bolingbrook, IL last year. What if they drop speed limits 10 mph and you don’t see the sign because it is small and not clearly posted? It leaves all kinds of situations open for the government to require you to pay money to stay out of jail or trouble when you are a good law abiding citizen. Basically to take advantage of you because they can.

I never thought this was a problem either until I heard personal accounts of this happening. One example is that a neighbor of mine was assaulted outside our building in Oak Park by a gang of kids threatening to hurt or kill him based on his being on their turf. He called the local cops and complained and even went as far as to identify the kids in person when the cops arrived (the teens chose to walk right by the cop cars again in defiance when they arrived) and go to court to make sure they got reprimanded. You know what the kids got for threatening someone’s life? A $25.00 fine and 10 hours of community service.  You know how much you get ticketed for when you park on the street in Oak Park overnight as a guest without a permit? (they are always sold out too so no luck in obtaining one either…) You get a $30.00 ticket. It costs less to commit crimes than to try and be a law abiding citizen in Illinois, and that alone will continue to keep people in that lifestyle making those choices.  

If we really want to reduce crime in Chicago and the state of Illinois make the fines for drugs, guns, gang activity, stealing and every other “actual crime” so high the penalty fine itself is a deterrent rather than overcharging the law abiding citizens for the money they want just because we can’t stop it.

Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled talk about Chicago events, concerts, sight seeing, hotels, restaurants and general weekend fun…

I think Chicago is a bad choice for the 2016 Olympic Games. I know that I am in the minority with that opinion, so I wanted to make my opinion points (and those of others like me) visible online. Just to be clear, it isn’t that I am not a fan of the Olympics. I actually am a fan and usually watch some part of the Olympics on TV when it happens. In fact I was such a fan of the Olympics that spent most of my childhood idolizing the Olympic athletes and spent a decade of my family’s own time and money pursuing a figure skating career inspired by the 1984 Olympics.

Now that I am an adult who works hard to pay a mortgage, taxes and transportation costs in Cook County my views of the Olympics have matured.  I now work in Marketing for a living so I realize that the Olympics much like the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL are glorified marketing advertising circuses and money machines maximized for entertainment value, seat ticket sales, advertising revenue and profit. Not much is done for the love of the game and in fact much is done in spite of it with drugs, enhancements and fixing. (the NBA Finals this year were largely believed to be completely rigged, and many olympic medals have been given back in recent years due to illegal doping and cheating) Therefore, I don’t see an overall benefit of the 2016 Olympic Games being held here in Chicago in an inspirational, financial or infrastructural way since none of those things are the actual goal of the games. (the only real goal is to make a lot of money)

The issue I have with the 2016 Olympics in Chicago would be that they are a huge industrial, infrastructural, financial and logistical process that will end up costing the citizens of Cook County and DuPage county millions of dollars in taxes. This raises the same question we ask about the Iraq war. Why should we be spending all that taxpayer money on something petty, frivolous and non-essential when there are so many basic needs not being met for the people in Chicago? Lets list a few basic community needs we have that aren’t being met that might be a better use of the city, county and local corporate investor’s dollars:

1. Basic Transportation- The Chicago CTA budget goes broke every year or two. The EL trains are falling apart and falling off the tracks every few months. The Buses spew black smoke into people’s faces when they pass by on the street clogging daily traffic and they keep cutting back on routes people need to get to work. Cars don’t have it much better. All the major highways have backed up traffic jams into and out of the city at all 24 hours a day now and construction rips things up every summer while cutting traffic down to 1 lane and yet the roads never get less congested or better in quality.  I think these funds would be much better spent overhauling the EL trains, tracks and stations, converting Buses to electric rechargeable power and research and installation of better quality road materials that don’t require replacement yearly. This also factors in to how the 2016 Olympic Games thinks they can route hundreds of athletes and thousands of viewers through a network of highways and train routes that can’t handle the 9 million people who live here now. The bandwidth just isn’t there.

2. Poverty – There are more people homeless, begging and asking for money on my 5 block walk to work downtown than I ever saw in the first 25 years of my life. Homelessness, poverty and drugs are a huge problem in Chicago. Some of this is created by Gangs, but now that the “projects” are taken down, there is no one place you can go to find the problem and try and work on helping. I shouldn’t see so many people desperate for a variety of reasons and it shouldn’t be Chicago’s priority to make a few developers even more rich with Olympic development contracts when so many people just want a stable income to live on so they can have a place to live and food to eat. Most of us believe that this situation is related to the continuing cycle of a lack of education, ease of finding drugs and lack of available jobs. This 2016 Olympic investment money would be much better spent on education programs in the low income neighborhoods, schools and work training programs. A lot of people say that the Olympics will bring jobs and money to Chicago, but a job for a year will leave these people out on the street again soon and doesn’t solve anything. Chicago doesn’t have a very good track record in helping the greater community, over choosing to help the rich get richer. Big corporations in Chicago choose to send money to Malawi and Africa (a certain jobsite and Oprah Winfrey) for the trendy PR value rather than fund needy local schools and children’s charities that make a difference in the community that they actually live in. Cook County has a board and a city hall constantly plagued with political patronage scandals, ghost employees and contracts awarded without competitive cost bidding because of under the table kickback deals. This town is still all about organized crime and patronage decades after Al Capone died. Some things never change. Maybe the Olympic Committee is really the same kind of organization, and they don’t care either? The Olympics being associated with Chicago’s patronage and organized crime problems is not going to be good for their PR.

3. Education - It is great for a kid to aspire to be a famous athlete, but isn’t it more practical and realistic that they aspire to finish school, make a good living and contribute to a better neighborhood? These are basic ideals in the suburbs but not seen as much in the city. I know the Olympic committee will lump Chicago and the surrounding suburbs into one category when they are here (and so do we sometimes) but we are really a completely divided culture. (a large number of suburbanites won’t ever go into the city because of the crime, cost and constant gridlock) The suburbs really want nothing to do with the Olympics because it doesn’t contribute to those goals that they have mastered. It doesn’t help their schools get better, their kids get smarter nor them to make any more money. It actually costs everyone more money for an experience no one wants with a lot of traffic and security nightmares.  In addition to all that, this money would be much better spent improving the Chicago Public Schools and making sure that these kids get better instruction, more resources and achieve more goals just like the suburban kids do. Even the suburbanites would agree with that.

Basically, I think it is important for the Olympic committee to get off the approved cleaned up shiny show path when they visit and see the real problems that Chicago has in addition to all that is being offered and see that they will negativley impact the 2016 Olympics if held here. We are a city with an identity crisis. We have lost most of the titles we had for years with business, manufacturing and standard of living (even tallest building) and we haven’t really figured out a clear path to success again. (seriously, right now we are mostly known for bringing childhood and adult obesity to the world through the success of McDonald’s which was started here and is still based in OakBrook) No offense to the Olympics, but a bunch of stadiums we don’t need and a 2 week sports party aren’t going to help us figure out how to reinvent the business and industry here any faster.

We should instead invest our time and money in our community, our citizens and our infrastructure for the right reasons, not because we can sell a lot of advertising and make some big money fast. A lot of people will be far more hurt in the long run by a lack of basic resources and higher taxes and living costs than will be helped by a transient sporting event bonanza. I would really like more people to voice their opinion about this in the comments, especially those who have been silent before now. It’s the silent people who don’t get represented and then have to pay the high price for decisions that affect our lives like hosting the 2016 Olympics in Chicago.

This is some very disturbing news. The state of Illinois will be deploying radar and speed cameras all across the state in July to record photos and track speeds of cars going over the speed limit in construction zones and work zones on the highways and tollways. The first ticket will be for $300.00 fine and a second one will result in a $1,000.00 fine. On the surface that looks like something good, to ensure safety, but it isn’t and we have seen this before.

What the press release doesn’t say is that speeding isn’t what you think it is. Most of us consider 5 mph over the speed limit to be ok, because a hill could create that without you even knowing it and most cops won’t write you a ticket for going 2 mph over the limit. These cameras and radar machines will be able to automatically print cash for the state’s budget deficit by sending tickets for anyone over the limit at any level. Even 1 mph. And they will, because it has nothing to do with safety. It is all about money.

This was a huge problem in Bolingbrook last year when a Mayor’s thinly veiled attempt to “reduce accidents” revealed a plan to print cash also. It failed when residents were getting $200.00 tickets in the mail several days a week for making legal right turns on a red light after stopping behind the white line. People were enraged. They lit up the internet protesting this unfair way to basically steal their hard earned money during an economic downturn when paying the mortgage and bills is harder than ever already. After months of vocal complaints, phone calls and an outright boycott of the stores in Bolingbrook, the mayor reconsidered this policy, took his money to the bank and suspended the program in November 2007. This has also been a huge problem as cameras were installed in London and all over England as a revenue generating machine, and the people were so enraged they openly disable and destroy them and just voted out the current mayor of London that approved it.

I hope the same protests happen online, by phone and in person all over the state of Illinois about these unfair tickets from these  automated speed and radar cameras. Technology has led to many new conveniences and advances in our lives, but it has also reduced our privacy and anonymity to an almost non-existent level. And now exploiting technicalities for the sake of revenue is more popular than ever.

It is obvious also that there is a huge budget deficit to be filled in Illinois right now, and technically catching small infractions and charging an insane amount of money in penalty for them is a fast way to make a lot of bucks. What the citizens of Illinois really hate is the patronizing tone of this false justification for the charges being to save lives. We know it isn’t true, and that isn’t even a growing problem. If saftey was a problem, the numbers would be higher. They find it legal and justified to charge everyone $300 or $1,000 because 2 people were killed in 2004 and 5 in 2003. No data is presented to prove that in the past 5 years anyone has been killed, injured or otherwise mildly annoyed while working on the roads. Why use 5 year old data to justify this program except that this is the last time this happened? And they don’t mention if the cars were speeding or not. I would bet they weren’t speeding and it was probably drunk driving, of which kills hundreds of people every year and the state is not very good at stopping at all.  How about we accept that accidents happen sometimes on highways rather than invent false reasons to charge people money they can’t afford because there is no public vote on this type of revenue generation scheme and no way the citizens could block it from happening?  

Another solution to this workers shutting down the roads every summer would be to actually fix them in a proper manner so they don’t require more fixing every summer. I have had a strong feeling for years now that the road construction companies are a huge racket making money in unjust ways from the state while they patch and repair roads in low quality ways that won’t last, on purpose, to create more work for themselves next year and for every year in the future. No roads should have to be redone every year. Yet, there they are on 290, I-55, 294, 90-94, I-88 and 355 every year jackhammering out road seams just to put in 2 seams where there was once 1. All the seams patched now buckle and bump my car so that the CD skips, but hey that made someone personally a lot richer. I believe that 90% of the highway road construction is completely unnecessary. I would be happy with the quality of the roads with no further work at all for about 5 years.

Hey, there is the answer!  The answer to the budget deficit problem is to stop all road work for the next 5 years. That way we don’t get busywork shutting down our roads and the state of Illinois can actually pay for things it needs all the while no one gets killed or mildly annoyed working there.

So, now we know that instead of stopping the racket of road construction companies basically extorting money from the state, the government has decided to steal the money from the citizens to pay them. Make your opinion known to the governor and state government that this is not right to do to citizens and it must stop.

Personally, I am not going to travel on the highways or tollways after July 1. I can’t take the risk of loosing that much money for something I didn’t do right now. I am perfectly ok with back roads for where I need to go. If you do have to travel on these highways, use cruise control and set it for 5 mph below the limit just in case of a hill.

If you want to read the full press release you can at: www.dot.state.il.us/press/r033005.html 

Chicago Earth Hour 2008 [and 2009] is an event where Chicagoans turn off their lights on Saturday March 29th at 8pm for an hour (local CST time) to see if we can save energy and electricity as well as think about how to lessen our energy use long term. [along with the rest of the world] It is part of a larger event called US Earth Hour which aims to raise awarness of things people like you can do to combat climate change.

I got a note/flyer in my comEd electric bill about the Chicago Earth Hour this month and thought it was interesting that they would promote this event since they are the electric company and they make a lot of money from the use of electricity. (and constantly raise our rates) 

Some people are excited about the Chicago Earth Hour providing a possibility of being able to see stars and the sky better as the light pollution will be less than normal if everyone participates. I don’t think everyone will participate though. There are some people in Chicago that aren’t really interested in saving energy or living simply. We have a lot of energy hogs living here.

I hope that some people participate in this event and turn off the lights, computer, TV and radio in an attempt to chill out and chat with the family, light some candles and maybe play a board game or read a book. If you can’t turn it all off, at least turn the vast majority of it off. Make it a game for the kids to see if they can think of any more ways to save energy. If you are a couple without kids in Chicago, ahem…an hour of dark never sounded boring before?

The Earth Hour is also a time to look at your home-condo-appartment’s energy use and see if you can minimize it. Do you have compact fluorescents (squiggley bulbs) in all your lamps, closets, ceiling fixtures and outside in the lights? if not now is the time to buy them (they are cheap now if you buy in a bulk pack) and put them in.

Do you have your fridge and freezer cranked to the max cold and your water heater cranked to the max hot? Both can be turned down to mid level and reduce the amount of energy they use. Do you use the plate warmer setting on the dish washer and leave the room for hours with the TV on? Turn the dish washer off when plate warmer goes on and just crack the door open with a spoon and they will dry by morning. If you pick up the phone when watching TV and have to walk away, shut it off or at least the screen if you were watching a DVD/DVR.

Do you leave your computer and all the peripherals on all day? Turn those off too when you are done using them, especially if you aren’t home. It’s safer for net security reasons too. I am sure there are even more ways to save energy, post more ideas below if you have them.

Its not practical to always have the lights out all the time at night like in the 2008 Earth Hour (ouch, ran into a wall there) but minimizing the use of electricity (and all energy) in inefficient ways and for unnecessary uses could save people a lot of money and the earth a lot of resources in the long run. And maybe even help save our planet from some serious climate change.

Times are tough for the Tribune company, so tough that 19% profit margin on everything they sell isn’t enough anymore. So, the latest plan hatched by the new quirky Tribune owner Sam Zell is to sell the naming rights to Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field to the highest bidder. Will we see Ebay Field? Amazon Wrigley Field? Google Field? Kraft Field? State Farm Wrigley Field? Geico Field? I can’t imagine what other ubiquitous large local consumer brand company that would want the rights to a baseball stadium in Chicago? CDW Field? 

Three large Chicago employers US Cellular, AllState Insurance and United Airlines have already bought stadium naming rights here, and technically the Cubs’ Wrigley Field naming rights were already sold once to Wrigley the chewing gum company. Maybe they should buy it again? Or would Altoids be interested? 

I hate to think that this has to happen but it reinforces that the only reason that these executives and board members are in business for is money. They feel no corporate stewardship, community responsibility in Chicago or corporate responsibility to provide anything but low level-low paying jobs and minimum benefits. When will the greed stop?

Apparently selling off the naming rights for historical institutions like Wrigley Field in Chicago is going to be the norm now. What’s next? Ebay Art Institute of Chicago (bid on artifacts!) and The Boeing Museum of Science and Industry? This is pathetic for our city and for our history in Chicago. And expect the price of tickets to go up too. Again…the little guy looses.

I just got a message forwarded to my entire office about Com Ed giving customers back credits from 2007 usage costs because of a second rate hike of 22% in January 2008. (the first rate hike of 22% was in January 2007, this is just pure greed now)

Is this rate rebate for real? or is it a Joke?

Well I did some digging and it is hard to find but, on Excelon’s site they have a link to Com Ed and there is a link to more info about electricity rates. There they explain that there is a 1 Billion dollar rebate due back to the people of Illinois and they give some very vague information about how they intend to distribute it in ways we will never know if we each got our share back.

Since Commonwealth Edison has a monopoly in Chicagoland and you can’t get your electricity from anywhere else except possibly solar panels, we are stuck paying whatever they charge. So, in 2007 Lisa Madigan took Com Ed to court over the 22% rate hike they charged. Lisa Madigan and her team of lawyers eventually got Com Ed to agree to a $1 Billion Dollar settlement that gives credits to low income people on their bills who can’t afford the rate hike and some smaller credits on regular customer bills from 2008-2010. After that we’re on our own apparently and any crazy rate hikes are allowed again.

The comed site states the following about the agreement:

• Relief for ComEd customers will be in two forms: programs for residential customers most in need and targeted small business and mid-sized customers, and bill credits providing relief to all residential customers.
• Exelon Generation will provide $747 million of the funding; ComEd will provide $53 million; Ameren will provide $150 million; Midwest Generation and Dynegy will each provide $25 million and MidAmerican will contribute $1 million.
• A total of $488 million will go directly to ComEd residential customers, with the average customer receiving a monthly bill credit ranging from approximately $4 to $13. This reduces the average residential customer’s 2007 rate increase to 13.5 percent, which cuts the increase nearly in half. The impacts reflect averages, and an individual customer’s bill may be higher or lower.
•  The $488 million ComEd customers will receive will be allocated over a four-year period, with $283 million available in 2007 ($250 million in credits to all residential customers and $33 million in targeted programs).

So, does this apply to you?

If you have cancelled your electric service with them but still were an active customer in 2007 and want your rebate, you have to go to the ecelon/comed/care website and download the form, fill it out and mail it in to them. If you are a low income household and want a rate reduction you have to call them and the billing department and show just cause and income docmentation to get it. if you are a regular customer your rate reduction should happen automatically on your bill. Check your comed bill to make sure, and if it isn’t there call them at the customer service number on the bill to complain and have it refunded on the next bill.  I plan on checking my electric bills tonight.

Update: I looked on my electric bills and found no credits or discounts from this refund program. I am not a low income qualified person nor have I asked for assistance but the way this has been explained in the press you would think everyone would get a credit of some kind. I am going to call them and ask about why I haven’t gotten any credits or refunds yet. If you haven’t gotten any refunds or credits either, give the Commonwealth Edison Customer Service number a call and ask why you haven’t either.

I noticed yesterday in the Jewel grocery store that the Christmas and New Year’s 2008 merchandise had already been herded to the back of the store, marked down and arranged with no particular care to indicate that within 12 hours of the holiday season being over, the store had moved on and it told me I should too. The ink hadn’t even dried on the paper I wrote the new year’s resolutions and they were already acting like these yearly rites of passage didn’t happen.  

 It was weird that all the cute cuddly, baking, sparkly, decoration, super important Christmas and NYE type stuff was now considered undesirable when only a week or a day before it was front and center. It’s all just so fast. I never felt like I even celebrated either very much, but yet there was all this work involved in running around just to get the basics covered. How did that happen? How is Christmas all work and no payoff? 

Anyway, the truth was that they had 1/2 an isle already full of perfectly organized Valentines Day candy, decor, cards and stuffed animals. Already? On January 1st? I guess retail marches to a slightly faster drummer than the rest of us.

So, if you are also recovering from a holiday that you feel you may not have actually witnessed too, here are a few tips for surviving January and maybe February 2008 too:

1. Put away all the Christmas Decor. Don’t let it sit until February like you did last year. It’s not easy to explain laziness to people who come visit even if you can usually make a self deprecating joke or too along the way.

2. Bake something non-holiday related. Like Banana Bread.

3. Read a bookthat you have been putting off for at least 2 months because of the shopping, parties, events and social calendar that you have had to maintain. Feel good that some tea and a good book make a great evening. (Personally I got 5 books for Christmas so I have my “work cut out for me”, whatever that means)

4. Check that Netflix queue, there are a bunch of movies that have been released that I bet you wanted to see. 

5. Organize those bills, books, files or paper lying around. Get a binder; file things in it. Get Quicken; log your expenses daily. Organize yourself for your own sake. Now is the best time to do it, (ok any time is ok, but do it now because I said so) and get the year started off straight.

6. Write some resolutions (goals) for the year and post them somewhere you will see them, like the bedroom mirror or bathroom mirror, or on the Fridge, or possibly all 3. This more for weight related goals. If it’s spending, maybe put the credit cards in a giant tupperware shaped block of ice and tie a note on it about the resolutions/goals?

7. Save some money. Yes, we all overspent a little, time to reel it in and not go in the red money wise this month. I find it funny that Black Friday for the retailers every year is like Red Friday for consumers everwhere.

8. And if you haven’t already; buy some Valentines stuff just to complete the consumerism yearly seasonal cycle. (sarcasm)

Seriously though, Happy New Year and I wish you the best of love, happiness, health and wealth in 2008.

The cold and flu season is here again and if you work in a high rise building in Chicago like I do, you will be exposed to the germs of thousands of people who work in your building, eat at the restaurants you go to and sneeze on you while riding the CTA. The virus exposure levels in the city of Chicago have to be about 100x more than what you would experience in the suburbs. Even if you go to work there, it’s smaller buildings, you drive your own car and suburbanites don’t go out to eat every meal. I have noticed that the first year people come to work in our building they get sick about 10 times. (seriously) and then the second year either their immune system steps up the effort to fight them or they have developed some immunity to the viruses they had last year. It’s a hard first 12 months because you are exposed to everything bad and are usually stressed, dehydrated and living on no sleep. (the typical city way of life) Here are some tips I have been using to try and have a winter less sick than last year. So far I have had a cold once this season compared to about 5 “sonic death colds” and flu last year by this time. See if any of this info helps:

1. Drink lots of liquids. I don’t know why this matters but it does. If you don’t consume about 5 water bottles worth of liquids a day you should. It can be other stuff than water but try not to consume too much diet cola because it dehydrates you more. Alternating between water and soda is better and avoid alcohol if you’re sick.

2 The only cold medicine that works on clearing your nose is sold behind the counter these days because of the stupid people who decided to melt down cold medicine in mass amounts to make meth. So, go to Walgreen’s and get the Walatin-D generic Claritin-D from the pharmacist and your nose will be a lot clearer and you might be able to get to work.

3. Chicken Noodle Soup is good for a cold. Your body sneezes and sweats out all it’s salt so a bowl of chicken noodle is good to replenish fluids and the salt is ok too. Any other time of year this would be too much salt. Plus there is something good about basic old fashioned Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup.

4. Use the Kleenex that blocks and kills 99% of viruses. This helps it from spreading all over the office.

5. Wash your hands all the time, and keep sanitizing cleaning wipes and hand sanitizer at your desk. The office cleaning crews are there to take the garbage out, vacuum and wipe crumbs off the tables. They do not clean with any cleaners that disinfect or kill germs. I think they really just wipe down everything with a wet rag because it’s cheaper and they don’t have to carry a bottle of disinfectant cleaner around all day with them. Expect every door knob, microwave button, phone, bathroom door and elevator button to be crawling with germs. Use your sweater sleeve to touch these things if possible. If not, wipe your hands with sanitizer when you get back to your desk. .

6. Boost your immune system with vitamins, healthy eating and Danactive yogurt. I have personally liked the Danactive Yogurt. I think that has helped me a lot. Fruits and Veg (not starchy ones) are also very important on a daily basis.

7. Don’t kiss, hug or shake hands with anyone else when you have a cold. Please, this just spreads it around.

8. Sit in the end seats or single seats on the train. People on the CTA L trains and buses are all about invading your personal space as much as possible and seeing how much they can annoy you before you snap, so avoid all contact with other people on the train and don’t touch anything! It’s as slimy with germs as possible. Consider every surface in there to have been licked by someone gross. The first thing you do when you get home is wash your hands immediately. Before you touch anything.

9. Get 8-9 hours of sleep a night. Your body can fight more illnesses if you get this much sleep and it makes a marked difference in how many times you get sick and how long it lasts. I know we all have to work, but canceling out on non-necessity stuff is ok in the name of health. That’s why we have social networking online right?

10. Get the flu shot if you can, they help with some of the worst bugs out there, but I always thought they would be a year behind vaccinating you for last year’s bug because of the development process cycle. I am not sure how true that is though. If you are in the high risk groups get this anyway.

Cook County is looking to add new taxes on phone, gas and electric bills of consumers. The most contested new tax is the one for $4.00 added to everyone’s phone bill.  don;t know when the last time was that you looked at the details of your phone bill (especially if you have auto pay by credit card)  but there are already a bunch of taxes on there now. I looked up my land line bill and see that there are $12.00 worth of taxes and government fees already there:

Local Federal Access Charge: $4.50
Local 911 Emergency System: $1.00
Local State Infrastructure and Maintenance Fee: $0.12
Local State Additional Charges: $0.02
Local Federal Universal Service Fee: $0.49
Local IL Universal Service Fee $0.07
Local IL Telecom Relay Service and Equipment Fee $0.06
Local Federal Tax at 3% $0.70
Local Illinois Tax at 7% $1.62
Local Municipal Telecommunications Tax $1.39
Long Distance Carrier Cost Recovery Fee $0.99
Long Distance Fed Universal Service Fund $0.25
Long Distance IL State Infrastructure MaintenanceRecov Fee $0.03
Long Distance IL USF Surcharge $0.01
Long Distance State Tax $0.34
Long Distance Municipal Tax $0.30

**With another $4.00 for Cook County this will be $16.00 in Taxes on a $19.00 monthly phone package!!! **

This is INSANE. Why should I pay almost double my phone bill because someone wants tax revenue for their pet project?? And this doesn’t even include the cell phone taxes and surcharges.

If you are as upset about this as I am go to the site NoPhoneTax.org and email the politicians about your opposition and work to make sure this does not get passed. It is too much money and no one can afford to tax things so much that it doubles your bill every month.

Today I got an email from the Hillside Garbage Landfill Closure Project. They wanted to let all of us know who drive by the dump along side 290 at the Hillside strangler, that they have successfully closed off one portion of the dump. We are grateful for that and hope that the stench ends soon. It is still very difficult to sit stuck in traffic at that point on the highway. Even with your car windows closed and the climate control turned off, it still is very powerful. I know consumers have to stop creating so much garbage, but we also want that landfill closed off as soon as possible too. Below is the text of the email update about the Hillside Landfill closure project.

The Western Phase is CompleteWe are pleased to announce a significant milestone in the Hillside Landfill closure project. On September 30, we successfully closed the western one-third of the landfill for good. This accomplishment not only signals significant progress, it is noteworthy because this part of the landfill has been a primary source of odors in the past.
 
Over the past five months, we filled the western one-third of the landfill to capacity, installed a new permanent gas collection system and constructed a cap that will keep rainwater out of the landfill. Together, these steps will control, contain and collect landfill liquid and gas that is created from decomposing landfill waste.  
 
Although odors will not completely disappear until after the entire landfill is capped in 2008, we do expect to see an overall improvement now that the western section is closed. In the coming months, we will repeat the entire process detailed above in the remaining sections of the landfill.
 
As always, we appreciate your patience throughout this process.
 
We will continue to keep you updated as the project continues. Also, please continue to visit www.LandfillClosing.com for new information about the project.
 
Thank you.

I got my Oak Park FYI newsletter in the mail today and it has a mention that a new condo tower will be built at South Avenue and Harlem Avenue in Oak Park. Don’t we have enough condos in Oak Park? At any given moment in the current housing crash and real estate meltdown there are over 500 condos for sale in Oak Park already. So, they are wiping out 140 public parking spaces in order to get a parking garage under almost 100 new condos that no one will buy. There are about 10 rehab and new condo developments  in Oak Park for sale already, that are not able to sell any units as it is. And any owner that wants to sell will never gain any equity or value or ever sell with this many on the market.

There is a glut in this area’s market because it is overdeveloped! So for the love of God, STOP BUILDING and Converting CONDOS!!! I know the big developers don’t care and the Realtors are happy to lie to people and say you will gain value year over year on your condo, but you won’t. (the old data they usually show you is from 1997-2003) Oak Park has a multitude of problems and the developers and Realtors are making it even worse. They are taking advantage of good people that haven’t lived here before and don’t know all the details on why it sucks to buy here like I did. Don’t get sucked into this trap. It can be a financial disaster and a huge mistake to buy a property in Oak Park.

The exact blurb from the newsletter is as follows:

“An agreement has been reached with Morningside Equities Group, Inc. on the terms for a new $30-million mixed-use project at South Boulevard and Harlem Avenue. The eight-story development will contain 96 condominium units, 12,500 square feet of new retail space and a parking garage in the heart of the downtown shopping area. The current site’s 143 parking lot spaces will be replaced with 245 public parking spaces in the new public garage. The public spaces are in addition to dedicated on-site parking for the condominium owners. The building will be designed and constructed to achieve certification through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system. A formal redevelopment agreement between the Village and Morningside is expected to be signed before the end of the year. The project then will enter the planned development process, which includes opportunities for public comment. For more information on the project or process, call 358.5644 or e-mail devsvcs@oak-park.us. “

They don’t tell you that it costs $100-$150 per quarter to park in a public lot.

Here are the reasons NOT to buy any property in Oak Park ever:

1. Whatever you pay for the new, rehabbed or redeveloped condo you buy will be worth less a year from now and still worth less 5 years from now. The housing slump isn’t creating this problem, overdevelopment is. This was happening in Oak Park two years before the rest of the country had a slump.  In the 1990’s Oak Park had a mini-boom and many people saw their real estate value jump up each year, but since about 2003 only stand alone houses have increased in value. There has been a glut of condos for sale since 2001 and that has caused condominium values to drop and stagnate at these lower levels. (simple economics, there is not enough demand and an over supply; not that many people want to live there because of the crime and extremely high costs)  They get away with this scam by putting fancy granite counter tops and new appliances in very old buildings with lead paint, lead pipes, bad windows, sagging floors and leaky roofs. Many young first time home buyers buy into it thinking it will be new and redone and face thousands of dollars in additional work that has to be done afterwards. A friend of mine has had a leaky roof problem that will cost him $30,000.00 to fix. The builder is being sued but even if they win he won’t see that money for at least 5 years. So he is paying out of pocket with a second loan and a second morgage payment to get the water to stop coming in his condo. It’s a nightmare. You should be aware of these risks. You could be buying a place with serious faults that causes you to spend thousands of dollars to fix it and then your property value drops on top if it. It’s a double bad situation.

2. Oak Park taxes are higher than anywhere else I have lived and higher than most places in Chicago. Why? Because the city has nowhere to gain revenues from except it’s residents. There is no business or industry or commerical property to make money from. The largest employers in the town of Oak Park are the Rush Oak Park hospital and #2 is the town of Oak Park. That isn’t much and the small stores and small businesses there don’t generate enough sales tax revenue or other taxes to pay for much. So they devised this parking ticket scheme to make money and taxes are very high. They say to count on 2.5% of your home’s purchase price. An average home in Oak Park is vintage (needs a lot of work every year) and costs $500,000.00. That makes your property tax bill $12,500.00 per year and $1,042 per month. There is a homeowner exemption, but that is just $400.00. Not much help. By comparison in Downers Grove a 500K home will get a 1.5% tax bill of $7,500.00. And that is in a town of lower crime and better schools. So, that is pretty convincing to me.

3. The Parking in Oak Park is rigged on purpose. It is in place to make money for the town by taking advantage of the fact that there is very little parking available. It’s the scam of the century. Oak Park doesn’t make enough tax money from businesses because it’s almost all residential and something has to pay for all the police, new schools and the salaries of the town of Oak Park’s employees since it is the largest employer in the town. They don’t require builders and developers to provide parking spaces or garages with the property it develops or converts on purpose. They purposely want to restrict the availability and access of parking so they can make a large chunk of their revenue from parking tickets each year.  (the article above is only including enough parking to replace what was there and the parking for the high priced units, not enough for people who don’t have parking now, and it doesn’t help people who don’t live in that area of the town who don’t have parking) The parking ticket agents hunt cars down and know when the lot time or meter expires and are ready to write a $30, $50 or $100 dollar ticket. And they will write you more than one in a day if they can. ( I couldn’t be surprised if they have quotas to fill or get bonuses for writing more tickets) The town also puts a boot on your car wheels and suspends your driver’s license if you have more than 3 unpaid tickets. In Oak Park, that can take about a day and a half to accumulate, and then you have to pay $150.00 and get them to remove the boot plus the original tickets. People say the parking is bad here, but no one has been able to get the city government to do anything about it because the government is profiting of the problem they purposely created to take advantage of residents. They also know low income people aren’t active in politics or in donating to their campaigns so they aren’t pissing off anyone they care about or depend on, and they take advantage of those who live in low income housing and low priced condo units. Don’t give Oak Park any more money and certainly don’t park there.

4. There is a lot more crime, theft, drugs and gangs in Oak Park than a Realtor would like you to think. Oak Park is in many ways an extension of the City of Chicago and an extension of the City’s problems. No one talks about the crime, it is always very hush hush and hard to find out about. The crimes range from bikes stolen to cars broken into and stolen to break-ins and some homicide deaths. (those usually make the news) There have been more homicides in Oak Park every year since I have been here, yet no one talks about the rate going up. It is also curious that every time there is a helicopter circling overhead, another escaped criminal is in Oak Park. They get out of the Cook County Jail and make a beeline for Oak Park because it is next to Maywood and Bellwood or the West Side of Chicago. Do you think that maybe people are also having a hard time existing in this town with all these costs and regulations and are turning to drugs, theft and crime to try and get by? Not everyone makes over 100K a year and can afford all the costs of Oak Park, and for a lot of low income people who have been born and raised here, Oak Park is very frustrating.

5. Oak Park is very very polluted and dirty. I-290, the Metra trains and the cargo freight trains all make Oak Park a very polluted place. Black soot falls from the sky daily landing on windowsills and cars which is from the diesel freight train engines that stay parked and running all night next to 290 or along the Metra lines by Lake Street and South Blvd. The car pollution is bad and the noise pollution is even worse. They even route the air traffic from O’Hare and Midway overhead to make sure we get all the possible toxins we can. It is much more polluted than the rest of the Chicagoland area but people don’t talk about it, because no one is supposed to know.

6. When you try to sell your condo you will need 12 months or more to find a buyer because there are 500 other condos for sale and almost no buyers. You will be forced to pay a village property sales tax of $8 per each $1000 of your sale price called a property transfer stamp. (no other town has this!) With all the fees including the property transfer tax stamp and the realtors, lawyers, cook county and the state of IL, your fees will run about 10% of your sale price. I know I just finally sold. That was what the total was. So you have to make more than that 10% you loose to fees, just because the property is located in Oak Park.

7. They are public works project happy. The government in Oak Park is the largest employer of workers in the town and they see public works projects as their birthright and choose anything and everything to build in order to spend tax payers money. There have been propsals floated for every hairbrained idea from capping 290 and making it a concrete tunnel with a park on top to more and more condos. Basically everyone pays for these (like the ginormous library nobody uses?) and nobody really benefits.

Do yourself a favor, and buy a home anywhere outside Oak Park and Chicago, out in the real suburbs where it’s your right to park anywhere you want any time you want, and your home’s value will increase at a rate faster than inflation. Plus the schools are a lot better out there and it is much safer to live there too. Don’t fall into the trap of living in Oak Park it will cost you more money and you get far less than in other suburbs.

I was startled to find out that there are red light cameras monitoring the intersections on Boughton Road in Bolingbrook, IL now. These cameras are taking photograph evidence of cars at the intersection in order to write tickets. These thing they call violations are hardly so. They have been sending $100.00 tickets to people who don’t stop behind the white line (including your bumper) at the intersection and people who do not stop their car 100% behind the white line before making a right turn on red. They call both of these violations “running a red light”. That’s the worst lie for the sake of greed and money I have ever heard.

It is expected that these cameras make over $20,000.00 per month per camera, (that makes over 200 tickets per month and about 10 tickets per day.) on writing these negligible unnecessary tickets to otherwise perfectly law abiding citizens. They don’t think you are a bad person doing anything wrong, they just want more money and couldn’t get a tax referendum passed, so consider these tickets property tax payments that they can do whatever they want with in Bolingbrook. Will they pass that money on to companies of their friends that want construction and other types of contracts with the city an un-negotiated absurdly high rates? Probably. It’s not like they put these cameras up for paying for school lunch programs and tutors and after school enrichment programs. The government and police of Bolingbrook couldn’t possibly care less about the community and the well being of kids. They just care about money.

This got me thinking about how you can avoid these cameras and avoid paying 200 or 300 dollars extra every month that you could have spent paying down your mortgage. These ideas have come from the 4 people I know who have gotten these tickets and are flaming mad. Use these suggestions to help yourself avoid being ticketed by camera in Bolingbrook, and leave me a comment below about any other ideas you have about avoiding this unjust charge.

Also, I found the official press release (that I am sure no one was able to find to know this was coming) and it places these cameras as going live in May of 2007. From the Bolingbrook town site:

Press Release #07-27Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Time: 2:10pm
Topic: Red Light Cameras
Prepared By: Lt. Chris Prochut #936NARRATIVE The “RedSpeed” red-light traffic cameras located at the intersections of Boughton & Pinecrest Road and Boughton & Schmidt Road are no longer in the “warning” phase.  Violators are now subject to a fine for any red-light violation. The units are complimented by large signs warning motorists that the intersection is monitored by photographic enforcement.

Two additional intersections are scheduled to receive this photographic enforcement and will become operational in the near future, in this order:
Boughton Road and Weber
Boughton Road and Route 53

5 Ways to avoid paying a few hundred dollars in fines every monthif you live in or around the Naperville, Bolingbrook, Downers Grove area:

1. Avoid Boughton Road, Weber, Pincerest Road, Schmidt Road and Rt 53 at all costs. You can most likely get to work, school, the stores (outside of Bolingbrook) and home by side streets around these camera hungry intersections. This is the most legal way to get around this, since I know everyone tries to stop behind the white line and fully before a right turn, no on intends on doing anything wrong, no one ever gets hurt, and it’s too stressful to have to worry about loosing $100.00 on your drive home from work when you are already stressed from work itself. It’s not worth the worry. Go around them. (although more are planned for other Bolingbrook intersections and in many other suburbs for more revenue soon)

2. Get blur obstruction licence plate covers. These may or may not be illegal in certain towns, but they may save you the ticket. The clear licence plate cover protects the plate from dirt and grime but it also is blurry when read from the side or above. This is usually the angle that cameras are at since they put them high where citizens can’t reach them and disable them easily. Just ask how many cameras get disabled in the UK and London each day.

3. You can take this up with the local government in the town by writing letters, starting an action group for free motoring without reconnaissance but I doubt you will get much traction because the government officials usually just care about making a lot of money and when it is from a legal source like tickets and fines, they don’t have to get vote approval from the citizens like they would for a tax increase. They use the PR line that it is only hurting citizens who break the law, and we all know that is a lie. If a cop won’t get out of his car on a rainy day to write a ticket for a violation, it’s not big enough to warrant writing a ticket for, because it’s not doing any harm or danger to anyone. (but when they make $20,000.00 per camera per month, they don’t care about if it’s hurting anyone, it makes them balance their budget and not have to say no to their friends who want business contracts with the town)

4. Elect someone else to Mayor of the town to change this policy. Know someone who would be better at the job? Maybe you? Run against them and return your town to a happier state of being. You will be a hero.

5. This may be the smartest thing to do about this yet. If you don’t live in Bolingbrook and have to go through that town, don’t spend any money there anymore at all. They don’t deserve our sales tax dollars, and I am going to give my sales tax dollars to other towns that don’t ticket me just for driving my car. No Ikea, no shopping, no gas stations, no money spent in Bolingbrook ever again. They won’t get any sales tax from people and that revenue will be hurt much more than the revenue that they gain from these unwarranted tickets.

No one needs to tell us that Chicago has awful and unbearable traffic jams and congestion. We are familiar with sitting in traffic on any highway or street at any hour of the day or night. (I have sat in traffic jams at 2am) What we didn’t know is that Chicago ranked 2nd in a national study on the worst traffic in the country. (and by Chicago, we mean mostly the Suburbs) Los Angeles is the worst, they loose 72 hours a year in traffic. The 2007 Urban Mobility Report studied the number of cars on the roads and the travel times required to get around in the largest cities in America. (nothing is sexier than the study of traffic flow) 

The charts I was able to find actually ranked Chicago 3rd on the list behind NYC and LA, rather than just LA like all the media outlets have been reporting.  Chicago commuters loose on average 46 hours each per year sitting in traffic. Chicago drivers also waste 32 extra gallons of gas each sitting in that traffic on their highway of choice. In my car that’s 2 full gas tanks worth, and at current prices it adds up to an extra $100.00 per year. That shouldn’t break the budget, but who likes wasting money or gas at a time like this? Collectively we are spewing those extra 32 gallons of gas into the air as carbon emissions and getting nothing back. Not even the mobility we were promised when we bought our cars.

Chicago is a car loving town. I know of about 10 suburbs that have “crusin” nights for cars and many more have summer “car shows”. We all see the monster houses with 2, 3 or 4 car garages. Yes some are for storage but more are really holding cars. I think the 1950’s suburban boom was fueled by cheap oil and gas. (see the documentary Escape from Suburbia, it explains more)  It started to change where people chose to live because more middle class Americans could afford a car for the first time. (around $1000.00 if you bought it used, $2,000.00 if it was new, insurance was not required then, and you could park anywhere for free, gas was arund $0.30 per gallon)

This led to Sunday drives and trips to places by car that were farther away than you would normally go in a day.  At that time families lived closer to relatives and within walking distance to those necessities you needed in town. When cheap oil and affordable cars started changing things people discovered the potential of the suburbs.

You could buy a newly built home further out from the city for a lot less than you could in Chicago. People started migrating from Chicago to near suburbs first. (Berwyn, Cicero, Stickney, LaGrange, Westchester, Park Ridge and Lyons) Then when those were filled up the next generation of new home buyers just went out further. (Downers Grove, Darien, Hinsdale, Willowbrook, Oak Brook and Glen Ellyn) The next generation went further yet. (Naperville, Wheaton, Plainfield) and now we have colonized Aurora and Joliet as Chicago Suburbs. The new young couples today buy a home for under 200K with a yard, garage and a lot of bedrooms is go out to farthest reaches of the end of civilization like Minooka and Sandwich. Those  towns do offer cheap housing at a good deal, but the price you pay every day is that you will spend 2 hours getting to work and back in traffic.

In past generations things worked out ok. The house you bought as a young newlywed became a highly valued asset over your lifetime multiplying it’s value by 10 times and civilization came to you, eventually… I am not so sure this will be possible for the next generation of Chicago home owners. It’s not because we don’t have enough land, we have endless supply there, but we don’t have the resources to support sprawl like that anymore. And we don’t have enough space on the roads for all these people going to and from their cheap suburban housing out in Minooka.

I reversed my family’s migration pattern and moved back into the city. (they were appaled by the way, nothing pisses of suburbanites like their kid moving into the same city their ancestors worked so hard to get out of) I live within walking distance of the EL and Metra and Bus service. I do own a car, but it sits in storage and I maybe drive it once a week. I know most Americans and almost all Chicagoans don’t like this kind of living. It’s still socially associated with the working class immigrants that were our ancestors working in factories and living a hard life. It isn’t very showy either, and suburbanites like showy. So it may be a bit of an embarrassment to my family but I think it is a smarter way to live.

How can more people in Chicago live smarter with transportation? Here are some ideas:

1. Live near your work: If you are a young person renting from year to year, find apartments really close to work. Like walkable if possible or just a 10 minute drive. Others of us in the Chicago area who are more established trade up houses every 5-10 years anyway, so why not make it a priority to live by your job? People move half way across the country for jobs, why would you not move to another suburb? It saves you a ton of money too, if that’s more of a motivator.

2. Travel at off-peak times: I know of more and more companies in Chicago offering a flexible schedule. And I see on the news that the roads are empty at 6:30 am, so take advantage of it. Adjust your travel to get out before the rush and save a ton of time.

3. Stop buying imported goods. What? Yes, the trucking business has exploded as we buy everything from China and have to truck it all over the country. Logistics try and make their runs more efficient, but face it, if we didn’t buy that stuff, and we bought locally produced stuff there would be far fewer 18 wheelers clogging our highways.

4. Drive with friends and neighbors. I am hesitant to use the word Car Pool, but you probably your neighbors and coworkers more than I like the people I sit next to on the CTA train or Bus. A lot more. Consider it a cake walk considered to public transportation, and you should try and just be nice, smile and ask about their kids.

If we don’t change our ways, we will soon be spending 2 hours each way to work and back rather than 1. Every year things just get worse. Do something about it and avoid the traffic and plan a more efficient life.

First they allow a buyout by smarmy National City Bank, and now someone is targeting them for a spam email phishing scam. I got this email 3 times on Friday and luckily my spam filter cought it and I didn’t see it till today and I recognize it as a fake message. Here is the text of the spam message said to be from Mid America Bank in Claredon Hills, IL. They even copied the copyright symbol in there and had the right parent company name. Just to be clear, do not click this email if you get it, it is FAKE and not really from Mid America Bank in the Chicago Area. Please be safe and do not click emails from banks unless you know they are real. (which is near impossible these days) Always go to the site directly and log in there or call them by phone.

Dear XYZ Person,

Your Debit Card must receive a refund worth 208.44$ USD from MidAmerica Bank

After the last annual calculations of your account activity we have determined that

you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $208.44 credit. 

Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it.

You can now get your refund now by signing in to your MidAmerica Bank Account

and spare 2 minutes of your time to complete the required fields.

Your Refund Tracking ID is : MIDABNK000000000000D.

To get your Tax Refund Money now click the link below:

(Link Was Deleted For Security Purposes)

Regards, MidAmerica Bank Customer Service

MidAmerica Bank has sent this message to xyz@email address.

©2007 MAF Bancorp Inc., All Rights Reserved

MidAmerica Bank may not be a financial institution you have heard of, or it could be your personal family bank. Mid America has been a fixture in the suburban working class neighborhoods of Chicago since the 1960’s. My family has banked there since the late 1960’s and I am sad to report that they were recently bought by National City Bank. National City much like Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and ABN AMRO, wants to grow from a smaller banking company into a large nation wide financial company. The way all these banking companies grow is buy buying and gobbling up smaller local bank networks. MidAmerica has their headquarters in Claredon Hills (a western suburb of Chicago) and has grown with branches in Berwyn, Downers Grove, Naperville, Chicago, Lakeview, Burr Ridge, Cicero, Elgin, Glen Ellyn, Niles, Norridge, Shaumburg, Skokie, St Charles, Westchester, Western Springs and Wheaton. (and about 15 more in Wisconsin I didn’t know about until I just looked on their site)

Mid America has been the consistent place to do all your personal banking in the suburbs as the Bank One, Chase, ABN Amro, LaSalle Bank, St Paul Federal and other banks either came and went or came and took over. Mid America was always based locally, you could always talk to someone in person and they were always consistent in their service and security. They may have lacked a lot of money for a fancy online banking interface and you had to know where their ATMs were to avoid the extra cross banking fees, but other than that they have been great. You just grow to trust a company that you have been with your whole life. Now I am not sure to expect.

When large banking conglomerates come in and gobble up smaller local banks a few things tend to happen, and these are the fears that I have that this will be bad for the customers of MidAmerica Bank.

1. The fees go up. For no reason really. It’s more to get a registered check, more for a transfer between accounts, more for ATM withdrawals and more if a check bounces and you don’t have the automatic transfer set up. It’s just because they are huge and figure they can get away with it. Trust me the higher fees are NOT because you are getting more or they are better somehow. It’s just a big greedy profitability decision.

2. The service level goes down. People don’t know what is going on in branches because headquarters is so far away. Bank service people aren’t trained well or informed of policies and product information. You get the wrong information a lot, and they are under more high pressure to sell products to keep their job so they just make it up and who knows what you will get charged for. They know once you’ve signed up the chances are small that you will come back and complain or request a change of any kind. So, they just pressure you into whatever they have on promotion to meet a quota goal and make up whatever to get it closed. This is crap service and it’s really common with large national or international companies that have aggressive growth goals.

3. They don’t know the community and they don’t care. This makes a difference when you know that the needs of one area of the country aren’t anything like the needs of another. Mid America knew what the Chicago suburbs were about. Originally in the 60’s and 70’s they were about savings. Local Polish immigrant populations and their kids were big time savers. They remember what it was like in the Great Depression or back in Poland and always saved for retirement and just as a financially responsible lifestyle. They all did well with it too when interest rates were high in the 70’s. In the 80’s banking in the suburbs was about Money Markets and Checking Accounts. People were changing over from all cash or savings to checks to pay for things. Money markets allowed check writing flexibility with good interest if you had a lot of savings and met the minimum. Mid America also had a check card before anyone else did in the area in the 90’s. They were on top of what people wanted in Chicago and especially the suburbs. Mid America Bank never had issues with identity theft that I heard about and my family has never had an issue in dealing with them. They hold the retirement IRAs and Mortgages of a lot of suburbanites and we don’t know what will happen with those accounts and policies. will the terms all change? Will National City be there to support us when we need it? Will we just be able to walk in and make changes anytime we want like we are now? I highly doubt that any national company is going to understand the banking needs of the local community because they only care about growth and profit. 

4. The motivation for growth and profit is immense. Like I mentioned above all the bank fees go up, new bank fees get invented and new banking products with fees get created and forcibly bundled and sold. They do all this because of the margin on a product or the profitability and revenue it brings in, not because the customers need or want it. It also goes to pay for their huge advertising budgets because no one would ever refer them to a friend by word of mouth. No one ever has a good experience. Advertising to death and creating wacky promotions is the only way to wear down customers and get them to finally get their banking done there.

5. Security is Bad. No national company has not been in the news for millions of it’s customer’s personal information and data being stolen. It’s just too easy, all these records are in the same place, and spammers and intelligence dealers love that they can get so much data in one hit. And these big national banks are usually so disconnected and unconcerned with security (because all they think about is sales) they don’t even know it.

6.  NBC (channel 5 in Chicago) is also reporting that Mid America will be laying off 400 people in Downers Grove and the Chicago area. Probably most of their operations at the headquarters in Claredon Hills, IL. This sucks even more that they are firing people locally because their size means they can engulf all the management over the branches from their central location. Now there are 400 more people in Chicago without jobs in a bad economy! Like we don’t already have too many qualified people looking for work because they got let go because some fat cat got a good bonus to take over the company they worked for. Ugh, this is disgusting, we should all boycott National City Bank.

So, with all these reasons to build a case about National City turning will I change my bank? Initially no. I can’t find another local bank that would be better at keeping the needs of the local suburban community in mind right now. If I do find one, I would like to switch, and if you know of a small local banking chain in your area of the suburbs, let us know and post a comment about it below.  I have to say that many people will be watching National City and if anything happens so that we get a bad experience and problems happen with our accounts or money we will leave in droves. I am not sure there will be a better place to go to, but bad behavior shouldn’t be reinforced by putting up with it. Companies don’t listen unless they loose money. So, if you bank at Mid America and have a good or bad experience with the new National City People (and their wacky points thing that won’t accumulate to be worth anything) let us know by posting below.

Update 11/9/07: Evidence of National City being a crap bank. They held and then bounced a check being deposited by a customer that gets paid by Google monthly because National City had a fradulent Google check cashed by a scammer in the past. Blocking all checks from Google because one was fraudulent in the past is not a good policy, and is bad for customers who are just trying to deposit their earnings. National City is just interested in protecting it’s own interests and not those of it’s customers.

Everyone in Chicago that uses the CTA has been aware that they have proposed a fare hike for riders starting on September 16, 2007. They are proposing a lot of fixing and modernization of the train lines and buses. (much like the Brown Line Renovations going on now) I can say from first hand experience that the elevated trains and subways need some fixing. The cars have a lot of issues with door sensors going off and not recognizing that they are closed, and the train can’t move until the door sensors say all the doors are closed. I have sat for a half hour some days watching them open and close the doors on the train at a random stop because the sensors say one is open. They have to walk through the whole train checking them all personally beore they can continue driving the train. This holds up all the passengers for 15-30 minutes plus all the trains behind it on the Green Line. And so much for keeping a schedule. 

Governor Rod Blagojevich and the State of Illinois could pass a bill to give the CTA the money for this modernization and overhaul but it has not been approved as of today September 4th. If it is granted, the extra revenue for these CTA projects may come from a sales tax increase. Cook County already pays a very high rate of 9% sales tax. I am not sure which is worse, a afre hike or another .5% on everything I buy? In that case, maybe the fare hike is the better way to go because its about $15 dollars more a month for a 30 day pass v.s. more than that on the other things that I buy and need for every day life. Everyone is facing the same hike, so people who are low income, would be looking at the same financial choices. 

Most of the stations are aging somewhat but a larger concern is that on the Blue Line there are a lot of stops that don’t have any handicapped wheelchair access. They have stairs only, no ramps or elevators are built for these stations, so people in wheelchairs just can’t use them.  With the Olympics possibly being voted and approved for Chicago in 2016, we will need these renovations anyway, so we will either pay for it now or later.

Buses on the other hand seem to work better, although they pollute a lot more. (ever breathed behind a bus? it’s like eating a cigarette) They also seem to keep to a schedule at least part of the time. The el doesn’t seem to adhere to any schedule I have seen. The other issue I have seen with the trains is the way they take corners. They almost tip the train over when they take corners on the track so fast on the Brown Line. A few years ago an Orange Line train actually fell off the tracks on a corner, but apparently everyone has forgotten about this since then because they start and stop these trains with such a jolt that if you are standing at all you will be knocked over. Why not just slow down a bit and take it easy? The CTA would be safer for everyone.

This is the letter I got from them by email today:

Dear Valued Chicago Card Plus Customer:

Due to insufficient state funding, the Chicago Transit Authority Board recently approved a contingency plan which includes changes to CTA service and fares. Without additional funding, this contingency plan will take effect on September 16, 2007. Customers who pay with cash or Transit Cards and use the CTA weekdays will pay higher fares at rail stations and on buses (depending on the time of day they ride). Fares will also increase for customers who use Chicago Card® and Chicago Card Plus®. Visit TransitChicago.com to learn more about CTA’s 2007 fare changes.

Under this plan, beginning September 16, the fare for Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus customers will increase from $1.75 to $2.00 per ride, and 25¢ for a transfer (which allows two additional rides within two hours of issuance), regardless of the time of day. However, the bonus structure currently in place will remain, providing a $2 bonus for every $20 of Pay-Per-Use value added to an account. The cost of a 30-day unlimited Chicago Card Plus card will also increase from $75.00 to $84.00.

If the fare change goes into effect on September 16, the new $2.00 fare will be deducted from your Pay-Per-Use Chicago Card Plus account. Those who use the Chicago Card Plus 30-day unlimited ride pass, and whose reload occurs on or after September 16, will be charged the new rate of $84.00 on their accounts.

So unless the Governor approves the new funding we will all be facing more costs for basic public transportation in the city. As if high gas prices weren’t taxing enough!  I end up paying for parking, gas, insurand AND the CTA. And everything keeps going up every year. I guess the only solution is to live and work at locations close to each other so you don’t have to take any form of transportation very far.

Update: The Governor has not approved the funds needed to stave off the CTA fare increase and they will go up on Sunday September 16, 2007 as planned. Rush hour fares will be more expensive. If you have flex time, now might be the time to take advantage of it and adjust your work schedule to an earlier or later arrival and departure to avoid the highest fares.

Update 2: Last night 9/10/2007 the Green Line I was on couldn’t even get the doors to close or open. The one door was open about 3 inches the whole time, and the train goes up to 75 mph at times. I think this shows real time that these trains need maintenance more than ever. See picture of the doors on the left.  

Update 3: The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the CTA has accepted a 24 Million dollar funding advance from 2008 funding from Governor Blagojevich on 9/12/2007. This keeps rates at the same level now and all the service routes running that would have been cut, but only temporarily. This covers things until November 4th, 2007. A more permanent decision will have to be made about funding from the state of Illinois or prices and fares will go up and 39 routes will be cut as originally planned.

Update 4: I got this email below from the CTA about trying to get the funds from the State of Illinois by the new November Deadline.

Dear Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus Users:I am writing to inform you that the fare and service changes scheduled for September 16th have been postponed. This means that the cost of your passes and fares will not increase on Sunday, and any routes scheduled for elimination will continue to operate.However, the temporary loan of $24 million provided by the State postpones these changes for less than two months. On November 4th, if the Illinois General Assembly has not acted, we will be forced to increase fares and reduce service.