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About 150,000 suburbanites come to the Loop daily on Metra or Pace. That leaves 4.8 million for whom transit is pretty much irrelevant. It's one thing to convince suburban transit representatives to improve or extend Metra service, to add Pace shuttles, perhaps even to improve downtown CTA service. But persuading them to run owl service on South Side crosstown routes, or to invest in Ashland BRT?
It's fine to make theoretical arguments about how the suburbs owe their very existence to the center city, but politics is the art of the possible. The suburbs have far more population, far more jobs, and contribute far more tax revenue to transit. And that pesky Supreme Court has allowed them to have their own state representatives, who won't be too keen to vote for a new regional transit agency run by the city. |
^. How does the MTA work in New York, politically? They have the same proportion of city dwellers vs suburbanites
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In reality, if the MTA was one regional transportation agency, there wouldn't be a distinction between LIRR and MetroNorth, PATH and NJTT would be better integrated into the system, and there wouldn't be redundancy in staffing (legal, HR, planning, etc) between each sub-agency. The MTA is really a one-off. Maybe I'm off, but from my casual observations, things seem to work this way. |
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The best way to justify the split is to use international standards of what kinds of transit get created in various densities and then split the money based on which areas have those kinds of densities. The split can be variable after every Census estimate and areas that have existing service higher than their density warrants can either pay out of their own budgets the difference or submit a 10-year plan to rezone and promote growth to bring the area up toward the required density. This would not only be objective and fair, it would give Chicago a huge mandate and incentive to invest in the South Side, because losing the Green Line would be a huge political blow to any mayor. It would also help justify appropriate construction of subways where they objectively make sense - in the Central Area - instead of extending them further and further away from the population center. In other words, basing it on density would not only be objective and fair, it would encourage positive planning instead of the obtuse aldermanic abuse of zoning we currently suffer from. |
Politically, Cook County government could be a useful intermediary between city and suburb... They already have a close relationship (like ~100 feet lol) and at the county level, Chicago is dominant with just over half the total population but not the only thing. Cook County revenues account for about 70% of total receipts. Plus, Cook County suburbs tend to be denser and more transit-friendly on average.
This gets at Mr D's plan to roughly expand the CTA to cover all of Cook County (minus the northwest panhandle) and therefore claim almost all of Cook County's tax revenue. Metra's share of Cook County money would decrease substantially but the city itself would begin to remit some money to Metra on the condition of improved service on Metra Electric, Rock Island and other Chicago segments . Notably, Toni Preckwinkle has come out strongly in favor of CrossRail Chicago and Transit Future, two visions that focus strongly on expanding good transit beyond the city limits. |
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Also, I'm not suggesting that poverty be foisted upon the denizens of the suburbs, I'm suggesting that an equal or greater portion of our social burden be borne by them. Anyone who disagrees is supporting a system of thinly veiled bigotry. Quote:
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To me the question i toss around most is ...is it to late already to change the broken model of suburban sprawl? When does this not become feasible anymore? The system is set up for complete reliance on the automobile and there really is no alternative if you live in the suburb. Despite what many of us may want...the suburbs are not going anywhere and retooling them away from cars i think is impossible. They are a huge waste of resources...maintaining the roads, sewers, power....the paving over of productive land, the endless waste of resources. My theory is that Eisenhowers Interstate Highway System plan is the true downfall of america...it forever signed in blood our dependence on the automobile and unknowingly launched the plague of suburbia on us all. END RANT
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Transportation geek that I am, I feel obligated to point out that Eisenhower had almost nothing to do with creating the Interstate Highway System—and to note that much of Northeastern Illinois's superhighway network was already under construction when Ike signed the 1956 bill. Suburban development was already roaring full speed ahead in the Chicago region by 1930, and the city approved its comprehensive system of superhighways in 1939.
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Wanting your tax money to be spent locally = RACISM. NOT wanting your tax money to be wasted on stupid pet projects = RACISM. Wanting to live in a peaceful area with a little space to breathe = RACISM. NOT wanting to live in an area infested with gangs and drugs = RACISM. NOT wanting your children to attend schools that do a lousy job educating them = RACISM. Living in the suburbs = RACISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wait until my many non-white neighbors find out about this! Lot's of luck with all your pipe-dreams ever getting funded when you insult the majority of people in the region. |
Let me fix this for you:
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Amalgamation would be almost impossible to achieve, but let's set that aside for a moment. The result would be the same thing, just with different names.
A MetroChicago government would have to have (for constitutional reasons) geographic districts of equal population. So immediately you have the same thing: six city councillors representing the former suburbs and three representing the old city of Chicago. Only now they're on completely equal footing, making the same arguments as a current alderman: why does Lincoln Park-Edgewater get 18 different bus routes when Carol Stream-Bloomingdale only has one? And when will that rail line connecting Bolingbrook and Plainfield finally be built? Let's abandon a couple of the little-used Old South Side lines and put that money to better use . . . . |
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I'm sorry to report that your "social envy-injustice disease" is terminal. :( |
^^^ Lol, I'm about as libertarian/right wing as they get on these boards and even I can see the problems. Why is it that you cant?
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Does anyone have any insight into why CTA bus ridership is plummeting? Rail ridership is growing quite nicely still.
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Ventra. It's no longer possible for poor people to transfer from one bus line to another, which of course used to count as two boardings.
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