Chicago area transit agency budgets bank on more federal help in 2021 – The Bond Buyer
Wirepoints Original Stories
Illinois’ COVID-19 data: Daily update for Jan. 21, 2021 – Wirepoints
Daily COVID-19 data update for January 21, 2021. Includes new data on vaccinations in Illinois.
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How Illinois can save more lives by vaccinating the elderly first and how the inconsistency of Illinois’ lockdown rules create more chaos – Wirepoints on AM 560’s The Morning Answer
Ted was on AM 560's The Morning Answer this week talking about how Illinois can save more lives by giving the elderly the COVID vaccine before any other group, the inconsistency of Illinois' destructive lockdown rules, and how Illinois' leadership doesn't appear to have any real plan to bring the COVID crisis to an end.
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The Feds may force well-run states to bail out Illinois, Iawmakers’ emboldened spending, and Pritzker’s failed $500 million business tax hike. – Wirepoints on AM560’s Black and Right with John Anthony
Ted was on Black and Right with John Anthony this week talking about the how the Biden stimulus will ultimate force taxpayers in well-run states to pay for Illinois' self-inflicted crises, how Madigan's departure might hasten Illinois' decline because big-spending politicians have more power, and lawmakers' failure to pass Pritzker's $500 million tax hike on businesses.
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Want to save more Illinoisans from COVID? Vaccinate the elderly first. – Wirepoints
Now that vaccines are finally available, Pritzker is including a host of “essential workers,” at the same level of priority as the elderly and calling it an “equity-centric vaccination approach.” It’s a huge mistake to give all those groups equal priority.
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Proposal To Expand CTU Strike Power Would Betray History – Wirepoints
Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, it’s often said. But what can we say about undoing a history lesson already learned?
This is how it works…. Buildup a huge infrastructure that is neither scalable up or down, hire a tone of unionized employees with pensions and then, when the world changes, pay in perpetuity.
Federal help? Alaska, Nebraska, South Dakota, Idaho, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Utah, North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. The top ten states with money. Look at the 2020 election map. Can anyone tell me what they all have in common?
Anyone?
CTA and Pace should die and be replaced. All they do is raise fares and cut service almost yearly. They suck. ☹️
I think at this point it is probably best to just consolidate all of what is remaining in Chicago into the Loop. It can be transformed into a giant homeless shelter / BLM meetup space. The only transportation service can be the L’ train, but it should be limited to going in circles around the loop, that way it is easier for the people to loot each other.
Screw em. Chicago better be nice to commuters. We can work remotely now.
Exactly!
Yup, the city will never fill all those buildings again, even after herd immunity. Anyone who has worked from home through all this, regained 10 to 20 hours a week back of life not commuting. Thats 1 to 2 weeks a month, and they can flex their home work life balance, at home. Teachers see this now too, does anyone really think teachers are returning to a life of schlepping themselves to a school everyday? Not with this union, teachers are home forever too, good luck getting them back without big raises. All that office space will be available as… Read more »
I’ve been saying much the same thing regarding the future work place for last months or so. We’re finally starting to see that its not necessarily so essential that all employees need to work in an office building. There will be great push back even when the current coronavirus problem subsides for employers failing to know when its essential and when it isn’t if they want to employ and hitch their futures to the best job candidates rather than simply the more compliant ones.
Yes and a big incentive to attracting the best talent will be offering commuter-free work, live in the Caymens 24/7, work in NYC. This incentive will further reduce the need for companies to lease skyscrapers.
Yest, that’s exactly how I see it. Let me add its about time to leave the 20th century ideas of where to work and how to work behind us wherever it makes sense to do so. Its a brand new world out there if we’re only bright enough to see the new possibilities it allows.
The big buildings downtown are obsolete, remote office workers by the millions are proving that daily. There is no need to transport massive numbers of office workers to skyscrapers just so they can sit close to each other. It is definitely the time to cut Metra schedule, sell assets, reduce staff. The hundreds of thousand or so workers commuting from the burbs in and out of Chicago is silly, and companies won’t be able to “compel” them back either because there is no objective evidence their work is suffering.
Cut all state and federal workers by half.
Cut all pensions past, present and future by half.
Make all state and Chicago workers pay Social Security and live on that like the rest of us have to.
If the number of people working in downtown will be lower by roughly 30%, even after a vaccine, shouldn’t these agencies be planning spending cuts? If the recovery is stronger, they can add back then?
It’s a conundrum. If you cut transit, you risk not having those riders come back and any future growth. For example, a few of my suburban co-workers lost their express Metra service during the pandemic, making for a much longer commute. So although our downtown office partially re-opened, they continue to work from home because they just added an hour to an already long commute. Cut transit too much and you’re left with less paying customers on more crowded trains, which doesn’t help keep the virus in check either. Begrudgingly, if mass transit is to survive, it is going to… Read more »
Enough with endless Fed bailout stuff, it’s the ongoing dream of those that can’t grasp that Nothing is Free.
The scamdemic impositions and market super-distortions caused by idiot leaders in the name of health caused this breakdown and budget crashes. Let the market and only the market of whatever demand returns for transit determine what does and does not recover.
The market rules in the end — trying to sidestep it is an ongoing grave dig.