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Authorities across the country are leaning on promotions and price cuts in an attempt to recover lost ridership with the rise of remote work during the pandemic. The Chicago Transit Authority has lowered its 30-day full fare pass by about 29%.
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Audio and summary Illinois bill would override local law to allow homeless living in all public parks – Wirepoints
April 14, 2026
27 Comments
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago Fiscal Crisis Worse Than Pre-Bankruptcy Detroit, HIV Surge and Public Health Threat From Open Borders Goes Unreported
April 10, 2026
2 Comments
Summary and audio linked here.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades
April 3, 2026
9 Comments
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times falsely blame Texas Gov. Abbott for 2020 to 2024 surge in Chicago Latino HIV, AIDS infections – Wirepoints Quickpoint
March 31, 2026
11 Comments
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
People are simply following CDC guidance and staying home. What could go wrong?
Funneling 1,000,000+ people from far flung areas into the loop 5x a week is a terrible idea from an urban planning perspective. Especially for commuters with children, they need to live 15+ miles and farther from downtown for a decent public school because of CTU control of Chicago schools. It took me about an hour to get downtown – door to door – and I live 18 miles straight west of the city. The Chicago metro area is just too big and too sprawling to efficiently shuffle millions of people into a central business district during business hours. Full time… Read more »
The longer that work from home continues, the less likely the 5 days a week commute comes back anytime soon. Let’s also factor in the coming recession layoffs. Companies stuck with too much space downtown probably can’t wait until their leases are up so they can downsize or move to the suburbs. The savings for these companies will be huge.
Kastle data showing Chicago with only a 42% attendance rate.
https://www.kastle.com/safety-wellness/getting-america-back-to-work/
I heard a statistic just the other day that puts U.S. office occupancy at 43% of the pre-covid high. Probably not a good time to be an office building owner, especially in a central business district of a large metropolitan area.
That’s probably the Kastle data. They run security swipe card systems in many buildings nationwide.
To your point, how many people from Naperville, Schaumburg, Orland Park, Joliet, Elmhurst, etc. want to ride a train from their relatively safe and quiet neighborhoods to the Loop and risk getting robbed, assaulted, shot, or all three? Especially if you have to take the CTA to your office.
Might as well stay home and stay safe.
You mean constant mask fear porn doesn’t sell, particularly when there are other options? Who knew?
Progressive ideas invariably produce unintended consequences, because progressives have no grasp on reality. They believe the world will conform to their wishes, and all they need are good intentions. Then when the inevitable bad results happen, they simply cook up more ridiculous schemes to fix the problems they created in the first place.
Went past the Relatively new Orland Park Metra station yesterday. The expanded parking area, able to handle hundreds of cars, had only 12 cars in the lot. Covid has changed work habits and expenditures like Commuter stations funded by credit debt become white elephants leading to higher property taxes on a diminishing base who can’t afford to move out.
Lots of supply and diminishing demand. I doubt price cuts will offset the well-founded fear of felons. Big city public transit runs mostly empty, piloted by career civil servants counting the days until retirement. At least they get paid to be on the bus! Perhaps it’s time to pay the riders.
Former Chicago Commuters — Now Working From Home — ARE NEVER, EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER WITH CRIME-INFESTED TRANSIT