🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <g%V98.75524$Mo3.5397712@bin3.nnrp.aus1.giganews.com>,
Little Bird <RTAPolitics@YourTaxes.gov> wrote:
>Why do suburban taxpayers contribute 85 percent to RTA and CTA
> and Metra and only 15 percent to Pace Suburban bus?
>
>Why do suburban taxes subsidize CTA & Metra city transit?
>Don't suburbanites care about transit for kids afterschool?
>Do suburbanites want other ways to get to work?
>Do suburbs not care about pollution?
>Do suburban mayors make good stories?
>
>No, the Tribuen is the lap dog of Mayor Daily, and hell, the Tribune editors
>don't ride public transit if they can help it.  Just the rich-kid Metra
>trains maybe.  Did you ever notice that Metra trains go high-speed through
>less expensive suburbs? Maybe its to keep the stench of thos poor people off
>the rich commuters.  Rich suburbs have Metra stops, sometimnes two!  The
>public transit innovation dollars end at O'hare.

Nice riff dude!

The creation of Metra was one of the greatest of the late
Mayor Dailey's accomplishments.  City and state politicos
put forward a referedum to create Metra during the dark
days of the the first 'gas crisis.'   The referendum was
held on the same day for all counties and the sum-total
results were binding on all counties.  Why any of the
suburban war-lords bought into this, we'll never know.

The referendum results, which I'm fabricating, went
something like this:
	County           For      Against
	--------      --------  ---------
	Lake            2,000     120,000
	DuPage         11,000     210,000
	Kane            7,000     130,000
	Will            3,000      90,000
	McHenry         1,000      50,000
	Cook        3,000,000     100,000
                   ----------  ----------
	total       3,000,000+    500,000+

So, the Mayor got the suburbanites to bail out his
patronage-ridden (at the time) CTA and threw in a
few bones like Pace buses in the collar counties.
In hindsight, the Metra train network, has actually
improved service and ridership, after some initial
losses.

Scott Abderhalden