Even more worrying to me are the cuts to CTA, Metra, and Pace, agencies that perpetually struggled since the economic downturn of 2001 and have already endured nearly catastrophic cuts in bus and train service, despite large portions of the metro area being underserved to begin with. Repairs have continued on the decaying and unsafe traintracks, and the bus fleet has been upgraded, and these feats are certainly a testament to the fiscal ingenuity of RTA management, and a direct argument against those who say government agencies can't help but be bloated, wasteful, and ineffecient.
Now we see that the estimated cuts to the RTA are not $105,000,000 annually as first reported, but closer to $130 million, which is a substantial 7 percent of the operating budget.
As a CTA rider I am adamant that the CTA needs more, not less funding, and that finding budgetary savings in this area is in effect a tax on poor and underprivileged urban populations.
I would love to see CTA riders protest directly. CTA train cars and platforms, in particular, already function as ad hoc performance spaces, so why not engage there?
A number of my friends got involved in a massive "train takeover" in December to protest the deaths of Eric Garner and Mike Brown:
Train Takeover by Activists, Artists is New Take on Recent Protests
Isn't it appropriate to use this venue to stage bold political theatre that takes direct aims at Rauner and his plutocratic agenda?
Wow! Great idea. How would you organize such a protest? What kind of theatrical approaches would you take?
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