Only in America: Hilton gets an early release
I am completely amazed that Paris Hilton has been released from jail after serving nearly no time for her offense. Yes, I realize that she will be under house arrest, but please tell me how being locked up in a mansion is any type of punishment?
Our judicial system is flawed, broken and definitely skewed to favor the rich and famous. Rest assured, if I were in her circumstance, I would still be looking at cinder-block walls and counting down the days from 23.
This situation just proves that the punishment only fits the crime when you don’t have the money or power to avoid the consequences all together. I am slightly more embarrassed to be an American today than I was yesterday.
Mike Risse, 32, Lakeview
Don’t raise cab fares …just improve the service
Declining to take immediate action on the cabbie surcharge plan is one of the smartest things I’ve seen the Chicago aldermen do recently (“Cabbie conundrum,” June 7).
While I’m still up in arms about the foolish decision to ban the sale of foie gras [which I still have high hopes will be repealed soon and end this degrading chapter in Chicago’s lawbooks], I have faith that the aldermen will make a sane decision on this cab fare increase — the sane decision being to NOT do it.
What the cab drivers are requesting is, for the most part, a 10 percent fare increase on average. They attribute this to gas prices, which we all know go up and down — even if the end [result of the] up-and-down is generally increasing. What the cabbies aren’t proposing is a 10 percent increase in general service — failing to make it worth my extra 10 percent in fare.
I don’t know about the rest of the city, but I take a cab, on average, three or four times a month. And 95 percent of the time, I have had a cabbie whose poor English skills or poor direction/driving skills have resulted in me having to pay extra.
Sometimes it’s as simple as suggesting they turn left, and they ignore me or turn right. Sometimes it’s as bad as saying “Wallace” (and spelling it) and I’m taken to “Wells.” In the end, customers shouldn’t be footing the bill for a service just because a product they use starts costing more.
A rise in price means we’re less likely to pay for it ourselves and more likely to pay for someone else’s service to do it. Cabbies shouldn’t get a 10 percent increase in fare — they’re already getting an increase in customers who don’t want to drive because they’d be paying extra for gas.
And now that they’ve got extra business, maybe they should increase their service and performance by 10 percent and try to satisfy those extra customers.
Aaron Samuels, 23, Bridgeport
CTA should bail itself out and quit looking for handouts
I was very surprised to read the e-mail replies to the article requesting that we should write to our politicians [so] that Springfield funds the CTA shortfall (“CTA riders have new target in sight,” June 5 column by Kyra Kyles). All the responses were on the same side of the argument.
I ride the CTA every day and I still think this is ridiculous. This harkens back to every college kid calling mom and dad when they need more cash because they can’t make their budget work.
I have worked for the state government in Springfield, and any agency, including the CTA, needs discipline with respect to spending money and running their operations. The CTA will never learn to manage their business if they are bailed out every year. They need to assess their entire operation, charge market-sustainable rates, dispose of money-losing endeavors as appropriate.
Put the CTA’s house in order and stop the threats.
Nicholas Lopez, 40, Oak Park
