During the record snowfall, the lives of hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans were disrupted when they were unable to get around the city in their cars. But throughout the storm, the CTA was open for business with only relatively minor disruptions in service. If you needed to get somewhere in Chicago for several days last week, the CTA was your best, and sometimes only, option. Since digging out from the storm, Chicagoans are now learning that the cleanup will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million dollars. Just for the sake of perspective, this amount equals more than 30 times the amount of money the City contributes to the CTA annually ($3 million). While plowing and keeping Chicago’s roads safe for travel is an essential duty of our government and must be performed no matter the cost, an equally compelling argument can be made that maintenance and investment in the CTA is just as important and should be funded accordingly. If any of the many candidates running for office across the city were to make this argument, my guess is that they’d receive substantial support from the hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans who rely on the CTA.
— Barry Owen, Edgewater
