Was it a boycott or
were area legislators just too busy to attend the Chicago Transit Authority's
press conference last Thursday, announcing the city's new bus routes?
"None of us were
there," said State Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, D-9th, among the legislators who
snubbed the press conference because of their dissatisfaction with the CTA on
the city's deteriorating viaducts.
And CTA President
Frank Kruesi may have thrown more fuel on their anger, denying that the CTA had
ever made a commitment to fix all six of the city's viaducts.
At the press
conference, held in front of the Davis Street commuter station, Kruesi
maintained that the CTA only gave assurances to rebuild the Main Street
viaduct, and would get to the others as money becomes available.
CTA officials had
called a press conference nearly four years ago - attended by Secretary of
Transportation Kirk Brown, CTA officials, the
Review
and others - announcing plans to use Illinois FIRST funds to repair the
viaducts.
The viaducts, by the
CTA's own estimates, are among the worst in the transit system.
Kruesi denied that a
commitment was ever made by the CTA.
"There was supposedly
a conversation ... a state elected official had with a member of the General
Assembly," he said, "but it was not the CTA. What the CTA committed to, what I
specifically committed to, was to get the viaduct (at Main Street) done and
obviously go forward as much as we can on the others."
While legislators were
not present at last Thursday's press conference, their aides, handed out copies
of a letter from a CTA official Feb. 27 - which the
Review
disclosed earlier - informing Evanston Mayor Lorraine H. Morton that
"initially, design and construction funding for six viaducts in Evanston (Main,
Dempster, Greenleaf, Davis, Church and Grove) was included in the CTA's
2002-2006 Capital Improvement Program.
"During preparation of
the 2003-2007 CIP, however, it became necessary to reprogram resources for the
CIP in order to meet emerging and increased needs across the system," wrote
Suzanne M. Te Beau, the CTA's vice president for government affairs and
affirmative action.
All the city's
legislators or their representatives - had met with Kruesi and other CTA
officials several months ago, pressing the need for repairs of the viaducts.
Schoenberg; U.S. Rep.
Jan Schakowsky, D-9th; State Rep. Julie Hamos, D-18th; and Cook County
Commissioner Lawrence Suffredin, D-13th, said the viaducts rank among the
poorest in the CTA system.
In fact, the 15
viaducts that are regarded in "poorest condition" all fall within Schakowsky's
9th Congressional District, either here or in Chicago.
"My constituents are
facing a dangerous and serious public safety hazard every day the CTA delays
action to renovate viaducts in Evanston and across the system," she said.
Hamos, who is a key
player on regional transportation plans in Springfield, said legislators were
supportive of the CTA and the state's massive Illinois First transportation
program "specifically because we understood that the Evanston community would
benefit greatly through the repair of viaducts," she said.
Schoenberg said that
if Kruesi had said "that the CTA had some unanticipated pressing financial
needs and therefore needed to push back the timing of the viaduct repairs, I
would have been disappointed, but certainly would have understood.
"However, it almost
defies the imagination that four years to the day" from the CTA's announcement
it planned to embark on the viaduct plan, "Mr. Kruesi is attempting to revise
history."
Schoenberg, a key
member Senate Appropriations Committee who also chaired a House Appropriations
committee before being elected to the upper chamber last year, said he was
"furious with the suggestion that there was some sort of misunderstanding."
"Everything else on my
Illinois FIRST list has been either executed or is in the works," he said.
"It's going to take
more than a bus route and pat on the head to satisfy our interests," he said of
legislators' concerns. "The physical safety of our neighbors and those who work
in Evanston is at risk because of the CTA's amnesia."
"The most important
thing is that these viaducts are rebuilt and reconstructed on a priority
basis," he said.
The CTA moved a few
years ago to do some temporary shoring up of the Dempster Street viaduct, where
structural integrity apparently was an issue.
CTA officials
acknowledge that the poor condition of the viaducts has caused slower train
speeds.
At the close of the
press conference, Kruesi, after some brief words from Mayor Lorraine H. Morton,
acknowledged that the Evanston viaducts are among the worst in the CTA system.
"We're anxious to get
work underway, both in the viaducts here and also to improve the quality of
speed of service," he said. "There are a great many of capital needs throughout
the system. Many are concentrated in Evanston, partly because there is so much
concentration of service here."
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