CTA Tattler

And this is the same agency that in today's RedEye/Trib "swears" to address bus and train air conditioning complaints immediately? {shakes head}

Gross. Poor pigeon, though.

Couldn't someone just bring a pair of rubber gloves with them to/from work, pick the thing up and throw it into the nearest trash can (or, failing the availability of one, some place less heavily traveled)? Seriously, people, the CTA has seen worse.

Im not sure, but if I had to guess I would say thatd ead carcas removal has been relegated to every other week in an effort to reduce the operating costs of the CTA. If they were to remove dead carcasses any sooner, we would all face a fare hike!

It's one thing to say, "we don't have the money to pay for someone to stand around and wait for something to clean." I can even understand "we don't have the money for people to patrol for maintenance problems." And I can even understand prioritizing the problems that they are aware of.

However, health and safety hazards should be addressed as a top priority. That is, once they were notified that there was a dead, rotting, vermin corps in that stairwell, it should have been handled within two hours.

If the parking vendor was responsible for the work, then there should also be a system in place to ensure that all work orders sent are addressed in a timely manner.

Not only is it horrifying that health and safety issues aren't being handled properly. It's horrifying that there isn't a working system set-up to address these issues.

If a janitor walked by, and didn't handle it, then it's a janitorial problem as well. But that still doesn't excuse the management issue. When a problem like that is reported, it should be logged by whoever is receiving the complaints, and passed on to someone for action. There should be some reconciliation of the intial report, and a completed work order.

The fact that it could be reported multiple times through channels that the CTA encourages people to use to report things, and that there is no system in place to ensure that the complaint was addressed and resolved (and who, allegedly resolved it) is a clear indication that the day-to-day operations of CTA are failing.

There should be a way to trace how the complaint was handled after it was recieved, and who the last person in the chain is. And even if that last person is a contractor's employee, the contractor should be held responsible, and the contractor should be holding their employee responsible.

If that kind of accountability isn't built into the management systems, then the big question comes back to just what are the managers being paid for if not to be accountable.

If it had only been reported once, that could have been a fluke. But it was reported multiple times, and that report disappeared into a management black-hole each time until a reporter for the daily newspaper reported it. That is a clear indication that some house cleaning needs to be done in management even more urgently than it needs to be done in the stairwells.

Warren, remember that it's the CTA - the Chicago Trifling Authority, and most of the time they don't care. Sad to say, but it's true.

Tim, that may be true, but that doesn't mean it's acceptable.

I think the crucial question regarding the CTA is always 'What can we do to MAKE them accountable?' It should infuriate all taxpayers that their money is being thrown away in order to pay legions of 'managers' who only manage to make a good living while either doing no work or doing whatever work they perform incompetently.

The apathy of Chicagoans has allowed the CTA to continue to provide shoddy service.

They said in the article Standard Parking is responsible running the lot. Let's see if anything happens to Standard Parking.

Today, November 24, 2008, someone broke into my car at one of the Forest Park blue line parking lots located on 711 S. Des Plaines Ave. After paying the required $3 parking fee, I parked my car and proceeded to go to school at about 11:45am. After the train ride back from school, around 6:43, I walked towards my car and noticed that my headlights where on and after getting closer noticed my car was running. I called for a near by CTA worker and explained that someone had broken into my car and turned it on, her responds was “call the cops, that that has nothing to do with CTA.” So I did, when the cops arrived they examined my car took pictures and checked for finger prints but where unable to retrieve any. So, I asked the police officer what can I do, and he said the CTA was responsible. I proceeded to tell him the lady had told me it had nothing to do with them, CTA, he said yeah they would, they don’t want to get sued.

I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a little security, this particular parking lot has 1051 parking spaces, which by experience I could say commuters utilize all the spaces plus end up parking in areas they shouldn’t because there are no more spaces. Plus, as commuters leave others arrive. At a fee of $3 per car I think CTA can install a security system.

Now, what do I expect the CTA to do about my car being broken into and nearly stolen? Not a thing, which is totally unfair. My entire steering wheel has to be replaced an addition to one of the car door locks. The only reason they were unsuccessful in taking off with the car is due to my steering wheel locking.