CTA Tattler

The more I see Huberman act, the more impressed I am. His straight talk and actions have helped me feel more confident about the CTA's future than any soundbite of his predecessor. I know a lot of disgruntled riders seem to hold him personally responsible for the mess the CTA is in, and I like how he hasn't waffled, double-spoke, or made ambiguous statements to the contrary.

It seems to me that he's saying that as the head of the CTA, the ultimate responsibility for the changes and repairs are his, but he'll hold his people accountable for their responsibilities as well.

Huberman's already shown that he's a good manager, I just hope that he's given enough time to show that he can be an effective leader.

I liked the quote in the Tribune article:

"It's what they do with the money they have that concerns me," said Grace Graham, 58, of Rogers Park as she waited to board the Red Line at Berwyn. "The government needs to step in and do an audit. If they are doing the right thing, they need more funding. If they're not doing the right thing, they need to clean house."

Yeah, we should really get the government to come do an audit. That's the missing piece. /sarcasm

Just shows how badly either the CTA or the media (or both) have been at presenting the facts.

I'm optimistic about Huberman so far. Given CTA management's record, he has an enormous mountain to climb, but seems to be chipping away at it as well as anyone could expect -- especially since he's at the mercy of the worthless fools in Springfield. And I kinda believe that he really does care about having excellent public transportation in Chicago again.

I'm long past making any bets about things working out for the best in Illinois, but if we can dump Blago, Madigan, and Jones for starters, the CTA/RTA might just have a chance.

Oh, and the Trib made no mention of the audit in that article--so they made no effort to correct the misinformed quote.

Huberman appears, based on not much time on the job, to be infinitely preferable to Frank Kruesi. So what? Kruesi didn't build useless superstations while ignoring track maintenance because he came independently to the conclusion that doing so was a good idea. He did so because Richie Daley told him to, so that the Walshes and W.E. O'Neils of the world could make lost of money building useless superstations. Hiberman will do exactly the same thing when push comes to shove - remember who appointed him.

I was mad at the time Huberman was installed as CTA president that Daley didn't even pretend to do a national search for a transit professional. I guess I still am a bit, but Huberman's attitude and right-minded perspective have made me a fan of his. I've also decided that no transit professional in their right mind would last long or be able to accomplish much given the political climate and patronage staffing here in Chicago. I have this image of someone starting at 8am and being on the next plane to Dallas or LA or wherever he/she came from by lunchtime.

While I still refuse to jump wholeheartedly on the "Huberman will save us all" bandwagon (after all, Kreusi had a decent start as well), I must say I have been pleased so far. The man does seem to learn from his mistakes (July's problems come to mind). I think he might be able to come up with a decent management plan/budget/whatever-you-want-to-call-it with a little time & some cooperation that won't call for massive bailouts every other year. That would be the advantage of having a more business-minded background over transit only. Fingers are crossed...

Josh--was that you on the Trib's comment board for that article? Someone pointed out the exact same thing there about the audit!

Um, Kreusi WAS a transportation "professional". He was assistant secretary of transportation policy. The guy before him, if I recall correctly was a top airline exec. May the gods save us from "professionals".

Dee--nope, not me. I'm slightly encouraged to hear that other people pointed out the lazy reporting as well.

Accusations of CTA inefficiency makes good copy, so the Trib ran with it. Too bad there already was an audit.

Davey, please re-read my post and note that I specified *transit* professional- meaning someone from public train and/or bus agencies. "Domestic transportation" for the federal government, a la Kruesi, is not the same thing.

Patrick, you're right, sorry. But where would you find such transit professionals? Not in the CTA, I assume. So would we really want some deputy head of the NYC transit system, say? DC is said to have a really nice system, but they pour federal money into it. We could go outside the US, I suppose, but any European or Canadian would be shredded in Chicago after about 3 minutes. I don't know of any transit system success stories except the ones that are much better funded.

That's exactly what I'm saying: no sensible upper management person- from, say, SanFran, LA, or even Seattle or Portland- to say nothing of someone international- would come here because the political red tape would never allow them to get anything accomplished. I have no doubt that there are plenty of young, willing people up for the challenge; it's just that if they ever got a chance here (a GIANT if), they'd tire quickly of being handcuffed on anything progressive.

"Oh, and the Trib made no mention of the audit in that article--so they made no effort to correct the misinformed quote."

The Tribune has a habit of doing that. Several months ago they reported that people complained at some public meeting that they could have saved time reconstructing the brown line stations by doing a significant amount of the work somewhere else. But all they did was mention that people complained about it. They made no effort to investigate if this was feasible or even get comments from the CTA as to why it was not. I don't know very much about construction but it does seem to be a stretch that this would be possible. I generally don't see that occuring with anything being constucted anywhere. But if the Tribune was going to mention those comments, basic good journalism dictates that they should have found out if this could or could not have happened and if it could (which I doubt) determine why it wasn't done.

Wow. How soon we forget. Kreusi was hailed as a saviour, too. After about the same amount of time in the position, he was being looked upon as the greatest thing to hit the CTA in 40 years.

So let's see... Huberman spins things well. He acts like he's in charge. He's even fired a couple of scapegoats, who will probably get their jobs back next year, along with some backpay.

Kreusi did a better job of holding off doomsday. Under his watch, it didn't come down to the last two days for a solution.

So the CTA is being run by a guy who doesn't know a damn thing about transportation management, and nearly became known as the guy on who's watch doomsday finally came. And he still might!

He's still in the honeymoon phase. That gives him a chance to do all kinds of pandering moves that will ultimately cause more harm than Kreusi ever caused.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that when the Springfield bail-out failed, Huberman refused to leave a reading circle in at an elementary school someplace.

Eventually the rose colored glasses are going to come off, and folks here will be calling for Huberman's head with more enthusiasm than they ever called for Kreusi's head.

The CTA needs someone with experience in something other than political hackery. Sound-bites, and holding a few scapegoats responsible is comperable to painting a wall without first cleaning it. It looks good for a short while, but eventually it's going to look worse than ever.

Huberman is not the right man for the job. Never was. Never will be.

"Kreusi did a better job of holding off doomsday. Under his watch, it didn't come down to the last two days for a solution."

That is a pretty strange comment. Why would you want to hold the president of the CTA responsible for when the legislature decides to give the agency a band-aid? It is clear that the legislature is not capable of acting unless there is enormous public pressure. And they are obviously functioning even worse this year because there is a governor who seems to be going mad. They didn't even pass a budget until months after they were supposed to. Why would you attribute this to who the CTA president is?

"So the CTA is being run by a guy who doesn't know a damn thing about transportation management, and nearly became known as the guy on who's watch doomsday finally came. And he still might!"

I almost wish that the doomsday did occur (and that the cuts would be more extensive) so that it could have got the legislature's attention enough for them to get the whole thing over with. I don't know why you think Huberman would be viewed negatively if that happens. He'd be known as the person who finally got the legislature to do what it needed to do.

"He's still in the honeymoon phase. That gives him a chance to do all kinds of pandering moves that will ultimately cause more harm than Kreusi ever caused."

Pandering moves? Examples please?

Rusty:
Yes, he is still new, but it's not fair to compare him to Kruesi's term. Pick another argument, please.

Huberman may turn out well or he might be a big failure. I don't see the point in writing doom and gloom based on no evidence at all. Or of pre-blaming him for the follies of the Three Asswipes in Springfield, Blago, Madigan, and Jones. Playing musical chairs with CTA officials will make little difference because the CTA is not the problem. If you want to do something relevant, work on putting the Three As out of work ASAP -- and I say that as a lifelong Democrat.

Amen to that, Davey, especially the mad boy-governor. Not that I'm nuts about the other two--how does Jones keep getting re-elected when he's so ready to sell out his constituents?--but at least they have a normal amount of rationality in their makeup and, with a Governor Whitney or Governor Topinka to deal with, would have come up with some short-sighted and flawed, but liveable, plan long before now.

I'm a Democrat too, been one since I came of voting age in 1971, but I am pinning my hopes these days on Governor G-Nad being indicted, the sooner the better. It's an awful thing to say, and I wish there were some way it could happen without the pain it will bring to his daughters, but since the voters of Illinois refuse to use the brains God gave us--I emphatically include my fellow Democrats, who had not one but two chances to throw the bum out last year--that's the only thing that will save us from ourselves.

In the longer term, we need to start pressing for reforms, probably including amendments to the state constitution, so that, among other things, power is more evenly distributed in the legislature. There are a number of smart, capable senators and representatives in Springfield who are prepared to bring some honesty and competence to government and address the state's problems like grownups (what a concept!), but as I understand it they are hobbled by the troika's stranglehold on power.