CTA Tattler

Chicago wins congestion-relief funding from feds

New York's loss is Chicago's gain -- Chicago will get $153 million in federal funds for congestion-relief efforts. Those funds had been earmarked for New York until it missed a deadline to apply.

The congestion-relief efforts are two-pronged: a network of express bus routes, and a peak-period pricing system for both garage and metered parking, and for building loading zones that clog streets.
The streets for express bus routes have not been identified yet. But the Tribune reports that Lake Shore Drive could be one. (We should only hope.)

The Trib also reports:

In addition, buses will make fewer stops—four to five blocks apart. Kiosks will be installed at the bus stops to enable passengers to pre-pay their fares and board quickly once the bus arrives.

Technology will be added to some traffic signals to extend green lights for buses running behind schedule, much like the signal-priority equipment that gives the green to ambulances and fire trucks, officials said. Pace has experimented with the technology on Harlem Avenue in the suburbs.

CTA Tattler and readers have often suggested cutting out the number of stops, so that could be a winning idea. And the idea of pre-paying fares is very intriguing.

Here is Crain's report. And the CTA's press release.

UPDATED: Where are the CTA performance metrics?

Last year in my interviews with CTA President Ron Huberman just after he took over his new job, he boasted about how he was tracking CTA performance on key metrics, such as performance against schedule, safety and cleanliness.

At that time, the CTA Web site had listings of current performance indicators. The last post was June 29, 2007. There have been none since.

The Chi-Town Daily News wanted to know why, especially since the CTA's performance has come under fire since the latest Blue Line evacuation.

In their story, the Daily News reports that the CTA is evaluating what is the best information for its customers to have. I think it's fine to evaluate, but continue to post the metrics until you figure it out.

UPDATE: I heard from a CTA spokesperson today on this issue. Her comments:

"Ron Huberman is planning to report on performance metrics to the May board.  With the original metrics, he was not confident that they were all the right ones to be measuring.  He has weekly performance management meetings and has been using those to develop metrics, build data bases so that he can gauge progress (or lack of progress).  He also has wanted time to be sure of the integrity of the data and that is it reported consistently."

Update on CTA wireless alerts

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of great information shared by riders and the CTA on CTA Alerts, the SMS alerts group my brother Dan created.

There's also been some discussion and anger that not all the alerts were necessary. Read this comments thread starting here.

Finally Dan reached out to ChicagoAnchorman and lazynbcfivejunkie to ask them to chill out a bit. Here's his comment:

To Bob S, UPOC Subscriber, et. al: both of the ChicagoAnchorman and lazynbcfivejunkie users are now listed as Inactive on UPOC. I corresponded with these users and each interaction led to the user bailing from UPOC voluntarily (whilst tossing a final epithet my way).

My basic message was that the user(s) obviously had quality information, and I wanted them to stay, but that I would boot them if they continued to argue with others and post too much information.

Apparently neither user was down with those ideas. I am going to forgo new users for a while and see if things cool out.

Fare hike may be necessary this year

Soaring fuel costs and cost of providing free rides for seniors may force the CTA to increase fares this year, despite passage of a huge bailout -- or maybe I should say -- partly because of it.

CTA President Ron Huberman said, ""We're going to attempt to hold the line on any fare increase because certainly we don't want to turn to our customers and their pocket book when it's already tough. But we'll have to wait and see how the year shapes out." He was interviewed on WBBM News Radio 780's "At Issue" program. You can hear it here. Tribune story here.

Disgust. I mean, discuss.

Condolences and prayers for victims of Red Line accident

I think I can speak for all CTA Tattler readers in extending deep condolences and prayers to the families of the two victims of the accident at the Cermak-Chinatown stop, and to the 21 people who were injured.

The Tribune published a heart-wrenching story in today's paper about the two victims.

Weekend CTA update

This weekend the Red Line will be closed in both directions in the subway. More slow zone work.

Wanna drive a bus? Go to Saturday's job fair.

And Blue Line service is suspended between Jefferson Park and Cumberland.

Meanwhile, CTA Tattler will be on the air Friday at 6 pm at WLUW 88.7-FM. My friends at Outside the Loop radio chatted with me about the Blue Line nonsense last week, among other topics. You can check out the podcast later here.

Have a great weekend. And Happy Birthday to my loving wife, Susan.

CTA roundup: CTA pulls video game ad; another CTA photo blog; NYC crush site

Here's a quick roundup on some news and notes that don't merit a full post, but which you may find interesting.

• The CTA last week pulled ads for Grand Theft Auto IV under pressure from Fox News. I find it amusing that Fox News is now the arbiter of good taste. Gimme a break. CTA Tattler commenters are already discussing this here.
• Here's yet another CTA photo blog: R.O.C.K. on the C.T.A .
• And here's a cool blog that has discovered the abandoned CTA.
• The U.S. Public Interest Research Group announces a video contest. "We want you to create your most persuasive video about why we need more and better public transportation. What’s your vision of a 21st century transportation system?"
• Here's the New York transit system's version of Missed Connections: Subway Crush.
• Get some cool L stop buttons here.
• And finally, check out these sneakers that represent all the train lines.

El groping is common problem nationwide; "recidivist transit grinder" arrested in NYC

The arrest early last week of a serial transit groper reminds me that the problem is certainly not just a local one.

Freddie Johnson has been arrested 53 times, mostly for groping or rubbing against women on the New York city subways. Plainclothes police recognized him from a description they had.

So ladies, please report these incidents to the CTA and 911, with detailed descriptions. And use your cell phones to get photos.

Here's a story out of Boston with a cell phone photo of a groper.

And here's a link to a few CTA Tattler stories about flashers, wankers and gropers.

Lessons learned: More training for rail operators

Mayor Daley Monday changed his tune on how well the CTA responded to Tuesday's Blue Line disruption and passenger self-evacuation.

Last Thursday, Daley had kind words for the CTA and the city's response to the Blue Line shutdown:  "I think they responded very well, really," Daley said then. "Ron Huberman was on board. Fire. Police Department. CTA responded."

But yesterday, Daley said the "biggest mistake was the CTA's failure to notify emergency personnel of the stalled subway trains for almost an hour," the Tribune reports.

One immediate response is to create "a mandatory 1-day training program for rail employees that focuses specifically on emergency communications; adding cell phones to standard subway operating equipment to increase communications options; and updating emergency materials for customers," according to a CTA press release.

I'm pleased that the CTA has taken a critical look at how it can improve situations such as these and is acting accordingly.

Happy First Anniversary to CTA Wedding Couple

I recently heard from a woman who loves the CTA so much that she took it to her wedding reception. And today is her first wedding anniversary, so congrats to Jim and Krista. Here's a photo and her story below.

"I am a CTA geek through and through and so when Jim and I decided to get married I always planned to use the CTA.  In fact, I would only hire a photographer that would go on the CTA with us.  We walked two blocks from the church to the Kedzie-Homan blue line stop and took the CTA with about half our guests (10-15) onto the Pink Line at Clark and back to Polk – and walked to Taylor St where our reception was.  This was all on April 21, 2007.

"Our wedding pictures are here; the CTA photos start about 75% down the pages.  They are the best pictures from our wedding."

-- Krista

CTA disciplines motorman for calling passengers "stupid"

The Sun-Times reports that the CTA is disciplining a motorman for calling riders "stupid" when they started to self-evacuate against his orders.

It's a good start in repairing some of the damage incurred during the mess last Tuesday when a defective train caused big delays, and fed-up passengers left train cars in the subway.

Can't we all just get along? Race un-relations on the CTA

I often hear disturbing stories about racial tensions and taunts on the CTA. I generally don't print them. In fact, I usually avoid identifying passengers by race in the Tattler tales I tell unless it's absolutely germaine to the subject.

Recently I heard two very disturbing stories about racial tensions, and I think it's time to share them here, and maybe have a dialog about race.

First, there's this recorded account of an encounter on the "Stony Express" between an Asian guy and a black woman:

Nerdy Asian guy: Why are you throwing your seeds on the floor?

Large lady: Excuse me?

Nerdy Asian guy: Um, pardon me, but I don't think you're supposed to do that.

Large lady: You tryin' to be all up in my face, tellin' me what I should or shouldn't done?

Nerdy Asian guy: No m'am, it's just that your getting your sunflower seeds on the floor and I don't think that's allowed. Mr. Driver, sir, will you please tell this lady to stop ruining my bus?

Driver: Your bus? YOUR bus?

Nerdy Asian guy: I am a Chicagoan, and as a Chicagoan I own part of this bus.

Driver: No you don't.

Nerdy Asian guy: I'm the one in college, I think I know more than you do, given the fact that you're a bus driver. What do you say to that, huh?

Large lady: You best shut yo' little fuckin' ching-chung mouth 'fore I come over there and shut it for you.

Nerdy Asian guy: Sorry, what'd you say? It was hard to understand with all the sunflower seeds flying out of your fat mouth.

Large lady: I bet you couldn't understand because I wasn't speaking no ching-chong-chong-chung-choong-chang-ching-ching-chong Chineseman speak.

More here.

Wow. Between the class-biased Asian guy and racist black woman, I just don't know what to say.

Now here's a story about a racist white guy. My wife was waiting for the No. 80 Irving Park to work one morning. Standing next to her was an older white guy whom she had seen many times before. In the past she recalls him sitting on the bus, muttering and ranting in a high-pressure combination of Serbo-Croatian and English.

On this day, he stood next to her, waited till she made eye contact, and then said, "You look just like my neighbor. She lived across the street from me, and she used to fuck niggers. All week long, there would be a parade of niggers coming and going from her apartment."

My wife turned to him and said, "Do you mind? I don't care to hear this conversation." Then he laughed loudly, and said, "Oh ho! I seem to have touched a nerve. Perhaps you too like to fuck niggers.

She turned to him and yelled: "Shut the fuck up!" Don't stand next to me, don't look at me, don't talk to me! Just shut the fuck up!"

That provoked him to say loudly: "See! I knew it. You're another one of those whores who likes to fuck niggers." By this time everyone at the bus stop was staring at my wife like she was the one who was crazy. Then, the bus came. They all boarded. And he just resumed his mutter rant, like nothing had happened.

Awful. What is going on, people? This racial hatred just seems to be ingrained in some people and it's hard to root out. Barack Obama gives me hope, but this stuff takes it away.

Not so sagacious advice from his elder

A gentleman in his 70s boards a crowded Red Line train at North/Clybourn, pulling a wheeled suitcase. A young college student gave up his seat by the door for him immediately.

The guy thanked him and sat down. Then he asked in a thick Eastern European accent: "Are you foreign-born?"

"No," replied College Guy.

"Well, you broke one of the most famous customs of (country whose name I couldn't hear)."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Hold what you have."

We're glad College Guy didn't.

So, who's to "blame" for the Blue Line evacuation?

As many of you know, a mechanical failure on the Blue Line Tuesday morning eventually led to an evacuation of several trains stuck in the subway tunnel.

But who is to blame for that evacuation?

CTA President Ron Huberman originally said, "If not for the [riders' self] evacuation, we could have restored that service in around 25 minutes." Huberman said. He said the initial mechanical problem was reported at 8:10 a.m. and by about 9 a.m. the problem was mostly corrected."

He later backed off that statement and said, "In no way is the CTA pointing fingers at anyone but ourselves."

That's good, because we have CTA Tattler readers commenting here that they got little to no information about what was happening, so they "took matters into their own hands." Erin reported that there were some announcements, "but then they stopped."

Still, there were other comments from folks who said the CTA kept them informed and who blamed the antsy folks  self-evacuated:  "All CTA service would have been fine at 9am but some idiots needed to get to work. Those few people that started the mass evacuation should be ashamed."

I wasn't there, so I don't know what to think. I do think that in general, passengers should stay on the train till they get word from the CTA to do something. I also know that the CTA must do a better job in general of communicating with passengers during crisis situations.

I've complained about this since the Tattler started in 2004. Things are a little better, but certainly not where they should be. And the NTSB said the same thing after the 2006 Blue Line derailment.

It appears that the CTA, at best, does an uneven job in communicating with passengers in these situations. Some motormen are better than others. We need to get to the point where all operators get good information from central command and share it with passengers.

Top photo by Erin. Bottom photo by a Tattler fan. And many thanks to all you folks who emailed me and sent CTA Alerts about what was happening Tuesday.

Transit etiquette lessons from England in the 60s

Those genteel Brits knew what to tell men about "women [who] have claimed equality" -- get up and give them your seat on the train.

From "Manners for Moderns," published in 1964:

"Women have never claimed to be physically as strong as men. Even if it is not agreed, however, that young men should stand up for younger women, the fact remains that chivalry should be shown to the old, the sick and the burdened. Are we really so lost to all ideals of unselfishness that we can sit there stolidly reading the paper or a book, saying to ourselves "First come, first served," while a grey-haired woman, a mother with a young child or a cripple stands? Yet this is all too often seen."

Thanks to Cheryl for sharing this find.

Also, the "etiquette police" are at work in Japan, according to this BBC News report.

Click here to read an excerpt from "Manners for Moderns."

Digital signs at rail stations to display train arrival info

Within four months, CTA rail passengers will be able to get real-time next-train arrival information and other news via a new digital  ad network announced last week.

CTA President Ron Huberman mentioned this deal with Titan Outdoor during our Coffee with Ron last month. A "countdown" clock will note the time till the next train's arrival.

The deal will net the CTA $100 million in revenues over 10 years.

"Under the agreement, Titan will install digital screens at every CTA rail station and ‘urban panels’ at the entrances to subway and elevated stations," according to a CTA press release.  "In addition to being used for advertising, the CTA will be able to use the screens to provide next train arrival and customer information. The messages can be targeted to specific stations or communities and the CTA will be able to issue emergency override messages as needed. Digital ads will also be displayed on the curb side of 100 buses.

"Titan will assume the cost of design and installation and will be responsible for the maintenance of the signs. At the end of the contract, CTA will assume ownership."

Good stuff.

Slow zone work accelerated; new digital advertising network

The CTA steps up slow zone works on the Brown and Red Lines. The CTA board Thursday OK'ed a $22.8 million contract for Brown work between Belmont and Western, and on the Red between Belmont and Sheridan. "Work to eliminate slow zones includes replacing wood rail ties and old tie plates with 100 percent recycled plastic ties and insulated tie plates; and replacing track," says the press release.

Red Line subway closed this weekend. As usual, the Red Line subway will be closed this weekend, with trains diverted to the El tracks. That's from 9 pm Friday till 3 am Monday. Also, next week southbound trains with "go over the  top" from 9 pm till 5 am Monday through Friday. More slow zone work.

CTA seeks lower electricity rates. "The Chicago Transit Board today approved an ordinance authorizing CTA to solicit electricity supply proposals from authorized suppliers in an effort to lower the annual cost of supplying electricity to CTA trains and facilities." So says the press release. Good luck with that. And how come I can't do that?

CTA to announce digital ad network. A "media advisory" from the CTA notes that the CTA "will hold a press conference on Friday, April 11 at the Southport Brown Line station to dedicate the newly-renovated station and discuss a new digital advertising communications network." Huberman gave CTA Tattler a preview of the digital network during our coffee with Ron. More here.

Grand Red Line station rehab -- a giant mess

I've been meaning to write about the Grand station rehab on the Red Line, but something else always was coming up. But today's the day.

Work on the $67 million project actually started late last year.  But at the end of March was when two exits were closed and traffic disruptions really started.

Two lanes are closed on Grand (a one-way street heading west) east of the Grand/State intersection. And two lanes are closed on State south of the the intersection. Only northbound traffic is allowed through at that point. Southbound traffic must detour west on Grand.

At the station mezzanine level, the southeast and southwest exits are closed. This creates quite the bottleneck on narrow stairs for the many folks coming and going from Michigan Avenue and points closer. I feel really bad for the tourists and business travelers dragging the heavy wheeled suitcases up the stairs while people are coming at them in the opposite direction.

At the platform level, floors have been ripped up and replaced with plywood, and the old wall tiles are missing, making the platform level darker and danker than ever.

Meanwhile, street level at the southwest corner, there are 7-foot-tall barricades on either side of a narrow walkway, where  two people can barely walk side-by-side.  Now I know what cows must have felt like in the chutes at the old Chicago stock yards.

The good news  is that the fare card machines  were relocated to the area where the news vendor stand used to be, eliminating what used to be a bottleneck of fare buyers and turnstile-goers. And the CTA installed a new  fare card machine that accepts credit and debit cards.

Here's what the city's Dept. of Transportation site has to say about the project. And there's just under two more years to go! You know what they say: Temporary inconvenience; permanent improvement.

CTA teams with Google Transit for map-based trip planner

The CTA has *finally* announced its partnership with Google to provide bus and train planner information at Google Transit (Chicago specific link here). You can also access it here for a video tutorial.

The CTA put on its best Google face for the press conference. A Tribune story about the announcement of the CTA/Google partnership reports: "The announcement was made in a CTA meeting room that was transformed into a sound stage, complete with loud, pulsating music, pyramids of large colored cubes in Google's color schemes, futuristic ergodynamic chairs and a large buffet table."

The CTA's home page has substituted Google's transit trip planner for the RTA's inferior Trip Planner. But the CTA does include a link, stating: "For regional trip planning, please use RTA Trip Planner." That's because the RTA decided not to participate in Google Transit. Not smart.

The RTA's Trip Planner does have a couple of features that Google lacks, such as options that allow you to pick a bus-only trip, and to pick how far you want to walk. But the familiar Google interface and the map makes Google a powerful planner.

Here is the CTA's press release about the partnership. And the CTA knows this is such a big deal that it trotted out Mayor Daley to participate.

A Chicago link showed up on Google Transit for at least a day early this year, but it was removed quickly. Maybe it was just a test that somehow went live. But we're glad to see it back permanently on Google Transit.

Chicago Transit Developers Google Group: Meanwhile, Kevin Z. has created a Chicago Transit Developers Google Group for developers interested in building services with Bus Tracker data. Open sharing of this kind of information will make it "possible to build a variety of third-party apps and services that would make Bus Tracker even more useful," KevinZ writes in a Tattler comment.  "Imagine things like widgets for Mac OS X or Windows and customized interfaces for the iPhone, for example. Like the new partnership with Google Maps, all of this can be done at zero cost to the CTA."

Excellent! Go for it guys!

CTA's expanded bus tracker makes promising debut

Monday marked the first day of the CTA's bus tracker expansion, and I like what I see so far.

The bus tracker home page is clean and informative. The page happily informs us that "routes now available are: 20, 35, 39, 43, 49, X49, 54B, 55A, 55N, 62, 62H, 63W, 94, and 165." And it invites us to "stay tuned for more routes available in May." Whoo hoo!

The two key pieces of the system are the Bus Location Map and the Estimated Arrival Times page. Both pages use Java script to display, so you'll have to get to them from the bus tracker home page.

I'm in love with the Bus Location Map application. First, I just plain love maps. And this one shows little icons of each bus chugging up and down its route. I love it! At the Estimated Arrival Times page, you select your route, direction of travel and a stop, and the system will reply with the next estimated arrival by bus number. Heck, it even shows the temperature. The CTA even provides a text-only version of the app for text readers and mobile devices.

Click "learn more" for a great explanation of the Bus Location map. Plus, you can use the "Street (Linear) View" to set an alarm to pop up on your computer.

Here's the CTA's explanation: "To set an arrival alarm for a particular stop, click on the roadway before (to the left of) that stop. This places a "clock" icon on the roadway at that point. When a vehicle reaches that location, a pop-up alert is issued to inform the user. If you are going to use the alarm function to let you know when to go catch a bus, make sure you allow enough time for your travel to the bus stop. For example, if it takes you ten minutes to reach your bus stop, select a stop on the route which is at least ten minutes ahead of your location."

Nice. We eagerly await the bus tracker expansion to routes we take, and to the El lines.

Vituoso violinist entertains DC subway users in anonymity

I noticed yesterday that the Washington Post had won one of its six Pulitzers yesterday for a Post magazine story about violin virtuoso Joshua Bell performing at the entrance to the DC Metro's L'enfant Plaza station stop. He earned about $32 in 43 minutes from about 25 people. Almost 1,100 commuters had passed him by as he performed.

He was dressed like any performer, but certainly didn't SOUND like any performer. Read the award-winning story and view the video here.

I never give money to panhandlers. But I sometimes give cash to subway performers. I'd like to think I would have given Bell a buck or two if I heard him. But maybe not.

Personal three-tracking scorecard: not too bad

Personally, my commutes during the first week of southbound three-tracking were not so terrible. On average, my commute took about 3-4 minutes longer than previously. It used to take me about 35 minutes to go from Morse to Grand on the Red Line. Here are the results:

Monday, March 31: Morning North Side meeting disrupted usual commute.

Tuesday: April 1: 37 minutes total; 11 minutes between Addison and Fullerton.

Wednesday, April 2: 36 minutes; 10 minutes between Addison and Fullerton.

Thursday, April 3: 40 minutes; 13 minutes between Addison and Fullerton.

Friday, April 4: 41 minutes; 13 minutes between Addison and Fullerton.

And Friday was the only day I timed the commute going home. That was a mere 30 minutes.

I suspect that because my commute is early, my delay may not be as bad as others who may leave at 8 am. So I'd like to hear how it's been for others.

The motormen/women were always informative in keeping us up-to-date on what was going on. One woman even announced the run number a few times "for those who might need a late slip."

Also, on Friday, a passenger in another car complained that the announcements were too loud. The motorwoman duly reported it, and announced that the CTA would try to fix it at Belmont. There were so many CTA attendants at Belmont that they found someone who knew how to fix working on the Belmont platform. So he boarded on my car, and tossed two people out of the Hobo Corner so he could adjust the volume.

He tinkered with it between Belmont and Fullerton, and the complainers were happy with the results. Unfortunately, those of us on other cars could barely hear the announcements. But hey, good effort at being responsive to customer complaints.

Service agency does outreach to homeless CTA riders

Occasionally in this space, you folks and I have all written about nasty encounters with homeless people sleeping and otherwise setting up housekeeping on CTA trains. Thresholds, a Chicago-based social service agency, has been reaching out to these people for the last six months and trying to get them some help.

In those six months, two Thresholds case workers have made contact with almost 70 homeless people riding the Red and Blue Lines. "Contact" can mean anything from giving out a business card, distributing food and sundries, or just talking to them.

Of course, one of the biggest problem they face is follow-up care. It's just hard to locate their clients again for further services. But amazingly, they have moved five people into housing.

To the CTA's credit, they first approached the city's  Dept. of human Services to find an agency to do the outreach. That's when Thresholds entered the picture. Check out the Thresholds Web site. They quietly do great work in many neighborhoods across the city. If you have a few extra dollars consider donating to the cause.

Weekend slow zone work

There's plenty of slow zone work on the Red and Blue lines this weekend:

• Blue Line Service from Jefferson Park to Cumberland temporarily suspended.
• Red Line subway closed between Fullerton and Cermak Chinatown.
• Southbound Red and Brown Line customers at Fullerton will board and exit trains from the northbound Red Line side of the platform.
• And don't forget to take the Red Line to Sox Park for Monday's White Sox home opener.
  

CTA vows to engage customers more - and better

At our coffee with Ron Huberman last month, Adam Case, the CTA's chief of customer communications, talked a bit about ways the CTA would try to engage its riders more.

I've already mentioned the coming overhaul of the CTA's Web site. Case also noted that as of two weeks ago, the Mystery Shopper program had about 1,500 sign-ups. He said any problems cited in Mystery Shopper reports were sent daily to the general managers responsible for the bus or train line cited. He also mentioned the CTA wants to find ways to capture rider cell phone photos with descriptions of problems.

Both Case and Huberman discussed the idea of building an interactive relationship between the rider and the general manager of his/her route -- to the point where they know each other by name. Huberman described it as "providing micro-service at the neighborhood route level."

Can't you just see KevinB giving the Red Line GM an earful?

"This train is not where it should be . . ."

We stop halfway into the Belmont station, and the motorman announces: "This train is not where it should be -- stand clear and we'll move in a moment."

The train passengers burst out in laughter at his one-liner.

Interestingly enough, this was late last Friday, when the train actually WAS where is HADN'T been in about a year -- that is on Track 3 at Belmont. It had just opened that day after a year of northbound three-tracking.

CTA site to get full redesign within six months

The entire  CTA Web site will have a brand new look and feel within six months, said Adam Case, the CTA's chief of customer communications.

Case said the site will be modeled after transit Web sites for Boston and London. That's great news, because both sights are clean and very useful for commuters. I particularly like Boston's service alerts on the home page.

An RFP for the CTA site redesign has been issued, and the CTA board will soon vote on who wins the job, Case said. The RFP calls for the site to be launched within 120 days from contract letting. Case said eventually the site will show real-time bus and train arrival information.

Regarding the home page redesign launched last week, Case said, "We feel like it's an improvement for our customers." It was done completely in-house by one of the CTA's Web designers.

Case also encourages CTA Tattler readers to share with him some of the functionality you are looking for in a new site. So feel free to comment here.