WBEZ focuses on "what new leadership will mean for the CTA"
WBEZ, Chicago's Public Radio station, focused Monday afternoon on the transition in leadership at the top of the CTA from Ron Huberman to Dorval Carter, named last week as acting president after Daley appointed Huberman Chicago Public School superintendent.
Maria Choca Urban, Program Manager for Transportation and Community Development at the Center for Neighborhood Technology,and RedEye columnist Kyra Kyles, discussed what Huberman's departure means for the CTA.
WBEZ also interviewed your CTA Tattler about what Carter should focus on. I said it was important to continue with the improvements in rider communications. Story and podcast here.
I just hope the new guy makes it easier to inquire about what experience is expected, or necessary to get a job in various departments with the CTA. Communication!
In the end though I'm not surprised about this. Its Chicago.
Posted by: Alex | February 03, 2009 at 02:46 AM
I like your ideas, Kevin "The Expert" O'Neil. :)
I think what is more important is who are we choosing to run it, not just the interim person. Most likely this person won't be in the interim job for more than a year. I hope he doesn't, but Carter can probably coast on initiatives Huberman got going. I doubt he'll introduce anything that wasn't already planned.
Posted by: chris | February 03, 2009 at 09:50 AM
Not many comments in this thread, so I thought I'd say thanks for the link. I missed the show when it aired, and I'm glad to have caught it. It was an interesting piece.
Posted by: ryanwc | February 03, 2009 at 11:18 PM
Did Maria Choca-Urban acknowledge that she, too, was one of the highly overpaid apostles that came to CTA with Ron? Did she mention that she was in way over her head and was asked to leave?
Posted by: Marty | February 04, 2009 at 01:04 AM
Ron Huberman hired a lot of overpaid young, white and a few Asians in their twenties and thirties who were gay like him. Anyone over forty were forced out and Maria Choca was one of them. Given all of her vast experience, you cannot tell me that she was not qualified to do her job. There are people right out graduate school with less than five years of experience making $140,000 and $120,000 a year on average. Maria Choca was only paid $95,000 and she had well over 20 year of experience in urban policy and planning. Check the records and the facts before you openly try to castigate someone.
Posted by: denise | February 04, 2009 at 07:43 PM
As far as I now, Ms. Choca-Urban was not asked to leave. I think she got a CNT job that was a better fit. Huberman's mistake was where he placed her in the Performance Management group. Her background was more policy-wonky. The day-to-day number crunching didn't seem like her kind of thing.
One limitation with her perspective from the "inside" is that she came in after Ron started--she really doesn't have any knowledge of how CTA functioned inside under Frank or further back. With that said, I think her interview is fairly accurate as to what she witnessed in her very short tenure there. And, it's very unique if you think about it: It is not that common for former CTA or CPS or City Hall staffers to do interviews like this. Most go off to retirement or consulting and aren't willing to go on record with their experiences. Think about how many people left CTA between the Frank-to-Ron period that probably have interesting insights into the things that have gone down there; but we'll never hear from them, will we?
Posted by: jimmy | February 05, 2009 at 10:58 PM