CHICAGO CARLESS

(Photo: You’re kidding, right? Brendan Reilly favors cars over transit in downtown Chicago.)

I am strongly rethinking my support for Brendan Reilly, the allegedly progressive Democrat who earlier this year won Chicago’s 42nd Ward from longtime alderman Burt Natarus. As if Reilly’s self-immolating opposition to Mayor Daley in the Chicago Children’s Museum controversy wasn’t enough (you recall, Richie wants to have it in Grant Park, Reilly would rather not), yesterday, the newbie alderman threw his support to increased traffic congestion in Streeterville.

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(Photo: Tell me, Gepetto, do they get taller if you lie about them? Future “unlicensed” images of the Chicago skyline if the Marina Towers Condominium Association gets its way. Original Credit: Steven Dahlman.)

The fun never ends inside Chicago’s upended corncobs, especially if you consider bald-faced lies by your condominium association entertaining. Last week, I brought you the tale of bone-headed new rules proposed by Marina City’s controversial condo association (in a story brought to me by the scrappy, independent Marina City Online website).

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It’s a graphic that speaks for itself. You could fill 25 Soldier Fields with the number of people who use Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains on an average weekday. It would take 1.5 million people–half of Chicago’s population–to do it. That still wouldn’t take into account almost 300,000 additional daily riders of Metra and Pace suburban trains and buses. And most of these 2 million plus people are potential voters.

So why doesn’t Chicago’s mainstream media take Chicagoland’s transit beat seriously?

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