I am wondering specifically what Mr. Persons thinks of transportation issues in Edgewater. Many motorists from suburbs and other neighborhoods use Edgewater's streets as thoroughfares to Lake Shore Drive. They speed through residential neighborhoods and down roads like Broadway and Ridge that have extremely long signals that favor commuters at the expense of pedestrians. Meanwhile, the Red Line stations are an embarassment and service on the CTA north side mainline is plagued with slow zones caused by crumbling infrastructure (just look at the Hollywood viaduct). This is an important issue to thousands of residents who have seen their commutes get longer just within the past year. Many of your potential voters endure this on a daily basis and it seems like no one is listening.
- Mike

I agree with everything you said. I sometimes take the 151 Bus on Sheridan and wait for a very long time with other local riders (usually seniors) while the commuter buses go by in droves. I also ride the Red Line and Broadway bus and am continually disappointed in the lack of speed and cleanliness of the facilities. Commuter parking in the community is also an issue and as you say, Ridge and Broadway Avenues become miniature expressways sluicing through and dividing our residential neighborhoods.

The first step to a solution is to improve the quality and increase the quantity of public transportation delivering people from the northwestern and northern suburbs (and Chicago neighborhoods) into the Loop. We need to invest in commuter parking at transportation nodes toward the edges of the city and at Metra lines and we need to decrease the incentives for driving. These are relatively low-cost fixes that we can begin debating and fighting for today.

We need to be at the table as the RTA pursues their Moving Beyond Congestion campaign to ensure that their planning takes into consideration the ‘non-expressway’ problems we face in Edgewater and the north-east corner of the City. We should be working closely with Julie Hamos, the Chair of the Illinois House Mass Transit Committee, whose 18-th District boarders and takes in the northern part of the city. As the RTA admits that capital improvement funding is routinely spent on administrative expenses, I support Representative Hamos’ legislation calling for an audit of RTA and CTA and call on the City Council to reflect that legislation with a bill of its own.

Most importantly, it is time that your City Council begins to debate this and other important issues that effect the lives of the residents of our great city. Mike, if you support my effort to become the next alderman of the 48-th Ward, I will work tirelessly with you to resolve this and other problems that have languished for so long.

Christopher Persons
Candidate for Alderman 48th Ward