- Brian Jackson/Sun-Times Media
- Alderman Ameya Pawar should’ve haggled for the #11 bus.
On Monday, 47th Ward alderman Ameya Pawar led 100 or so seniors to a CTA public hearing where they demanded that the agency restore full service to the #11 Lincoln Avenue bus.
The #11 bus was a perfectly fine service that ran, roughly, from Howard to Sedgwick along Lincoln. Alas, the CTA board—at the urging of president Forrest Claypool, a mayoral appointee—cut the Western-to-Fullerton leg in 2012.
The second explanation—generally offered by elected officials who are speaking off the record—is that the mayor was looking for a relatively easy north-side target to cut in order to deflect attention from the carnage of his south- and west-side cuts. Buses, schools, and clinics included.
So we are spending money to lose money. As I will never tire of telling you, Chicago, in the hopes that you will waken from your slumber.
There are really only two reasons why any alderman would vote for the DePaul/Marriott, as most did: either they do whatever the mayor tells them or they essentially swapped their support on DePaul for something else.
But Alderman Pawar says it would not have been appropriate to link one issue to the other cause they’re not directly related.
