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Still, I have to admit I have a soft spot in my heart for the governor’s proposal to let senior citizens ride the CTA for free. Back when Harold Washington was mayor, I knew a city planner who had an idea for making the CTA’s trains and buses free for everyone. Dreaming big, he planned to enlist the help of then-powerhouse congressmen Dan Rostenkowski and William Lipinski to pay for it with a hike in the federal income tax — a progressive tax hike. He claimed Mayor Washington supported his idea, even if it didn’t stand a chance. Man, those days are gone.
Almost as soon as Blagojevich announced his plan, the powers that be ripped into it, probably because they can’t stand the governor either. The Chicago Tribune even found a nice little old lady — 87-year-old Marion Cheney — who said she didn’t want the break if it meant service had to be cut. “I’m not going to turn down a free ride,” Cheney told a Tribune reporter, who interviewed her while she was writing the Belmont bus. “But if it costs too much money for the CTA, they can have my dollar. I don’t want them to have to cut routes because I’m getting a free ride.”
It’s a great day to be a zoning lawyer, or a lawyer working on commercial property tax appeals, or a developer, or an alderman-turned-developer, or a Daley-administration-aide-turned-lobbyist, all merrily riding the gravy train. But it’s not such a great day for old ladies riding the bus.
