Hi Craig,
I just returned from out west late Monday night to find one of Chicago's untamed rivers running down my street (1800 block of Touhy) Tuesday morning. My neighbors said that they had called to report it, so I didn't think too much about it.
Next day, same river, still no Water Dept.
I still wasn't that concerned. I figured they would get to it soon. By Thursday they had put up multiple traffic horses and a really cool blinking lighted arrow sign (see picture), but still no work had been done to fix it.
It is now Friday about 2 pm and I am getting a little irritated. Thousands of gallons of fresh, pure Chicago drinking water (I've really come to rely on that low dose of anti-depressant each day) is running from the large hole in the street into the storm drain. Is this how the Mayor and our Alderman are "greening" the city?
Maybe they're planning to set up an Olympic kayak run on my street. Or maybe they are waiting until the weekend to fix it so either the Water Dept. or some palm greasing contractor working for them can collect a boatload of overtime.
Meanwhile, El Rio Touhy runs on, and on, and on...
Please post, if you have a chance.
Sincerely,
Ortis
20 comments:
I am certain the Ald. has put Street and San right on this, arent't you, too, Craig?
After all, isn't Ald. Joe Moore (JUST DUMB-49) so USED TO DEALING WITH SEWAGE? Think David Fagus, think Wayne 'the Druglord' Frazier.
Joe's time is up, NOW, don't you think? Waiting for his D-2s.
Long neglected pothole at Lunt and Sheridan still intact, July 2009.
Wow, how wonderful for water conservation!
This isn't just our alderman's inattention, it is the whole city, thanks to Daley's focus on vanity projects at the expense of necessary infrastructure maintenance and replacement.
The water and sewer infrastructure in this city has been permitted to become extremely aged and decrepit in the past 15 years, as we lose more of our tax base to TIFs that are never allowed to expire so that we can get the good of the development they supposedly foster. Additionally, we are diverting more money to costly "frills" like the el superstation, the Olympic bid, and the horrendously expensive lakefront infill and outer drive extension the mayor and FOTP have been trying to ram down our throats.
Repairing and replacing outdated water and sewer mains needs to be a major priority. Right up there with them should be adequate funding of our police department. These things are essential for our health and safety. We can no longer afford costly superfluities. Tax revenues are falling and the city is broke.
Do I recall that these sorts of things, like pot hole repairs, are corrected with each alderman's "menu money?" You know, the same funds used to provide free overnight parking for Jimmy "Wisconsin plates" Ginderske?
water runs in the streets
blood runs in the streets
joey pigeon shit doesn't care
Julia - you did it! 'joey pigeon shit' I love this moniker!
Thanks for making my day!
The whole concept of the alderman's discretionary fund is ridiculous. This system is designed for abuse.
Instead of handing each alderman a sum of discretionary money and letting him establish the priorities for spending in his ward, as though wards were little independent kingdoms, that money ought to be allocated to a general city fund for essential infrastructure repair and replacement, with the city engineers deciding how the money will be allocated based on urgent need.
Well the city is so short staffed in every department, particularly streets & san and water that they can not get to things as quickly as they should. And now with the lay-offs it is worse. Soon you will see the garbage start piling up in the alleys.
From a laid off garbage driver
We should lay off a few aldermen and their staffs.
Let's see here......if we went from 50 aldercreatures, each pulling $110,000 a year, we would save $4.4M.
Then, there are their staffs. How many people does an alderman have on staff? Five? Four? Let's say four, average salary of $40K, some make quite a bit more, some less. That makes 160 staff members, which is $6.4$ in salaries.
This would all mean an easy $10.8 million.
I think Pa Beck has a valid point. If from the top down mistakes are being made, I'm not sure, but I know this City is hurting. But if it came down to it, I would rather deal with a few sinkholes and/or potholes rather than a short-staffed police or fire house. Enter further complaints here.
Take a walk.
I meant to say if we went from 50 alderidiots down to 10, we would save beaucoup bucks just on their salaries.
This would also reduce the amount of stupidity on display.
Los Angeles gets by with 10 aldercretins, and it's a bigger city than this one. It's also no more corrupt (even though it is AS corrupt) and no worse-run than this one.
It's just a question of how we would accomplish this. Hell, we can't even get somebody plausible to run against Daley, so how ever could we force the reconstitution of our city government?
Well, I have only been with the city for 3 years but the mismanagement and the inefficient use of resources is cost the city and the taxpayers a lot of money. That alone could just about close the budget gap. I know that a lot of commenters to the news posts bash the common city worker but the problem is management not the workers.
Just one little manpower shortage example; I was with the water dept a year ago and they only had 6 sewer crews on the north side to repair storm drain cave ins. The north side covers the area from around North ave north and from the lake to O'Hare. Clearly not enough to keep up with the aging and crumbling infrastructure.
I was told by a person in Joe's office that there are very limited city funds for anything because they have all been diverted towards the Mayor's Olympic hopes. It amazes me - I don't know anyone who lives in the city who actually wants the Olympics here.
a fact- this sort of thing has nothing to do with the alderman, beyond the bully pulpit. it is the province of the dept of water.
another fact- with the sandy soil in this area this water will be back in the lake in a day. there is a vast system of underground streams everywhere. they feed the lakes and rivers, even though you never see them.
and one more annoying fact- the city really is suffering monetarily. the furlows of city workers will make delays like this commonplace. thank st ronnie raygun, and his buddy frank luntz for making the american people think that taxes are unfair and avoidable. and that government ought to be starved to the point that it can be drowned in the bathtub. (and for deregulating big business to the point where they are robbing us all with their pens.) welcome to the world that so many of you asked for.
Uh, but I did not ask the City of Chicago to bid for the 2016 Olympics that will most likely cost at least $20 B and possibly $40 B, based on the experiences of Vancouver, Bejing, and London.
On the national level,I didn't ask for the financial bailout, or the insane fiscal and economic policies that led to it.
I did not ask for 160 TIF districts that are diverting our tax monies to the back pockets of private developers... who almost always fail to deliver the tax base the TIF is supposed to help them build.
I did not ask our politicians to give themselves massive raises while everyone else out here is struggling with fear of job loss and stagnating incomes.
Been there, consider that these days only ONE AMERICAN IN SEVEN has a job that pays a middle-class income, and those relative few are losing ground fast. Everyone out here but our overpaid politicians and their cronies are suffering job loss, reduced hours and income, or business reversals. How in the hell can we pay more taxes when our expenses are increasing, our incomes dropping, and 80% of us make moderate incomes or less?
Our leaders do not need more money. They need to allocate our money with more intelligence and more heart. Neither our poor nor our middle classes need the idiotic Olympics, nor do we need the park extension, nor the el superstation, nor do they benefit from the financial bailouts and "stimulus" package that benefits mostly rural areas at the expense of our cities. Do you know that rural areas are getting over HALF of the stimulus funds, while our cities that contain two thirds of the country's population and generate three quarters of its economic activity are getting less than half?
We need urgent infrastructure repairs and replacements, and we need for our tax burdens to be in keeping with our shrinking incomes. We need job creation, and that will come from investment by private industry, not from government "stimulus" to benefit distant regions while our own city gets raped. And we need local leadership that allocates money to the services and projects we need to maintain the city so that it will remain safe and sanitary, not Vanity projects that cost billions of dollars and bring little back to the residents while lining the back pockets of political cronies.
"The North Coast", I couldn't agree more. I have only worked for the city for 3 years but the waste I have seen would make any tax payer angry. Our water/sewer pipes are being patched together instead of replacing them and them millions are being spent on projects that are not really needed.
Well, I blame Ronnie Reagan, Frank Lutz, squirrels, some 250 lb woman with the mullet, Yogi Bear, Herbert Hoover, and Reggie Jackson for this. Shut the fuck up, been there.
nc- did you vote for raygun?
been there,
NO, I did not vote for "raygun", nor have I ever voted Republican in my life.
I vote Dem, but only because they are rather less scary than the Repugs. I'm not voting FOR the inane Dem programs nearly so much as I'm voting AGAINST the Christian Right and against an economy based on waste, debt creation, and a country dominated by our financial oligarchy.
Unfortunately, Obama and Co. are continuing the fiscal and economic legacy of Bushco, replete with massive subsidies for automakers and suburban-sprawl builders. Obama has already blasted away his huge political capital by filling his cabinet with truly odious characters, including some of the authors of our current financial fiasco (Geithner, Sumners), and a science advisor, Holdran, who openly advocates FORCED abortions and seizing children from all single mothers, to be raised by families some government agency selects. Additionally, this administration is promulgating an energy policy based on the "renewables" fantasy while turning away from nuclear power development, which could have 50% of the population living without electricity and heat within 10 years if these policies are pursued aggressively.
Both parties are free-spending, pro-corporate Welfare Statists who are only taking slightly divergent roads toward the same destination, which is to turn this country into a over-taxed dictatorship for the benefit of a small oligarchy. The characters differ, and so do some of the social views- the Republicans pander to dumb white trash with their "family values" policies and pandering to the Christian Right, while the Dummycrats specialize in Victim Politics and offer empty "feel-goods" for every aggrieved minority while undercutting our freedom and our economy by expanding the horrendous deficit and multiplying welfare programs, mainly for our failing old economy businesses.
Both parties are fading to irrelevance. The only question is what kind of maniac with what kind of program will replace their lame candidates and failed policies?
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