John Greenfield

• Crain's: "Johnson faces pushback over [likely CTA president pick City of Chicago's COO John Roberson] as advocates push for broader search"

Good news for rail fans: Recently, Illinois legislators discussed a groundbreaking bill to launch statewide train service.

I'm confident that the generally car-centric folks on the Chicago Tribune editorial board deserved the spanking I gave them on Friday for their rather arrogant editorial about our region's looming $770 million total transit budget gap. "Chicago’s transit agencies want you to panic," the headline stated. "They don’t explain the whole truth."

• ATA: "Lawmakers face a clear choice: invest in a world-class public transportation system or allow our region’s transit agencies to slide into a crisis."

On Thursday, I heard the tragic news that groundbreaking singer-songwriter Jill Sobule had passed away at age 66, in a house fire early that morning while she was visiting the Twin Cities. Among many other great folk and pop tunes, she was known for her 1995 hits "I Kissed a Girl," the first LGBTQ-themed recording to make the Billboard Top 20, and "Supermodel," which appeared on the soundtrack for the movie "Clueless." She had been booked to perform in her hometown of Denver on Friday evening, but instead the venue hosted an impromptu memorial.

Read the Tribune editorial here.

• Axios: "Chicago transit leaders say $1.5 billion could avoid "drastic service cuts"

But according to HOLS member Rony Islam, out of 1,400 survey respondents, "69 percent... strongly support a greater role of pedestrianization on the 4700 block."

• From the generally car-centric Tribune editorial board: "Chicago’s transit agencies want you to panic. They don’t explain the whole truth."

The proposal calls for converting one curbside parking lane to make room for PBLs, which has worked well on streets like Milwaukee and Clark.