Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Pat Quinn

One Chart Explains All the Chicagoland Transit Reform Proposals

By Steven Vance | Apr 11, 2014 | 10 Comments

Several different proposals to fund and govern Chicagoland’s transit system have recently been floated by various area politicians and interest groups. Streetsblog has created this handy chart to compare each of the proposals to one another, and to how the system currently works. Click to open the chart in a new window. The chart compares […]

Final State Task Force Report Dives Into Transit Reform Details

By Steven Vance | Apr 1, 2014 | 27 Comments

Governor Pat Quinn’s northeastern Illinois task force released its final report [PDF] yesterday, detailing recommendations from its mid-March draft. The task force launched last year, after former Metra CEO Alex Clifford resigned to protest the commuter rail operator’s long-running patronage culture. The task force of transit experts, business and union leaders spends most of the report writing about how […]

More State Control Over Chicagoland Transit Is a Bad Idea

By Steven Vance | Mar 13, 2014 | 33 Comments

On Tuesday, the Northeastern Public Transit Task Force, created after former Metra CEO Alex Clifford’s abrupt resignation and the ensuing severance package scandal last summer, issued four different options for restructuring regional transit governance [PDF]. While there’s a lot of variation among the four options, they would all hand more power to the governor. This is […]

On the Heels of the South Red Rehab, City Announces O’Hare Line Overhaul

By Kristen Maddox | Dec 6, 2013 | 23 Comments

Yesterday morning, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Governor Par Quinn announced that the O’Hare Branch of the Blue Line will receive $492 million in station and line upgrades. At the press conference at the Logan Square stop, CTA President Forrest Claypool called the project “the largest single comprehensive investment in the Blue Line since the Jefferson […]

The CTA Chalks Up the Red Line South Rehab as a Major Success

By John Greenfield | Oct 17, 2013 | 23 Comments

At a time when the CTA has been coming under fire for the glitchy launch of the Ventra farecard system, today’s ribbon cutting for the Red Line Reconstruction project was a well-earned celebration for the transit agency, and a love fest for local politicians. Many residents and journalists originally questioned the plan to completely shut […]

Metra Headaches Continue While Quinn Forms Committee to Reform Transit

By Steven Vance | Aug 16, 2013 | 29 Comments

A fifth Metra board member gave up his post Thursday after the Chicago Tribune wrote that Stanley Rakestraw no longer lived in suburban Cook County – as required – and the person who appointed him, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle, asked him to tender resignation. Board members are resigning after allegations of double dipping (for […]

Governor Quinn is On Board With IDOT’s Protected Bike Lane Ban

By John Greenfield | Jul 17, 2013 | 16 Comments

For years, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has been an enthusiastic supporter of walking, biking and transit initiatives. In 2001 he hiked from the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan to draw attention to the need for universal healthcare, and he later launched the Walk Across Illinois fitness challenge, encouraging residents to walk 190 miles within one […]