Speaking of Chicago...

[Phetro]

Here is my question for current/former Chicago residents: how prudent was I with the decision to use CTA for the visit to MOSI?

Not very. The museum is an island, surrounded by sharks who love to pick off unsuspecting wanderers. No less than three people I know have wandered a bit too far around there.

 

[Deanimator]

In my considerable (and somewhat dated) experience, the El trains are quite safe. In twenty some years of riding them, I only experienced one second-hand incident, which delayed a train I was on. A friend in lawschool was accosted on the El on the way home one night. He swung his briefcase up between the guy's legs hard enough to lift him up on his toes and dashed off the train a stop early.

The buses on the other hand, have always been the traveling roadshow of "Cops". I once saw a bus driver trade a free ride for a bum in exchange for him physically ejecting another unruly bum from the bus.

At one time there were no Transit Police as they're understood in places like NYC. At one point the CTA got so dangerous that they instituted UNARMED patrols with radios. As I understand it, they just got their butts whipped and their radios taken away. I don't know if they've gotten real transit police or not. I don't take public transportation when I visit anyway.

 

[Phetro]

In my considerable (and somewhat dated) experience, the El trains are quite safe. In twenty some years of riding them, I only experienced one second-hand incident, which delayed a train I was on. A friend in lawschool was accosted on the El on the way home one night. He swung his briefcase up between the guy's legs hard enough to lift him up on his toes and dashed off the train a stop early.

It's much worse now...what you probably remember as the Jackson Park and Englewood lines, and the Congress/Douglas O'Hare lines (now color coded red, green, and blue, and with altered routes) are plagued with violence in the higher-crime neighborhoods. Your friend with the briefcase would, these days, probably have been shot or stabbed in retaliation for his retaliation.

I used to ride what is now the Green Line (to Harlem and Lake--actually a little south of Lake), and in a year saw the train stopped regularly by crimes as heinous as gangs refusing to let women leave the train at all, no doubt in preparation for more sinister plans, as well as the usual drug/gang fights, which themselves were no light and trifling matter. I intervened more than once also, and in several cases was pretty lucky myself. Once after such an incident, when the three idiots debarked, they tried to pull me out the door with them onto the platform...I could have been a sheep and let them get away with the things they did, but then again, I never did like the path of least resistance: too easy. But after failing in their crime to intimidate the passengers into giving them money, let's just say they discovered that I was willing to give them something entirely different if they took me with them--something they would rather not have, that travels 1350 feet per second.

Even the northern part of the Red Line (what you would remember as the "to Howard" section of the Englewood/Jackson Park line) has become a nightmare at night.

Of course, during the day, the trains are better (still not good, and incidents are not at all uncommon). But at night, they are so frequent that most people just sit and read their newspapers, oblivious to the screams/shouting/fighting going on ten feet away, or too scared to risk their oh-so-important skin to help someone else in distress. Shame on them all.

The buses on the other hand, have always been the traveling roadshow of "Cops". I once saw a bus driver trade a free ride for a bum in exchange for him physically ejecting another unruly bum from the bus.

Oddly enough, now the buses are much better. I suppose this was quite a reversal...but the buses now also have the CTA police cars following them all over the place.

At one time there were no Transit Police as they're understood in places like NYC. At one point the CTA got so dangerous that they instituted UNARMED patrols with radios. As I understand it, they just got their butts whipped and their radios taken away. I don't know if they've gotten real transit police or not. I don't take public transportation when I visit anyway.

I remember that! And as I said above, they do have real CTA police now...but the unarmed patrols were about the funniest thing I've seen on the CTA, next to the "Guardian Angels" (a 1990s group of morons who professed to ride the CTA to protect people from violence, yet were "anti-violence" and would not intervene except to call police, as if that did any good--and if they did occasionally intervene they just got beaten down right quick, because everyone knew they were unarmed and emasculated). Uselessness at its pinnacle, I tell you.

 

[ilbob]

I lived in Chicago back in the late 70s. Just about every cab driver had a gun in his pocket and so did a lot of other people. The cops did not care. If something happened they usually just asked to see your FOID card and then gave you the gun back.

Now you have the CPD conducting raids on its own members looking for long ago registered guns that daley has now decided are too evil to have outside the police stations. I was glad to see that, but it only went on for a short time before the police union put a stop to it. Now they spend their time harassing out of city gun shops. Can't say I blame the cops involved all that much. It is a lot safer to hassle law abiding citizens than to go after violent criminals, and given that is what Daley wants now, it is hard for any individual cop to say no.

 

[Deanimator]

I lived in Chicago back in the late 70s. Just about every cab driver had a gun in his pocket and so did a lot of other people. The cops did not care. If something happened they usually just asked to see your FOID card and then gave you the gun back.

My late uncle was a Chicago cab driver for thirty years or so.

One day, a fare got in his cab. The guy pulled a weapon and demanded his money. My uncle grabbed the guy's wrist (this was before "bulletproof" shields in cabs) and started fighting with him. The cab went out of control, jumped a curb and hit the wall of a drycleaners. The wouldbe robber jumped from the cab and took off running. My uncle drew his High Standard .22 derringer and took a shot at him. My uncle pulled the trigger using his middle finger. His finger was partially over one of the muzzles of the derringer. He missed the shot and broke his finger. When he returned to the cab, there was a waterpistol on the floor.

And no you don't need to point out the various faux pas. There have basically been two people in my family who knew guns. My great uncle who served in the US Army under French command in WWI, and me.

Regarding how the CPD treats gun "violations", it depends upon who you are. I have a friend who used to do pro-bono criminal defense work in Chicago until he moved to Philly to take care of his ailing mother. During the late '80s and early '90s, he said that if you went to "gun court" in Chicago, the ONLY White faces you'd see were judges, bailiffs, and testifying officers. If you were White and were caught with a gun, had no warrants, and were otherwise not engaged in any criminal behavior, you were released on the spot WITH your gun. If you were Black, you got jail time, period. He's an anti-gun socialist who wants all handguns banned, but even HE had a problem with that. As previously noted, there was a Daley accomplice who got caught violating not only Chicago and IL gunlaws, but federal law as well. He of course walked.

 

[isp2605]

"I find it ironic that on the one hand you basically admit everything I stated is true,"

You must not have read my post very carefully then. The only thing you said that was truthful was the part about the sportsmen complaining finally resulted in a change. That finally forced the governor's office to turn loose the money to hire people. However, the rest of your post was in no way true and was permeated with falsehoods and outright untruths.. That's about as clear as I can make it.


"The political hacks that infest the upper management of the ISP did indeed know by your own admission what eliminating the clerical workers would do, and went along with it because they are hacks."

What you don't understand, or refuse to understand, is there was no choice in the matter to eliminate the temp position. The money was pulled. No money, no employees. It wasn't the ISP who pulled the money. The money was pulled from the ISP. There was no money in the ISP budget, nor did the ISP have the authority, to hire any more temp workers.


"The weak claims that they informed the governor about this are laughable since they not only went along with it "

Your knowledge of business practices is what's laughable. If there's no money to hire people, and the boss says no workers, then there's no way to hire. The ISP was able to get a 1 yr extension on the no-temp order hoping the order would be changed and temps would be allowed to stay. Even after a year the governor's office stuck by its order and the temps had to be let go. No money.


"The whole reason the thing is a problem in the first place is that the ISP refuses (and I use that word deliberately) to follow the law that says they have to issue in 30 days. My feeling is if they can't do the background checks in 30 days, than they should just issue anyway on the 30th day."

Quite honestly your "feeling" doesn't really mean a hill of beans since you have no knowledge of the process and which you have clearly shown in your posts you have no knowledge of any of it. It's all your speculation which is only pased on a fiction and wild imagination.
It sure would be nice to get them out in a week. I'm sure you have the extensive managerial experience to figure out how to process about 1000 renewal applications a day when there was no one left in an office. Life is simple when you don't have a clue about the situation.

For further info the ISP was not the only agency which had to terminate all temp employees. Every state agency in the executive branch had the same order. But you probably didn't see that, or care. The result caused massive delays in service in the other agencies. There were other parts of the ISP which was saw a negative impact by loss of temp employees which had nothing at all to do with FOID. But you didn't see that. You only focus your small world and believe since FOID was delayed it was a massive conspiracy just aimed at FOID. It was a massive hit in all state agencies. Again, just another example of how little you know about the issue, which you've proven is exactly nothing.

The rest of your post has nothing at all to do with the topic but is nothing but rantings.
If you expect to discuss something intelligently and be taken seriously then at least get your facts straight. So far you haven't gotten one fact right and you haven't written anything which can be taken seriously. Your tin foil getting a bit tight.

 

[Art Eatman]

Ah, drifting?

Nope, in gear, wide open throttle...

Art