Budget Hole
Here's almost a third of Shortshanks' budget hole. And it's actually a hole in the ground:
- Some critics call the $250 million dollar city project "outrageous" and a bad investment. It's the giant unfinished CTA "superstation" in the Block 37 development across from Daley Plaza.
You've helped pay for it, but you've never seen it.
The plan was to build an underground CTA terminal that would provide express train service to O'Hare Airport from the Loop. It turned out to be much more expensive than planned, and for now it's been mothballed. - When the project was abandoned last year for an indefinite period, an estimated $250 million had been spent on it. Of that, an estimated $100 million came from cost overruns. Another $50 million was for mothball costs.
We're sure this isn't the only hole-in-the-ground Daley's been pouring money into. Money in the form of concrete, rebar, and whatever else involved in awarding construction contracts. We're sure that each and every bill was paid to the company from taxpayer funds. We're also sure that some very generous "campaign contributions" were part of the arrangements.
Labels: corruption
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
20 Comments:
The only thing bigger than the hole in the ground, is the void between Shortshanks head and the void min the head of his band of idiots called the city council.
Off topic I know but I recently received the attendance award. How many dollars is that worth? I'm still waiting for the checks for the crime reduction award and the 1996 demon-cratic convention award. I wish I were the Chosen One like the POTUS, 1.5 million smackers for eleven days work.
I say put Huberman in charge,I mean look how he fixed the CTA..They are now making a profit!
Now he fixed the plighted schools...look how many honor students their are!!
This is the next man behind the curtain!
OR
Has he done absolutely nothing like Obama but continues to draw the big paycheck!
Name one thing Hubes has accomplished!!
Politicians started promising in 1979 that they will rebuild U.S. Steel South Works, Wisconsin Steel, etc for years.
Take a ride down U.S. 41 and observe South Works and you will find vacant land.
Jog over to Avenue O and head south and you will see vacant land to the west were a steel mill once was. Go through Hegesisch and then ride north on Torrence Avenue and look to the east and you will see more vacant land.
As you drive down 41, Avenue O, Brainard and Torrence you will question if your car will survive driving on 3rd world streets!
P.S. You could stop at Alderman Polk's brothers restraunt and possibly observe Streets and San picking up his garbage.
it is also time for the annual crybaby session from the cta about how me need more money and if we don't get it somehow we will be forced to make across the board service cuts and reduce our workforce... or we can raise fares again.... the expected windfall the cta was to receive from being given part of the real estate transfer taxes was never realized because, DUH, nobody is buying or selling to much property these days... who is the idiot who does these pie in the sky budget projections for the city and cta...
"...an estimated $100 million came from cost overruns. Another $50 million was for mothball costs."
$50 million. That's a lot of mothballs.
BLOCK 37 STOP-ACTION FREEZE-FRAME
Someone else can write about the business-side of it, but lets look at it from a systems-operations perspective. It takes years of education and experience to really understand this professional mass-transit stuff, but let's try and explain it simply for the non-specialist.
Neither SCC nor Mike Parker explicitly spelled out an important additional fact: The "express train service" to the airport - which the abandoned superstation was being built to provide - required more track, at more expense.
Part of that CTA Blue Line route is at ground level right along the median of the expressway. How can they add more track there?....... Some of it's on elevated track. How can they add more track there?....... And then there's the subway tunnel right under downtown to consider. No room for more track in the tunnel - they'd have to dig more tunnel. They'd have to build more El-track when it leaves the tunnel, then dig more tunnel when it morphs back into subway again for a few stops. Then it leaves the tunnel and settles into the median strip of the expressway, from Addison all the rest of the way to the airport. Where's that new track going to be? If, by necessity, they had incoming and outgoing platforms, and tracks, somewhat distanced from each other along the expressway, then they'd have to build a second platform along with ramps and one or two overpasses, spanning the platforms, or maybe a second station-house at each stop altogether.
So we heard things about their building extra track just at certain points, where an express could pass a local. Unless they dug more subway tunnel and/or doubled the width of the elevated structure, the passing zones couldn't start, (outwards from downtown), until at least Addison. True, an express could skip some stops before then, and catch up with the train in front of it a little bit, but it couldn't pass a local train in front of it until somewhere out past Addison above ground...... So then - if at best an express can pass a local once or twice on the way to the airpor, how much faster could the express-train actually be anyway? Maybe more luxurious at a higher fare, but not really that much of an "express'.
Is this the way to the 1919 World Series?
As Dennis Byrne said, quoted in the Mike Parker story......
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/Block.37.train.2.1239587.html
"the concept was bad to start with."
Help me here?
Does this fall under malfeasance or misfeasance?
Either one should be grounds for a recall.
Not to mention the "Rich" possibilities for a Fed investigation.
This kind of shit will never end as long as you FOOLISH PEOPLE keep voting for this MIDGET.
Anonymous said...
The only thing bigger than the hole in the ground, is the void between Shortshanks head and the void min the head of his band of idiots called the city council.
10/10/2009 12:46:00 AM
________________________
Don't forget about the biggest void of all: The void in the heads of anyone that vote for these assholes.
Anonymous said...
This kind of shit will never end as long as you FOOLISH PEOPLE keep voting for this MIDGET.
10/10/2009 08:47:00 AM
Comments like this really piss me off. I don't know anyone who actually voted for this Mayor...and it doesn't matter because these elections aren't legit anyway---they steal every freakin election. Votes from dead people, people who have moved out of state, nursing homes, you name it. Your one vote elsewhere (and for whom? Who runs against him?) won't make any difference when they steal votes by the boatload.
Wasted effort aside, who's getting the fees for floating $250 million in bonds? I don't know, but if the that money gets back to the political types a lot faster than kickbacks from the contractors.
Look at it this way. If the stated fee of issuing a bond is around 1/2% that is $1.25 million. Add to that the legal fees, insurance, underwriting, brokerage costs (you know Morgan Stanley and companies like that) blah, blah, blah and there is some truly serious money floating around.
This isn't the $2,000 that some contractor officially gives to the pol or the envelope with a few grand either. This is big time money in the hands of the guys really supporting/running the politicians.
This money isn't reported in the FEC filings either.
Meanwhile I have a 5X6 pothole 8 feet deep in front of my house that hasn't been fixed in 8 months. Many neighbors on the block called everyone from the alderman(Zalewski is useless as tits on a bull) to Streets and San. They came about 5 months ago and put some traffic horses around it and covered it with PLYWOOD! This city is literally a shithole.
Alas, no money for police contracts.... Better line up your side jobs....
Politicians started promising in 1979 that they will rebuild U.S. Steel South Works, Wisconsin Steel, etc for years.
Take a ride down U.S. 41 and observe South Works and you will find vacant land.
Jog over to Avenue O and head south and you will see vacant land to the west were a steel mill once was. Go through Hegesisch and then ride north on Torrence Avenue and look to the east and you will see more vacant land.
As you drive down 41, Avenue O, Brainard and Torrence you will question if your car will survive driving on 3rd world streets!
P.S. You could stop at Alderman Polk's brothers restraunt and possibly observe Streets and San picking up his garbage.
10/10/2009 05:40:00 AM
They did rebuild a portion of 41 very nicely though it ends in a picket fence, put some nice daley planters and tore up about 5 blocks of housing and let it grow to the new forest presever of Chicago.
10/10/2009 05:40:00 AM
That area was recently the proposed site of a new harbor, to be deemed the 87th st harbor. It didn't get approved.
And King Shortshanks promised the IOC the Olympics were to be built ON TIME and under BUDGET,
Now the BILLION dollar question is where's the MONEY?
P.S. You could stop at Alderman Polk's brothers restraunt and possibly observe Streets and San picking up his garbage.
10/10/2009 05:40:00 AM
They did rebuild a portion of 41 very nicely though it ends in a picket fence, put some nice daley planters and tore up about 5 blocks of housing and let it grow to the new forest presever of Chicago.
10/10/2009 01:13:00 PM
CORRECTION BUD!
My names Ald. POPE! John Pope. Not to be confused with the Catholic Church POPE, or Pope The Mope.
And my Brothers Bar/Grill The Green Olive Pickle Puss
(at 135th and Avenue N) has at least 1 legit Private Scavenger pickup per month. I cannot help it if the garbage crew mistakes his bar garbage with his personal private attached home garbage.
It's all the fault of that 10th ward sanitation supervisor (with his take home vehicles) that keeps telling that crew to pick up EVERYTHING in that alley, even empty whiskey and beer bottles.
We had to cut down pickups in that area to 4 days a week, and my brodder feels the pinch when he has to pay for da extra private pickups.
And dat Hwy. 41 was rebuilt for the South Lake Shore Drive Extension that will be coming in the next several decades. It's a damn shame it's in the middle of nowhere, and totally fenced off to prevent any traffic from ever using it for drive bys.
I work very hard in my ward which was given to me by the king. We are proud to have so many city vehicles parked at our doorsteps so we can better provide for our residents (especially the board of election van parked at 116th & Avenue H, in case any one needs an extra ballot. You never know when somebody is gonna have an emergency at the board of elections).
In these hard times, it's all we can do to get by on our $100,000+ salaries.
So please, quit picking on us 10th Warders.
Meanwhile I have a 5X6 pothole 8 feet deep in front of my house that hasn't been fixed in 8 months.
--If you call the media, I bet it's fixed the next day
Meanwhile I have a 5X6 pothole 8 feet deep in front of my house that hasn't been fixed in 8 months.
--If you call the media, I bet it's fixed the next day
---------------------------------
or try and fix it yourself. :)
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