On October 14 activists on the southwest side held a celebratory press conference: after seven years of fighting they’d finally persuaded the CTA to restore weekend service on the Douglas branch of the Blue Line. That same day, over at Roberto Clemente High School, scores of transit users were at a hearing protesting new service cuts the CTA said were looming. The CTA seemed to be giving with one hand and taking away with the other.
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Kruesi probably thinks he’s got license to be imperious because of his close relationship with Mayor Daley, whom he’s served in one capacity or another since Daley was a state senator back in the 70s. Over the past few weeks Kruesi’s been playing his favorite hard-guy role, meeting with civic groups and community organizations and giving them an ultimatum. According to people at the meetings, he’s told them to either join the CTA’s protest or face cuts. So far the tactic isn’t working, because a lot of people don’t believe he’ll keep services as they are even if the CTA gets all the state money it wants. And they’re not sure he’s not at least partly responsible for the mess the system is in–after all, he’s been running it for the past seven years.
One activist group, the Blue Line Transit Taskforce, has said it’s willing to join Kruesi. But then it’s the only group so far that’s managed to wrest a concession from him in return for its support. There’s no love lost between Kruesi and the task force, a coalition of community organizations from Pilsen, Little Village, and North Lawndale. The two sides have been warring since 1997, when Kruesi cut weekend and late-night service on the Blue Line branch that runs along Cermak between Paulina and the suburb of Cicero. Kruesi said ridership had fallen; the activists countered that more people would ride the train if the CTA did a better job of maintaining it.
He opted to look inconsistent. Working through Munoz, he told the task force he’d restore weekend service as of January 2, 2005, regardless of whether he got more state aid.
“Although it has taken too long, I’m so happy that the community’s demands have finally been heard,” said Gladys Woodson of the Lawndale Neighborhood Organization. She and other task force members also pledged to join Kruesi in Springfield to press Blagojevich and the General Assembly for more money for the CTA.
“I’m not going to Springfield to do your dirty work,” another man yelled. “I don’t trust you. I don’t trust you for one minute.”
People laughed. The CTA officials stood up to leave.
