Chicago will cut back on snowplowing because of budget woes:

"Mayor Richard M. Daley said Tuesday that city crews will cut back on plowing side streets this winter in an effort to save money. The mayor said the city will only plow side streets during weekday union business hours this winter, rather than during overtime hours."

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/snow.re....2.877966.html

And we may have 5 inches of snow tonight.

It's not like maintaining streets you can drive on and street parking places you can get out of and hospitals you can access is, you know, a basic function of a city government or anything. Maybe the mayor could raise cash by firing some of those thousands of city employees who don't seem to produce very much. Of course, when you are laying off cops while the murder rate soars, you've already started showing pretty bad management skills

I wonder if Jane Byrne will run for mayor again after this decision backfires on Daley the way it did on Bilandic.

Chicago has always been about plowing the loop and major streets first and logistically speaking this makes the most sense. Chicago continues to have one of the best snow removal programs in the nation.

My suggestion would be to start with all of the 1000 "Traffic Aides," that in theory are supposed to keep traffic moving, but do more to clog it up. You certainly don't need three or four of them at every intersection.

http://www.truveo.com/Are-Traffic-Co.../id/2945617691

Howdy, Mayor Daley!

Give them all snow shovels - at least they'd do some good! The only thing they manage to do now is snarl traffic through their completely unintelligable hand motions and their screaming at drivers.

Terrible idea. How are drivers supposed to know when it is safe to proceed through an intersection with a stoplight?

And what about all those goofballs standing around behind/beside the Mayor when he gives a press conference? Aides, PR people, assistants, cops, bodyguards, cosmetologists, who knows?

Probably 25-30 people, all making $50+ an hour, doing nothing. Makes me ill when I think how highly taxed even low-income people are in the city.

Payoffs for airport contracts, truck contract ripoffs, etc.

The city just leased all the parking meters to Morgan Stanley. Now it's going to cost way more to park, forever. I just heard Daley on the radio about how "it's an asset, and if you don't use an asset, it becomes a liability" in that screech-voice that tells you he knows he's caught lying. I imagine he didn't major in accounting.

And Cook County is worse. Wish my house were a few miles south.

I'm with the Mayor on this one !

They are cutting back on plowing the shoulders of roads, and will instead rely on green technology:

"We'll also use the sun to melt ice on the highway shoulders."

Well, I agree that 3 or 4 are too many, but one who is doing his/her job during rush hour would be a godsend. Yesterday, I sat for THREE light changes at a Near North intersection while IDIOT drivers repeatedly blocked the intersection, preventing traffic in my direction moving at all. After that, when my light turned green again, I just drove into the intersection and got right up to the driver doing the blocking and looked at her while everyone else honked. I finally got through. We need something like NYC - $300 fine for blocking the "box."

^ ^ Totally agree. I'm surprised the city hasn't hit on that as a "revenue enhancer" yet.

Ah, yes. But in my experience it is frequently the "green vest" people who fill up the intersection by forcing people through when they really should have waited. My favorite is when the take posession of the traffic light control box and start to change it manually. Total chaos ensues.

Does anybody know how this worthless "make work" program got its start? This would be the first place I'd look to save money if I were Hiz Honnor.

The program was supposed to free up the CPD to fight crime rather than direct traffic. As an example; living in Lakeview/ Wrigleyville for 13 years now there were only a hand full of CPS officers that would direct traffic immediately near the ballpark (i.e. Clark/ Addison) before 2001-ish. Now, of course there are green vests at every intersection and even on the side streets of my neighborhood and traffic has never been worse.

There were none at the corner I complained about. Maybe ONE of them, had s/he been there, solved the problem.

Yeah, that's working well.