* Crain’s…

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s latest appointment to the Regional Transportation Authority board is another politically connected pastor who until today was unaware of the $730 million fiscal cliff facing the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace.

All but two members of the City Council’s Transportation Committee approved the confirmation of the Rev. Ira Acree to the RTA board today. Acree’s appointment will go to the full City Council on May 22.

The mayor can appoint five members to the RTA’s 16-member board. While the Chicago Transit Authority generates revenue from the farebox, the RTA provides the CTA with supplemental funding for operating expenses. The RTA is also tasked with overseeing the budgets for the CTA, Metra and Pace.

Johnson’s pick for the RTA board comes after the mayor recently appointed Garfield Park Pastor Michael Eaddy to the CTA’s board, a move that reflected a Chicago tradition of choosing board members who boast more political connections than transit experience.

Heather Cherone has more on Acree’s transit experience…

Acree told Vasquez he drove to City Hall to appear at his confirmation hearing to sit on the board overseeing the CTA, Pace and Metra — although he added that he relied on the CTA as a teen and now uses it to get to the Loop to avoid paying for parking.

“I don’t have to use CTA,” Acree said. “I’m fortunate to have a car. But I use CTA often when I come downtown, because even though I am a working pastor, these parking tickets are super high.”

Acree, who endorsed Johnson during the 2023 election after backing former Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2019, said, if confirmed, he would use his seat on the RTA board as an extension of his work as a civil rights leader.

“Instead of holding protests, I’ll be on the inside and be very instrumental in making changes,” Acree said, adding that his “diverse voice” and “unique skill set” will be an asset to the board.

Jake Sheridan at the Tribune…

[Ald. Scott Waguespack] then asked Acree how he would address the $730 million budget shortfall facing the RTA, a well-publicized crisis facing the agency as federal COVID-19 relief funds start running out.

“Well, No. 1, this is my first time hearing about a $735 million shortfall, so I would not want to respond to that today without doing the research,” Acree said.

After the hearing, Acree told reporters he misspoke when he said he was not aware of the massive financial cliff facing the RTA. “Misstep, a lot of pressure,” he said. “I know about it.”

When Acree was asked what he would do about the critical issue, an aide promptly ushered him away. “Let me have time to think about it and I can respond later,” he said as he walked away.

Block Club Chicago…

Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) and Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) were the only two aldermen on City Council’s transportation committee to “nay” Acree’s appointment in a voice vote. […]

“The preparation was clearly not there, and to hear him say the mayor didn’t even call him, there was no conversation about any of this, is striking when you hear how really frustrated everybody in the city is about the public transportation system,” Vasquez said following the hearing.

Waguespack appeared to stump Acree when asking him if he supported farebox integration for CTA, Pace and Metra as state lawmakers consider a consolidation of the transit agencies.

Acree added it would be “unfair to pass judgment” on Carter until he joined the board and received more information. Waguespack disagreed.

“I think it’s very important to know, before you go into this position, what some of your judgements are going to be of leadership,” Waguespack said. “We churn out transit experts from our universities here in Chicago…yet we’re lacking in that leadership both at the CTA and the RTA.”

Statehouse reporters asked Mayor Brandon Johnson yesterday about Acree’s experience…

Q: Your pick to head RTA and Reverend Acree today, in his confirmation hearing said that this was the first he was hearing of that structural deficit of over $700 million. When you were selecting him, what kind of experience in transit did you look for? And do you think that he’s gonna pick more of that up as he works the job?

Mayor Johnson: Well it’s lived experience. Look, the systems have been designed to focus primarily on those who have more of a sort of ‘corporate response’ to the world. My approach is to ensure that everyday people who rely on these systems are at the table to help make decisions around how we build a system that works for everyone.

Q: And does that kind of comment, instill confidence in state lawmakers, as you’re down, you’re asking for more money for the city for RTA for all sorts of things?

Johnson: Well, again, people who are closest to the problem can tell you that right now, we don’t have a reliable, affordable system that speaks to the needs that people have.

We have working people who are trying to get to and from their spaces, the type of congestion that we are experiencing in the city of Chicago is one that has to be addressed.

And again, I’m putting forth people that have real lived experiences, to the challenges that we are experienced in these particular communities. And I have absolute confidence that his lived experience will help us keep a real voice to those families.

Thoughts?

* Nick Blumberg at WTTW covered the CTA board of directors meeting yesterday…

The Chicago region would face devastating consequences for residents without its public transportation system, including a huge spike in pollution, a major drop in economic activity and millions of canceled activities, according to a new study.

The report was conducted by MIT and Argonne National Laboratory researchers and presented at a Chicago Transit Authority board of directors meeting on Wednesday. CTA President Dorval Carter said the agency will use the report as “a major foundational point for our overall advocacy of the transit system,” an effort to get Springfield lawmakers to address the fiscal cliff facing transit when billions in federal COVID-19 relief funding runs dry.

But Carter didn’t address another huge measure introduced in the General Assembly last week that would see CTA, Metra and Pace merged into a single transit agency replacing the current Regional Transportation Authority. […]

While board chair Lester Barclay and one public commenter briefly mentioned the proposed governance reforms, Carter kept mum on the issue and focused his comments on funding and the MIT/Argonne report.

* WGN…

From service to staffing, and from reliability to ridership, the Chicago Transit Authority is falling short of post-pandemic public transportation recoveries in comparable cities, according to an analysis of data by WGN News.

Comparing ridership numbers from 2019 to 2023, the CTA’s “ridership recovery” lags behind systems in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Boston, and slightly edges past New York’s MTA, a system, with more than six times the CTA’s daily ridership.

The CTA, the nation’s second largest public transportation system, has cut service on rail lines by 22 percent, and service on city busses by 7 percent, according to publicly available data analyzed by Commuters Take Action, a public transportation advocacy group. […]

In January the CTA held a job fair to attract new bus and rail operators – trying to fix what the labor shortage. According to the latest available data, the system has lost at least 200 bus operators and 150 rail operators since before the pandemic. […]

The problems, though, persist for customers. Those concerns ultimately land on the desk of CTA President Dorval Carter. Despite several requests from WGN News, the CTA did not make carter available for an interview.

* Related…

* Block Club | ‘Out Of Control’ Pigeon Poop Problem At Belmont Red Line Station Finally Cleaned Up, Ald. Says: After pleading with CTA President Dorval Carter and his staff to address the deplorable conditions of the Belmont stop, Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th) was happy to announce the station has been deep cleaned and the pigeon poop removed. […] About a month ago, Lawson wrote a letter to Carter’s office asking the CTA president to visit the Belmont stop — the busiest CTA station north of the Loop — and see for himself how dirty and damaged the station had become.

* Forest Park Review | CTA proposes new billboard, residents adamantly oppose it: The CTA proposed the 120-foot-tall billboard with two, 60-foot-wide LED screens that are always on, though they’re dimmed at night, at the southeast corner of the CTA Blue Line station in Forest Park. The CTA pitched the billboard to advertise goods and services, according to a staff report made last month by Steve Glinke, director of the village’s department of public health and safety. Because the billboard is slated to be on CTA property, Forest Park won’t get any money from the billboard’s advertisements. CTA said it’s still in discussion with the village and will have answers to questions at a later date.