CTA has long road ahead to regain riders' trust
Chicago cannot function without reliable public transit. And right now, too many riders simply don’t trust the CTA to work.
That’s the daily reality: long waits, ghost buses, inconsistent train service, and safety and cleanliness issues that never quite feel addressed. People no longer plan around schedules — they plan around uncertainty.
This isn’t just inconvenient. It’s expensive.
Reliable transit is one of the most effective affordability tools a city has. When it works, families can avoid the high fixed costs of car ownership — loans, insurance, gas, parking and maintenance. When it doesn’t, people are forced into those costs whether they can afford them or not. Unreliable transit functions as a quiet tax on working families.
In my work around the city, this issue comes up more than almost anything else. The same simple frustration: “I just can’t rely on it anymore.”
When a problem is consistent citywide, something fundamental is broken.
I see this firsthand as a rider. The operators are almost always excellent, but too often the system around them falls short, and those moments are what make people quietly decide not to ride again.
The usual response is familiar: more funding, a new plan, new leadership. Those may be necessary. But they won’t be sufficient. The Chicago Transit Authority’s core problem isn’t money — it’s credibility.
Transit should be run with one overriding goal: reliability. That means honest schedules that match staffing reality, fewer missed runs and service riders can actually plan around. Honest service beats fictional service every time.
Buses offer the fastest path to improvement. They already carry nearly half of CTA riders, especially on the South and West sides, yet they’re slowed by traffic we’ve chosen not to manage. Dedicated lanes and signal priority can deliver results quickly.
Safety and cleanliness must also be treated as core service standards. Riders don’t need slogans — they need visible presence and a sense that someone is in charge.
Chicagoans will invest in transit. What they won’t do anymore is write blank checks for a system they can’t trust.
Reliable transit isn’t a luxury. It’s essential to affordability and a city that works.
Liam Stanton, founder, The Chicago Style Project
‘Wash our dishes’
A love letter to the outcast:
To the man and wife fleeing
after they misted napalm;
the pilgrim seeking
a quiet room to pray;
a mother with foresight
to plant in good soil.
Only to find the earth is sullied here —
A wasteland of
Rubber bullets
Pepper spray ravines
Dirty rivers red, red with blood
And unsigned land deeds.
Pitch your tents here
And pay taxes at the gate.
We make no promises
For your welfare —
To not plunder your camp
Or kidnap your kid under the stars.
Still,
Wash our dishes
Clean our hotel rooms
And tend to our sick.
We’ll show our gratitude
By spitting in your face.
Christine Tran, poet and graduate student, creative writing, DePaul University
Hold fossil fuel industry accountable
If recent events have taught Chicagoans anything, it’s that we must fiercely protect our rights, communities and the rule of law from lawless federal overreach. But in addition to the Trump administration’s threats, the most serious threats we face are those of powerful corporate interests — in particular the fossil fuel industry — which is urging Congress to take away our right to hold fossil fuel companies accountable in Illinois when they violate the law.
Our members of Congress must stand firm and reject these dangerous proposals to give legal immunity to entire industries causing harm in our state and city.
I am proud that the city of Chicago has taken legal action to make Big Oil companies pay for fueling detrimental heat waves, damaging storms and ruinous floods in our communities and deceiving the public about it for decades. Minnesota and Michigan have also filed lawsuits against Big Oil, arguing that they have deceived us all about the detrimental impact of extracting and burning fossil fuels.
Michigan is the first state to claim that Big Oil violated antitrust laws, putting renewable energy fuel resources out of business. Since oil and gas companies caused this mess, they should be the ones to pay for cleaning it up. But Republican attorneys general, backed by the Trump administration, have proposed giving those same companies a "liability shield" that would eliminate Chicago’s ability to have our day in court against these companies. This shield from immunity, which is the industry’s top priority for 2026, would also make null and void any "climate superfund" laws passed in Illinois this legislative session — and such a bill has been introduced to ensure that fossil fuel companies pay for the damages caused by their products. Let’s be clear: No industry should be above the law.
The climate crisis is exacerbating the affordability crisis by driving up costs for taxpayers and local governments. We can’t let massive fossil fuel companies eliminate our ability to make them pay their fair share. When the next climate-fueled storm hits, who should be charged with cleaning it up — everyday Chicagoans or the oil companies that fueled the crisis in the first place?
It’s up to our leaders to protect our right to the courts and our ability to create laws that hold industries accountable. Tell Congress now: "No immunity for Big Oil."
Laura C. Derks, Illinois lead, Center on Climate Integrity, Oak Park
Restore science funding
As a scientist, I read the op-ed in the Sun-Times headlined “Scientific study of flies could save lives, but government funding cuts pose threat” (Feb. 4) with sadness and concern.
As the product of nature, we live in a world dominated by science. By studying this world via patient scientific inquiry, science has aided humanity's existence to such an extent that much of our economy, national defense and well-being and health are dependent on science. Yet, despite all of this progress, the Trump administration and Elon Musk have severely defunded scientific research and higher education. This will severely harm America's ability to adapt to looming threats. We will also lose our ability to compete globally.
I call on the Trump administration to restore and boost science funding to guarantee America's future as the world's only superpower.
Michael Pravica, professor of physics, University of Nevada Las Vegas
Send love to caregivers
With 200 residents at my retirement home and another 100 workers and visitors circulating daily, human dramas are playing out here constantly. Many of the most moving cases are up on Floor 5 with the highest care level. Some are rehabbing convalescents, expecting to rejoin the material self-service world. Others, though, are merely marking time before heading out a side exit near my own first-floor room, on a gurney under a sheet.
Beforehand, only so much can be done to make everyone comfortable physically, let alone emotionally. Friends and family or no, there are, after all, many empty hours.
This sad situation speaks loudly to one housekeeper who spends much of her shift on 5, fluffing pillows and swabbing floors. Boosting our morale isn't her affair. Her octogenarian parents' shaky medical condition back home is, and her sons in college, with husband and wife both starting to feel the long-term effects of physical jobs. And yet she steps up, befriending new residents to start, quickly detecting whatever their strengths have been. Then she basically says, "See? This is what’s made you important!"
Psychologists apparently label such a personality an affirmer. Regardless, as all the token gifts she got last Christmas suggest, she's rejuvenated many a faltering spirit. She's done it for me.
If there's a shining star like her in your orbit, reflect on that often. And even after Valentine's Day, float an affectionate note to show them this blessing isn't lost on you.
Tom Gregg, Niles
Penn pusher
As our nation approaches its 250th anniversary, we should not only celebrate our freedoms — we should remember the faith that helped shape them.
William Penn founded Pennsylvania as a "Holy Experiment,” a colony built on Christian principles of justice, peace and love of neighbor. Long before 1776, he wrote and spoke passionately for religious tolerance and freedom of conscience in England, even at great personal risk — facing threats of death. His vision of liberty of conscience, fair laws and respect for all was not only groundbreaking but laid the foundation for what would eventually become the U.S. Constitution.
In 1751, to mark 50 years of this experiment, the Pennsylvania Assembly commissioned John Pass and John Stow to cast a bell. Inscribed with Leviticus 25:10 — "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof" — the bell celebrated the enduring principles of faith and freedom that Penn had established. This bell, later known as the Liberty Bell, stands as a symbol of liberty grounded in faith.
If liberty is to endure today, we need to take a second look at the faith of Penn — grounded in something greater than himself, grounded in true liberty. Penn loved God, loved his neighbor and lived out the freedom that flowed from it. It worked for him, and it can work for us today.
Rev. Pete Linko, McDonald, Pennsylvania
Police have failed Lane Bryant murder victims
The 2008 massacre inside a Tinley Park Lane Bryant remains unsolved. It's about time the 55,000 residents of that village call out their police department for their lack of guts, communication, transparency and results. When is enough, enough? Despite a $100,000 reward, a sketch and evidence left at the scene, the case has never seen an arrest or a suspect. The Tinley Park Police Department has failed their community, the people and, most importantly, the victims' families. Shame on them.
Charlie Minn, director, "The Tinley Park 5"
O’Neill Burke passes the buck
Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke said an executive order requiring cops to document potential violations by federal immigration agents could raise issues of political interference that could jeopardize criminal prosecutions. Mayor Brandon Johnson — who last week said his office will not refer alleged misconduct cases to the state’s attorney's office — has simply asked the police to do their jobs. Maybe O'Neill Burke can figure out a way to do hers and prosecute the unlawful acts of the federal agents. Or maybe just admit she doesn’t want to?
Joe Muszynski, Lake View
Art of destruction
The American painter and sculptor Jasper Johns had this advice for other artists:
- Take an object.
- Do something to it.
- Do something else to it.
It appears that Donald Trump has taken this to heart. Except that for him, the thing in question is the U.S. Constitution. And governance is not the same as art.
Bob Chicoine, Brookfield
Super-offensive dancing
Am I the only woman in the world who found the choreography for the female dancers in Bad Bunny's halftime show offensive? It is hard to understand how, on one hand, the performers lament the treatment of women in Puerto Rico, yet on the other hand, the women are depicted as nothing more than sexual objects through their gyrating dance routines in their short shorts with their derrierès up in the air throughout. I don't think this did the women of Puerto Rico any favors.
Patricia Lofthouse, Park Ridge