A lifelong CTA rider says the uptick in serious crimes make her fearful of riding public transit.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
When I say that I have ridden the CTA all my life, I am not exaggerating. I am 53, and I don’t drive. I don’t even have a driver’s license.
I have never actively avoided riding the trains in all my years of traveling the CTA, but these days, I make a conscious effort to do so because the smokers have become a serious hindrance: 50% of the time, there is someone on the train smoking as if they are at home, blatantly disregarding the “no smoking” rule. These individuals just don’t care.
Does the CTA really expect us to push the emergency button on the train to report them, at the risk of our own lives? Where are the security guards that are supposed to be patrolling the trains? I ride the CTA every single day, and I have not seen one of these guards. I am fed up.
You may think smoking on the trains is just a petty crime, but in light of the uptick in more serious crimes occurring on or near CTA train and bus stations, smoking is just the tip of the iceberg.
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I am actually fearful on the trains these days, and I’m beginning to doubt the CTA cares about its customers or its employees. I invite some of their executives to ride their buses and trains for a week or two and experience what we do on a daily basis.
Yvette Coleman-Pitts, Oakland
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I wonder why there aren’t opportunities like STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) going on in every aldermanic district this summer. Last summer, there were waves of young people walking the streets of Hyde Park and North and South Side beaches with nothing to do.
Every alderperson should have a meeting with their high school constituents and give them a list of summer opportunities, jobs and entertainment so they don’t fall through the cracks and end up walking the streets looking for something to do. Let’s avert needless trouble.
Ramona Clark, Chicago
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