It’s remarkable to me that a non-profit organization that gets to license out the intellectual property rights to make toys and merchandise with some of the most popular children’s characters of all time would struggle for cash like this. I would have thought that that revenue stream alone would be huge, but apparently it only covers about 20% of their budget.
Also, given all the messages about sharing and helping each other out you’d hope that the organization would be a little less hostile towards unions.
Anyway, sad times for all the folks who are losing their jobs.
Some might recall that I pass through Chicago a couple of times each year, and I usually point out aspects of the city that just seem needlessly off.
Well, next month I will be for the first time spending the night in Chicago, and I have discovered a new complaint: The Chicago Transit Authority (“CTA”) rapid transit system, also known as “the L” does not connect to Union Station.
Once again, St Paul, MN has Chicago beaten. Not only can you get a cup of coffee after 3PM in St Paul, but the Green Line has its eastern terminal right outside Union Depot.
Wherever the L doesn’t go, busses should. Look up the city bus routes.
Also, you are super privileged to live in a Twin Cities with truly useful mass transit. This was not the case when I was growing up there. In fact, no commuter buses came to our southern 'burb until after I graduated high school, and those only went into Minneapolis in the morning and returned in the evening. Did that trip one time to get holiday shopping done, it kinda sucked. But, hey, I had plenty of time to sift through Sun’s Rock-N-Roll Items entire store (long gone, was on First Ave. a couple blocks from First Ave. - AKA - Prince’s first night club, the one you see in Purple Rain. Fun fact, that club used to be a Greyhound bus terminal my grandpa drove to and from every week for many years).
Yep, its an annoyance, but the closest connection is the Blue line at Clinton, about 2 blocks south. Not too long of a walk, unless you’re hauling suitcases.
Busses do not count as legitimate public transportation.
Well, I don’t exactly live there per se. Not at the moment. The busses in the Twin Cities still suck. The Green Line will become truly useful when it finally runs all the way to Eden Prairie. And then it should also have a branch that runs along Lake Street.
WAT. Visit Ann Arbor, Michigan to experience a truly useless bus system. Ames, Iowa, 30 years ago had a better bus system. Don’t use the Twin Cities as your baseline for this. Chicago really does have almost all territory covered between the L and the busses. I’ve used it in earnest, I’m the weirdo who tries out mass trans in every city they visit if such a thing is available.
Other side of the river is where I grew up. Burnsville and Eagan. Back then, Eagan didn’t have a high school, you went to Burnsville or you went to Rosemount. I went to Burnsville.
But you wouldn’t want to stay at any hotel within a couple of blocks of Penn or Grand Central stations, so you need the subway (hauling suitcases up and down stairs and through turnstiles) to get anywhere.
Also, there are local commuter stops from trains from the Metra Oglivie station across the street (North) from Union Station.
And what’s with the hate for buses? I was on 2 different CTA buses today. They’re a perfectly reasonable form of transport, especially when the city is laid out in a web, to connect between the el stops, etc. Tap your credit/debit card, and when you tap again at the el stop it’s considered a transfer, not a new fare.
Um… pretty sure that’s wrong. Public transit is just transit that’s funded by tax payers… so yes, buses that are funded by a city, county, or state is public transit.
