This weekend, an important first step is being taken to beat Chicago congestion and give travelers more options. The city’s dockless e-scooters and e-bikes pilot program begins Saturday and runs through Oct. 15.
A wide array of e-bike and e-scooter options provides a better alternative for commuters looking for affordable and accessible means of transportation. Safe and convenient, e-scooters and e-bikes allow people to get from point A to point B quickly, without waiting on public transportation schedules. They are also inexpensive, often costing less than a train ride or ride-share car trip.
Most important for a city like Chicago, e-scooters and e-bikes help alleviate the hundreds of transit deserts that exist throughout the city. In these neighborhoods, transportation options are sparse, and travel time costs are high.
It’s encouraging that the West Side, which I represent, was included in the initial pilot program. My constituents and I are thankful to have this new transportation option. Unfortunately, geographic bounds on the pilot zone limit the positive impacts the program can have on Chicago’s transportation system. By failing to include the South Side in the pilot zone, we are missing an opportunity to expand transit options to neighborhoods that desperately need them. And the exclusion of downtown areas means that many people who might use them to commute or connect to the existing rail system won’t have that ability.
If more services were introduced to the city, residents could easily get to and from the train, bus or even their destination without having to find and pay for parking on streets or in garages. Micromobility options help fill this crucial last-mile transportation gap, growing mass transit ridership and helping bring Chicagoans even closer to their destinations.
Micromobility services also replace car trips, taking more vehicles off the city’s already overly crowded roads. This reduction in congestion leads to a reduction in pollution, helping pave the way for a greener city.
The public deserves more transportation options. We are making progress, but more can be done to expand opportunity and equity to residents in all of the city’s neighborhoods.
— Walter Burnett Jr.,
27th Ward alderman and chairman of the Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee.
Homeless shelter a godsend
Criticism of Pacific Garden Mission, which helps thousands of homeless and, yes, disabled people without discrimination based on race, sexual orientation or creed, is unconscionable. (It is accused of not being accommodating toward people with disabilities.)
I remember passing Pacific Garden Mission on State Street as a child and asking my mother what it was. She said it was a home for people who did not have a home. Eventually, Pacific Garden Mission had to expand to Canal Street because of the number of people who needed help, and I have had the privilege of visiting it several times. Every single day, it feeds or shelter more than a thousand people, some of them in wheelchairs. However, it is not an assisted living or nursing facility. Also, it is a church. Isn’t it likely, then, that it will have religious services?
Pacific Garden Mission is very open about the fact that it is a church. It is not a flawless organization, but it does a spectacular job with its mission. Take it out of Chicago, and you will have utter chaos for the homeless. Pacific Garden Mission needs to do what it does best, and that is feed, clothe, shelter and job-train the homeless who are able to care for their own personal needs but need help with shelter and food.
— Clare Bergnach, Oak Lawn
Abuse of dairy farm animals
Perhaps the most troubling thing about the recent undercover footage released by Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) into conditions at Fair Oaks Farm is that, while appalled, I wasn’t surprised by anything I saw. If you’d asked me what I’d expect to see on a farm like Fair Oaks, I would have described untrained and underpaid workers taking out their frustration on depressed and defenseless animals. I would have described the small pens (known within the industry as “hutches”) used to isolate young calves, who are separated from their mothers almost immediately after birth, in which a large percentage of calves become so distraught that they starve themselves.
In a recorded statement posted to YouTube after the release of ARM’s undercover video, Fair Oaks founder Mike McCloskey expresses remorse for the animals being abused on his farms and pledges to prevent this sort of cruelty on his farms going forward. He outlines new procedures and precautions that, while welcome, have much more to do with reassuring his customers than preventing cruelty to animals.
If McCloskey and Fair Oaks were sincere about preventing cruelty to animals, they would be talking about things like transitioning to group housing for calves, providing pasture access for cows and other husbandry practices that industrial-scale operations resist due to added cost.
Considering the ongoing deregulation of industries including animal agriculture, at least for now, preventing this sort of cruelty to animals is simply up to each of us.
— Andrew de Coriolis,
Executive director, Farm Forward, Portland, Ore.
Fair Oaks workers reported abuse
It was encouraging to read that the culture at Fair Oaks Farms empowered employees to report the abusers before the undercover investigation was made public. Fair Oaks management should be applauded for taking prompt action to increase transparency and prevent future occurrences.
— Jeff Wagoner, Naperville
What about the management?
The news of three former Fair Oaks employees being sought in connection with abuse charges has me concerned that they are being made scapegoats. Certainly they are responsible for their actions, but let's also consider the supervisors and upper management. Was it the workers at the dairy who decided to place animals in those plastic huts in direct sun? There seem to be far too many unanswered concerns here, and management must also be held accountable.
— Lawrence Kargol, Orland Park