Tim Wong is getting off'ed from the Transit & Parking Commission.
This is the latest in a string of purges and threatened off'ings.
First some context. The best thing that happened with the election of
Dave Cieslewicz as mayor in 2003 was the influx of new blood onto the
various commissions. We got bikies (and miscellaneous enviros) onto
virtually every commission that has to do with transportation and
land use planning. (It didn't just happen, folks. A lengthy list was
drawn up, and handed to the mayor the day after the election. Many,
if not most, on that list were appointed to the various commissions.)
And we made a lot of changes along the way.
In Tim's case, he was a strong voice for *promoting* transit during a
time when the mayor was starting to back away from his early
promise(s).
Tim's worst sin was actually paying attention to things like data and
citizen input. For instance, he understood the absurdity of cutting
the 2nd and 4th most productive bus lines in the city (the 10 & 11).
He understood the economic absurdity of raising fares during a time
when people were flocking to the buses. And he actually did things
like read his packet and analyze the data therein. Staff seemed to be
perpetually flummoxed by a commission member who actually read &
understood the data analyses.
I realize I just wrote all this in the past tense. He's not dead yet!
Write to the mayor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), write to your alder of
your disgust with this purge and those that are to come. Because with
each purge, the mayor becomes emboldened to purge more good people.
-Mike Barrett
P.s. And who is he being replaced with? A 1970s re-tread who managed
the parking utility up through the mid(+/-) 1990s. Soglin really
liked him because he didn't rock the boat or have new ideas. Yup,
just what we needed, another head-nodder.
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