Doris and I cross Grand Avenue several times a day on our walk to the dog park. As we wait at the red light for the sparsely occupied #65 bus to travel east to Navy Pier, I muse, wouldn’t it be lovely to take my adopted Jack Russell Terrier aboard?
The Chicago Transit Authority has never recouped ridership or revenue since the pandemic. One of the only benefits of the pandemic was the emptying of pet shelters. Home confinement meant loneliness. Shelter dogs were the miracle cure. Less dangerous than medical intervention and more effective in the long-term, dogs became wedded to their owners. Once hitched, it was hard to separate human from animal and vice versa.
Currently, the CTA only allows small pets inside a closed travel carrier. Alas, many dogs selected from shelters, like my 30-pound Doris, do not fit in a travel carrier and would be unliftable for me. They would be barred.
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I can hear outraged readers shouting their objections.
“I’m afraid of dogs,” might top the list. Well, I’m afraid of a pickpocket who sidled up to me on a bus trip. And the rider who exposed himself to me as I watched the streetscape from my window seat sparked fear.
If I were to ask readers for their episodes with fear on buses, this newspaper might have to add pages.
“Dogs can be rowdy,” an objector might opine. My counter: Have you ever rode the CTA when a gaggle of teens have commandeered seats?
“I have allergies,” another rider offers. But do we know if a fellow passenger is carrying COVID-19, has a cold or flu, or another transmittable disease? In truth, we take our lives in our hands whenever we enter a covered public space.
And while you’re muttering, “The things they let people put in the newspapers these days,” I’ll be closing my eyes and imagining Doris and me in a window seat, smiling.
Elaine Soloway, River North
CPD’s focus should be on hiring
Supt. Larry Snelling is the right man to lead the Chicago Police Department, but I believe he is wrong in saying the officer shortage will get better before it gets worse. The police department is over 1,600 officers short, and 700 are expected to retire this year.
The CPD has never kept up with attrition, and that goes back years. Four hundred forty promotional opportunities were created, and the majority of the people promoted come from the Bureau of Patrol, which is the backbone of the department.
The CPD should take a slow roll on promotions until more people are hired. The CPD has been slow to hire because not many people were applying, in part because of who was leading the department. But now the CPD has someone who will have his officers’ backs, and that should help with recruiting.
Richard Barber, Mount Greenwood
Creating a global mess
The GOP seems to be unable to be productive. Why create a “self-inflected” wound by playing two countries, Israel and Ukraine who are fighting to survive, against each other?
Senseless and destructive actions like this are now the trademark of the GOP.
Warren Rodgers Jr., Orland Park
