Most mass transit is privately owned, UIC management professor Anthony Pagano reminded the Transportation Research Forum last fall: “The private [transit] sector [not counting taxis, limos, or medical transport] is estimated to operate 14,715 vehicles in the Chicago area. This is over seven times the number of buses operated by public transit in Chicago.”
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“New York was always a money town [with] Wall Street booms and crashes. Chicago began as and remains a labor town, rooted in efficiency and product,” reflects Robert Simonson in Stagebill (January/February). In New York “you’d better make money or you’re dead….The lower [midwestern] overhead leaves art room to breathe and artists the space to experiment….Theater in both towns thrives, but under the influence of two very different attitudes.”
Wanted: more immigrants. From Harper’s “Index” (January): “Percentage of all immigrants to the United States during the 1980s who were receiving welfare in 1989: 4.”
Figures you won’t hear from the mouths of Edgar, Burris, Netsch, or Phelan. State spending on AFDC, per case, in 1974: $700. In 1991 (in constant dollars): $400 (Tax Facts, November-December).
