Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Metromuddle
Combining feature-heavy covers with daily news requires careful balancing. RedEye understandably relies on flash and novelty to grab readers and entertain them, but it's hard to stretch that logic over metro coverage. This Tribune story about the resurgence of ping-pong is worth reading in itself, but it should not be the lead story in RedEye's Chicago section. It shared today's page 6 with this story about a high-school hazing incident. But glance over to page 7 and you'll learn that police discovered bones that may belong to a missing Southwest Side man and that more Illinois sex offenders are registering their addresses.
The same problem hinders Kyra Kyles' public transportation column. A column on the Chicago Transit Authority is ideal for this paper's intended audience, and Kyles has offered some newsy meat from time to time, especially in her Nov. 22 column about city workers who get free CTA rides (which is an old policy but still worth covering). She's also provided readers with handy safety tips. That's why it bugs me that Kyles used today's column to suggest "rider resolutions" that would help passengers get along better. First of all, most riders aren't that bad to each other, considering the CTA is crowded and inefficient enough to make one understandably forget one's manners. Public trains and buses just aren't classy joints. I agree with Kyles that "It's a no-brainer to demand cleaner trains, faster 'L' and bus service, as well as better communication about service delays." I expect the CTA to be screwy for the rest of its existence. But there is still much more reporting to be done about why the CTA has so many financial and technical problems. Commuters can get RedEye for free at any number of L stations--making it an ideal platform for digging up the roots of CTA problems. Riders could stand to be more polite, but they would also benefit from a better understanding of the institution they rely on to get to work and back.
The same problem hinders Kyra Kyles' public transportation column. A column on the Chicago Transit Authority is ideal for this paper's intended audience, and Kyles has offered some newsy meat from time to time, especially in her Nov. 22 column about city workers who get free CTA rides (which is an old policy but still worth covering). She's also provided readers with handy safety tips. That's why it bugs me that Kyles used today's column to suggest "rider resolutions" that would help passengers get along better. First of all, most riders aren't that bad to each other, considering the CTA is crowded and inefficient enough to make one understandably forget one's manners. Public trains and buses just aren't classy joints. I agree with Kyles that "It's a no-brainer to demand cleaner trains, faster 'L' and bus service, as well as better communication about service delays." I expect the CTA to be screwy for the rest of its existence. But there is still much more reporting to be done about why the CTA has so many financial and technical problems. Commuters can get RedEye for free at any number of L stations--making it an ideal platform for digging up the roots of CTA problems. Riders could stand to be more polite, but they would also benefit from a better understanding of the institution they rely on to get to work and back.
