Need for Direction

I know I shouldn’t have but I did…I drove through Downtown Chicago during the fireworks display on July 3, 2007. For those who aren’t aware, the city of Chicago has a big time pre-Fourth of July party where most of Chicago and Northwest Indiana come to Grant Park and surround it with tents, grills, gang bangers, alcohol, rave party accessories, weed, all kinds of fun things and party favors. The Grant Park Symphony plays a plethora of patriotic stuff and then around 9:50 pm or so they blow up millions of pounds of fireworks. Now you will understand why this is the worst night to drive anything in or near Downtown.

Part of the problem is simply lack of planning in terms of heavy crowds (annually over one million people) and heavy traffic. The love affair the city has with closing streets is unmatched. When the Chicago Bulls won their first championship back in 1990-'91, Chicago Police blocked off all roads heading North of downtown creating a massive traffic jam that didn’t allow many to leave Downtown until 3am…I’m not sure how long they have been doing the July 3^rd bangy bang but Mayor Daley decided that the city needs a group of civilians who would have the power to control the flow of traffic for special events and the occasional sports championship celebration or civil protest. The Traffic Management Authority was born and man do they ever suck.

They are the single most horrid group of people to ever be under the employ of my tax dollar. They couldn’t direct a porno movie, they cause far more traffic jams than one can count, kinda crappy attitude, did I mention that they couldn’t direct a porno movie? Seems simple to me, let the main arteries remain open and shut down parts of the city for shorter periods of time and then reopen them to release the flow of traffic. While I was stuck in traffic last night, I wondered what if this was in the middle of a “terrorist” situation. I would be in major trouble jack – that doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t think I’ll be driving downtown again considering me and Anarchy work better when we aren’t stuck in traffic.

Hey Mr. Mayor, thanks for allowing my car to overheat because your TMA sucks so horribly. Thanks also for the cherubic Chicago Police officer who made me get on the Kennedy Expressway instead of allowing me to make the left turn at Congress that would have put me 5 minutes away from where I was going. Oh yeah, thanks again Mr. Mayor for spending millions of dollars, tax payers dollars on your beloved Traffic Management Authority instead of building up the Chicago Police force with people who could direct traffic – TRAFFIC COPS like there used to be a few short years ago. The idea that someone’s grandma or ex-felon would be able to direct traffic on the busiest, heaviest traffic night of the year is a joke. It ain’t working son, not working.