Getting Serious

I was at a family gathering this weekend, when someone asked me how the blog was going. I sheepishly admitted I hadn't been able to keep up with as much as I would've liked because of the rigors of journalism school. Another family member mentioned she had recently read there were 24 million blogs wasting away on the internet. 24 MILLION.

I'm determined to get back in the saddle and make I Am Chicago the blog I always imagined it could be.

In the coming months it will...

• move to Wordpress.com


• look like an actual website with hopefully cool design


• have regular features


• incorporate the concept behind my class blog By the Bootstraps

... just to start. Let me know if you have any ideas to add to the site's transformation. I hope to unleash it by October, we shall see.

Credit Cards and Chicago Taxi Cabs, Together At Last

Photo credit: Anthonia Akitunde

While I still think Chicago is the best American city, one thing New York has going for it are the touch screen consoles located in the back of every cab. Passengers can watch local programming, see the route the driver is taking to their destination via Google Maps and, most importantly, pay for their trip with a credit or debit card.

For years many Chicagoans who wanted to pay for a cab ride with a credit card were met with hostility, claims the driver's machine "wasn't working" or plain refusal of service. A report in the Chicago Tribune yesterday said this gap in service was the number three complaint regarding Chicago taxi service and the number one complaint in the taxi industry.

Thankfully plans to install those consoles in up to 2,600 Chicago cabs are underway. Only 30 cabs currently have the technology installed. The article did not say when the installations would begin.

After hearing the news through Chicagoist, I asked my cab driver this morning why drivers were so weary of accepting credit cards (after he initially said he didn't take cards only to change his tune).

"If you give me a credit card, I have to take it," said the driver of Yellow Cab 4378 (his license was covered up).

But, he went on, it can take a while for the cab's credit card reader to authorize a transaction. If the purchase does not go through long after the ride, the driver has to pay for it out of pocket.

Also credit card companies take 5 percent of the fare total whenever a card is used, cutting into the driver's profits, according to the Tribune's report.

While the new technology won't address that concern, drivers will benefit from placing control in the passengers' hands. Officials predict drivers will less likely be targeted for crime since they'll have less money. Because of the gratuity calculator included in the console, drivers saw a 7 percentage point increase in tips, from 15 percent when passengers paid in cash versus 22 percent with their cards.

As for us passengers? The ride back home after a long night just got a hell of a lot easier.

It's Really All Quite Simple

It's Election Day: exercise your right to vote.

Another Voting Reminder

For all my talk about being registered to vote, I should also add that one should make sure their voter registration is up-to-date so they can go to the correct voting location. I used Vote For Change to download and print forms updating my voter registration and for some reason, this change hasn't been noted on the website or the Chicago Board of Elections site either.

I could either go back down to the South Side (where I am currently registered) to vote come election day, go in person to the Cook County Clerk office downtown and update my registration there, or vote early at a nearby Northwest side location.

I'm leaning towards early voting - I doubt some October surprise is going to sway my vote. But again, make sure you're registered to vote and know where your district's polling site is!