Chicago Tribune - 24.02.2020

Chicago Tribune|Section 1|Monday, February 24, 2020 3

CHICAGOLAND

It can be a long wait to get on
the bus, as people ahead of you
fumble for change and try to re-
member where they put their
Ventra cards.
That wait is one of the chief
causes of bus delays, along with
bad traffic.
In order to speed things up, the
CTA this summer will introduce
an “all-door” bus boarding pilot on
two South Side routes — the busy
#J14 Jeffery Jump and the #
University of Chicago Hospitals
Express. All-door bus boarding
allows riders to enter a bus
through both the front and rear
doors.
The six-month test is part of a
larger CTA plan to improve bus
service, which includes creating
priority lanes on busy routes so
buses can get through traffic fast-
er. Bus ridership has dropped
almost 25% since 2012, a decline
the agency blames in part on the
rise in ride-share.
“This is a big change,” CTA
spokesman Brian Steele said.

“Never in our modern history have

we offered all-door boarding. We

think it’s something customers

will respond to positively.”

The routes connect with Union

Station and the Ogilvie Trans-

portation Center west of the Loop.

The pilot will start in June on the

Jeffery Jump, which runs seven

days a week between 103rd Street/

Stony Island Avenue and Wash-

ington Boulevard/Jefferson Street,

and on the #192 route, which runs

between Clinton/Madison streets

and Cottage Grove Avenue/57th

Street during weekday rush hours.

The Jeffery Jump, which runs

express for long portions of the

route, carries nearly 10,000 pas-

sengers every weekday and is one

of the busiest routes on the CTA

system, Steele said. The #

carries 600 riders on an average

weekday.

Riders will be able to use a fare

reader for Ventra or contactless

credit, debit or bank cards for

“tap-on” boarding at either door,

Steele explained. Customers who

want to pay cash still will have to

go to the front

The agency will spend

$450,000 to install card readers on

30, 60-foot accordion-style buses.

Steele said he did not expect

fare evasion to be a problem since

it has not been an issue with other

transit agencies that have

launched all-door boarding. Bus

drivers can use rear view mirrors

to spot problems, and can ask

people to come to the front to

ensure they’ve paid their fares.

Steven Higashide , a national

transit expert who wrote the book

“Better Buses, Better Cities” about

improving bus service, said the CTA

is “late to the game” in all-door

boarding. Several other U.S. cities

use it for busy routes, and San Fran-

cisco has it city-wide, Higashide

said. San Francisco and some other

cities use fare inspectors.

“I think it’s almost certain you’ll

see some benefits in terms of bus

speeds,” Higashide said of the

CTA pilot. “Hopefully, they don’t

spend an inordinate amount of

time studying a small pilot and

determine quickly whether they

can scale up to all-doors boarding

on all routes.”

In its 2018 report card on CTA

bus service, the Active Transporta-

tion Alliance gave many busy

routes poor marks due to con-

gestion and slow speeds. The

advocacy group’s report recom-

mended all-door boarding as one

solution to the problem.

“It’s really exciting,” alliance

spokesman Kyle Whiteheadsaid of

the pilot. “There’s been a decline

in bus ridership and we’ve been

making the case that a big reason

why that’s happening is that we

haven’t been doing enough to

make the bus competitive with

other options.”

Any incremental drop in mon-

ies collected because of fare eva-

sion will be made up for by an

increase in riders because service

is faster and more reliable, White-

head said.

Bus ridership has dropped almost 25% since 2012, blamed in part on the rise in ride-share.

NUCCIO DINUZZO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE 2017

Tired of waiting

to get on the bus?

CTA tests plan to let riders to board at back door

Mary Wisniewski

Getting Around

Transportation

song quiz

■No disrespect to the cowboy

or the construction worker, but

the best version of our trans-

portation song last week was

done by the Muppets, dressed as

Vikings. The song was “In the

Navy,” originally performed by

the Village People. Christine

Lamut of Albany Park was first

with the right answer.

■This song was written in

response to a segregation-re-

lated drowning in downstate

Cairo, and became an anthem of

the civil rights movement.

What’s the song, and who wrote

it? The first reader with the

right answer gets a Tribune tote

bag, and glory.

The only visible damage to a
$1.5 million Naperville home
used for an unauthorized house
party on Super Bowl Sunday is a
3-inch smudge on a family room
wall.
But the biggest loss for
Naperville resident Dean Bato-
gowski is to his reputation, and
he’s reaching out to neighbors
and Naperville City Council to
make repairs.
Four people who live near the
seven-bedroom, 7,000-square-
foot estate on Santa Maria Drive
appealed to the Naperville City
Council this week to shut down
what they described as a “party
house” after 150 people showed
up Feb. 2 and caused havoc on the
block.
“The chaos lasted well into
Monday morning, culminating
with numerous fights at 4 a.m.,”
Nancy Cole, who lives on the
block, told the city council. “My
sense of security in my own home
has been shaken.”
Andy Hunter, who lives across
the street from the home where
the party took place, said he woke
up Feb. 3 to find bottles strewn
around his yard.
“This is unacceptable and a
dangerous situation,” Hunter
said. “We want neighbors that
value family and schools, not
unaccounted businessmen and
weekend partiers.”
The incident is not the first
involving an Airbnb in Naperville.
Prior to this, the most public
abuse of a short-term rental
property occurred last year at a
home on North Ellsworth Street.
Residents on that block com-
plained at a council meeting
about an out-of-control New
Year’s party at which guests
urinated in public, fought and
threw bottles in neighbors’ yards.
City staff is compiling informa-
tion on how other municipalities
regulate Airbnb and VRBO rent-
als in order to come up with
policies to curb future incidents,
said Allison Laff, deputy director
of the city’s Transportation, Engi-
neering and Development de-
partment.
Batogowski said he feels be-
trayed by the client who booked
the palatial home in the East
Highlands neighborhood, the
first client he had use the home
marketed as a luxury, executive
short-term rental.
He and business partner Don-
ald Russell decided to move into
the short-term rental market in
Naperville after Batogowski had
success renting out a home on
Airbnb and VRBO in the Canti-
gny Woods neighborhood of
Wheaton, he said.
His idea was to offer a place in
Naperville where companies
could hold corporate meetings
and retreats; families of Edward

Hospital patients could feel at

home during a stressful time;

North Central College alumni,

guest speakers or families of

students could stay; or genera-

tions of former Naperville resi-

dents could share the holidays or

reunions without putting every-

one up in a hotel, he said.

This weekend the home is

booked by a group of people

celebrating 10 years of being

cancer-free, he said. Last week-

end it was rented by people

involved with the NBA All-Star

game. “That is the vision I had for

this home,” Batogowski said.

The actions of his first

Naperville client, he said, is oppo-

site of what he had in mind. “It

was a colossal mess-up,” said

Batogowski, who also lives in the

East Highlands neighborhood.

“My brand means a lot to me,”

he said. “I’m so embarrassed by

it.”

Batogowski said the property

was booked through Airbnb for a

birthday/Super Bowl party that

was only supposed to have 30

guests.

Despite meeting with the cli-

ent twice to explain the ground

rules, which included strict park-

ing restrictions and a require-

ment that no additional guests

were allowed, Batogowski said

the client broke the agreement

when more than 100 extra people

showed up.

Batogowski said he was at

another party when his security

system alerted him of the vast

number of people entering

through the front door. He im-

mediately left to address the

situation, he said.

Neighbors, meanwhile, were

calling the police multiple times,

they told the council.

Batogowski said he and police

worked to disperse the party-

goers, but many kept returning

and trying to get back inside.

Police officers were on the

scene for roughly four hours and

one party-goer received a cita-

tion, Police Chief Robert Mar-

shall told the city council.

Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis said

while the fire department would

have concerns about emergency

egress at a home occupied by 150

people, the city does not have

occupancy limits for residential

properties.

The property owner needs to

be hit economically to prevent

situations like this from happen-

ing again and to pay for capitaliz-

ing officers’ time, Councilman

Kevin Coyne said. “There needs

to be a financial repercussion for

allowing something like this,” he

said.

Until the city has policies in

place to prevent the abuse of

short-term rental properties,

Councilwoman Patty Gustin said

residents and city staff should

push Airbnb to remove the Santa

Maria Drive property from its

listings.

Batogowski said the Airbnb

renter should be the one puni-

shed, not him or the people from

whom he leases the property.

Airbnb has banned the renter

from using its online service,

Batogowski said, and he’s in

negotiations with Airbnb for the

renter to pay a $20 a head penalty

for each of the 100 extra people

who showed up, on top of the

$1,600 cost for two days of use.

The home is owned by Steve

Malik and Jo Malik, who said that

before they leased the property to

Batogowski, they had rented it

out themselves for the last three

and a half years. This was the first

time there’s been any trouble,

they said.

Steve Malik said despite what

neighbors said at the council

meeting, he and Jo are not out to

make money off Batogowski’s

lease. The amount Batogowski

pays is about the same as the

monthly $6,000 mortgage on the

property, he said.

Jo Malik said she and Steve

were approached by Batogowski

after the Maliks took a trip to

Florida and booked a home

through a short-term rental serv-

ice. Because she had a good

experience there, she was open to

something similar in Naperville,

she said.

“Never ever in our wildest

dreams did we think this would

happen,” Jo Malik said.

As a former resident of the

home, Steve Malik said the reac-

tion of neighbors is understand-

able. “I would be livid,” he said. “I

don’t think it’s been handled in

the best possible way.”

Jo Malik said she has tried to

convince her former neighbors

and the city that neither she nor

Steve Malik wants their $1.

million estate to become a party

house, and it’s also not in Bato-

gowski’s best interest to earn that

title because of the time and

money he’s invested into staging

the home.

Batogowski estimated he’s

spent thousands of dollars in

furniture, decorations, bath and

bedding items and kitchen fur-

nishings and has no desire to have

it all trashed by uninvited party-

goers.

Batogowski plans to tighten

security measures and is requir-

ing clients to supply a list of

people who will enter the home,

whether for an hour or for a full

night.

If on surveillance cameras he

counts more than the allotted

number of people entering the

home, he’ll immediately send out

the private security company he’s

hired to remove any additional

individuals, he said.

As a neighbor living in East

Highlands, Batogowski said he’s

wants to repair the relational

damage the party caused and

encourages his neighbors and

city council to give him a call to

open up a dialog.

[email protected]

‘It was a colossal mess-up’

Neighbors demand answers after party goes awry at $1.5M Naperville estate

By Suzanne Baker

Naperville resident Dean Batogowski stands in the kitchen of a 7,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom estate

in the East Highlands neighborhood of Naperville that he rents out through Airbnb and VRBO.

SUZANNE BAKER/NAPERVILLE SUN

Early Sunday, as Chicagoans

were getting ready to enjoy a day

of unseasonably warm weather,

meteorologists at the National

Weather Service were honing this

week’s forecast — including de-

tails about another snowstorm

that’s expected in the area in the

next few days.

Forecasters said the storm

could move into the area Monday

night and linger through Wednes-

day, “with significant accumulat-

ing snow possible,” according to a

social media post. When it first

reaches the Chicago area, the

system is expected to start with

rain, then drop wet snow that will

turn to snow and start accumulat-

ing. By Tuesday, the snow will

become heavier, continuing into

Wednesday before tapering off by

Wednesday night, forecasters

said.

Higher snowfall amounts are

expected to the northwest. In

Rockford and portions of

McHenry County, there was more

than a 90% chance that the

snowfall will exceed 2 inches.

There was only about a 30%

chance that portions of Chicago

will get more than 2 inches of

snow, meteorologists said. Near

Midway Airport, meteorologists

said the chance for 2 inches of

snow was only 19%.

“Due to the complexity of the

evolution of this storm, confi-

dence is still fairly low with exact

snowfall amounts. However, it

appears that the potential exists

for several inches of accumulation

especially across portions of Iowa,

Wisconsin and northern Illinois,”

according to the weather service

website.

Colder weather also is expected

to accompany the snow, and

temperatures will drop even

lower behind it. As of 4 p.m.

Sunday, the high temperature at

O’Hare was 55 degrees. Monday

and Tuesday temperatures should

hold in the mid-30s, but on

Wednesday and Thursday night

the low temperature is expected

to be in the low teens and single

digits, forecasters said.

“Dry but colder weather then

moves in by the end of the week,”

the weather service said.

Monitor information on the

storm as the forecast firms up by

visiting the Tribune’s weather

page.

[email protected]

Twitter @312BreakingNews

Winter

weather

returns to

Chicago

Snowstorm, single-digit

temps in the forecast

By Katherine

Rosenberg-Douglas