One way to pay is to eliminate overstaffing. Your previous posted noted that the CFD's contract mandates a five man crew on engines. The industry standard is a four man crew (and any number of departments only have three). I would think a "fair contract" would do things like eliminating any form of overstaffing requirements.
Yeah - was very frustrating to see in that Tribune story from this week that the Johnson administration is backing down from an effort to move to a four-man crew.
I think there's a definite argument that some portions of the city should keep the 5-man crews (a team fighting mostly high rise fires in River North likely has different demands than a team fighting SFH fires in Jefferson Park, for example), but moving to a 4-man floor seems like a reasonable step here.
Where does the estimate that we need another 20 ambulances come from? I’m trying to reconcile that claim with the idea that there’s not enough unmet demand to pay for them. Is demand uneven enough that we are sometimes 20 short even though each new ambulance would get less than two calls a day? Or is this planning for reserve capacity for worst case mass casualty scenarios?
To be honest, I think another 20 is reasonably conservative given those pop/ambulance ratios - we'd need more like 40 new ones to get in line with national averages - but it's a start.
Good question! The main issue is response time for the ambulances we currently have is unacceptably long - there's been some good reporting on this from local media:
The main reason for this is that our crews are overworked and aren't always able to respond immediately, and if you look at our population-to-ambulance ratio it's quite high compared to other major cities (see my last article on this here: https://citythatworks.substack.com/p/how-to-reprioritize-the-fire-department)
It would be great if we could restructure the whole fire department to better meet the needs of the 21st century. We should have fleets of smaller, quicker vehicles to respond to medical emergencies. Think like a John Deere Gator loaded up with EMS equipment and a defibrillator. Not only would it save money but would probably lead to better outcomes. The new and improved fire department wouldn't need houses and could take storefront space.
One way to pay is to eliminate overstaffing. Your previous posted noted that the CFD's contract mandates a five man crew on engines. The industry standard is a four man crew (and any number of departments only have three). I would think a "fair contract" would do things like eliminating any form of overstaffing requirements.
Yeah - was very frustrating to see in that Tribune story from this week that the Johnson administration is backing down from an effort to move to a four-man crew.
I think there's a definite argument that some portions of the city should keep the 5-man crews (a team fighting mostly high rise fires in River North likely has different demands than a team fighting SFH fires in Jefferson Park, for example), but moving to a 4-man floor seems like a reasonable step here.
Where does the estimate that we need another 20 ambulances come from? I’m trying to reconcile that claim with the idea that there’s not enough unmet demand to pay for them. Is demand uneven enough that we are sometimes 20 short even though each new ambulance would get less than two calls a day? Or is this planning for reserve capacity for worst case mass casualty scenarios?
To be honest, I think another 20 is reasonably conservative given those pop/ambulance ratios - we'd need more like 40 new ones to get in line with national averages - but it's a start.
Good question! The main issue is response time for the ambulances we currently have is unacceptably long - there's been some good reporting on this from local media:
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chicago-fire-department-ambulance-response-time-watchdog-report/
https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/01/29/chicago-emergency-response-times-are-worsening-a-slain-rappers-mom-wants-to-know-why/
The main reason for this is that our crews are overworked and aren't always able to respond immediately, and if you look at our population-to-ambulance ratio it's quite high compared to other major cities (see my last article on this here: https://citythatworks.substack.com/p/how-to-reprioritize-the-fire-department)
It would be great if we could restructure the whole fire department to better meet the needs of the 21st century. We should have fleets of smaller, quicker vehicles to respond to medical emergencies. Think like a John Deere Gator loaded up with EMS equipment and a defibrillator. Not only would it save money but would probably lead to better outcomes. The new and improved fire department wouldn't need houses and could take storefront space.