Good morning.

As Chicago braces for some serious cold tomorrow, the Opinion page has some hot takes on offer to warm you up.

Perhaps the hottest of the bunch is entrepreneur Liam Stanton's call for Chicago to offer parents of preschool children universal child care. Yes, you may react as I did with, shall we say, skepticism. But there is no doubt that raising a child is a dauntingly expensive challenge.

Speaking of kids, at least when they reach school age, the editorial board remarks on a recent study finding that a greater percentage of Chicago parents are opting for private schools rather than Chicago Public Schools at a statistically significant level.

And the edit board has thoughts on the surprising news that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson bid billions to take back control of the city's parking meters. He thought better of following through on a purchase, wisely, but the sale of the meter lease to another party opens the door to negotiations to soften the more obnoxious aspects of one of the sorriest municipal finance chapters in Chicago's history.

Check out former GOP Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra's heartfelt lament for the decline in civility in our politics thanks to you know who and his hope that a pope from Chicago can help us recover from this moment.

And, last but definitely not least, I loved transportation writer F.K. Plous' piece on the potential to build up train travel between Chicago and lots of important Illinois destinations. Think places like Peoria and the Quad Cities. And we should create a train station to access Starved Rock, our jewel of a state park. He got me dreaming.

All this and readers' letters too. It's a lot. Stay warm, and we'll shiver together tomorrow.

— Steve Daniels, editorial board member

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