Wrong Place, Right Time

The photographer Arthur Fellig who is known for his brutal depictions of big city life, is said to have gotten his nickname, Weegee (the phonetic spelling of Ouija) from police officers who marvelled at his ability to arrive at crime scenes often before they did. While his uncanny talent for being in the right place at the right time, so to speak, Speed Graphic camera and bare bulb flash in hand, was more the result of sheer determination and the help of a police radio rather than any supernatural power, today the photographer, whose work resides in the collections of art museums all over the world, is officially known by his psychically inspired pseudonym.

Just blocks away, something newsworthy happened
exactly at the same time
these photographs were taken...

Needless to say, I am no Weegee, especially in regards to being in the right place and the right time. Sometimes I feel if I have any remarkable talent at all, it is for always, and I mean always, picking the wrong checkout line in a supermarket. So great is this talent, I've often thought of hiring myself out to grocery stores who could use me to inform other customers, suggesting they observe me to determine which checkout line NOT to enter.

Never has my un-Weegieness been more apparent than the other day when as I was making these rather mundane photographs of an L station. Unbeknownst to me, at the exact same moment one station away, a newsworthy incident was taking place aboard a train. Now I did notice that southbound trains were backed up and I saw the train where the incident was taking place, stopped at the station, but train backups such as these are hardly unusual occurrences. So I went about taking these pictures for my picture-of-the-day series, more out of a sense of obligation than anything else.

...Do you think I can sell them?

Then as I headed to my car, one police vehicle after another, sirens and flashing lights ablaze, headed south toward the station. Hmmm, I thought, something must be going on, I wonder what it is. Rather than following the trail of the sirens, as Weegie would have, I headed straight to my car, as I had a much more important task at hand, I had to pick up my daughter from school. You see my wife is out of town and this job was by far my most important one, in filling in for her. As is common with school children these days, my daughter is involved in different after school activities, and each day her schedule varies. To help me out, my wife prepared a very detailed calendar describing each day's events and what time to be there to collect her. She then read me the riot act about what would happen if I were to arrive late, and the fines we would accrue compounded upon each minute of tardiness. To me, the fear of fines is almost as dire as the fear of God, and getting to school on time took on an almost religious significance.

But I still was curious as to what was going on such a short distance away, so when I got in the car, I turned on the radio to the all news station. Like most of these urban incidents, the first mention of them usually occurs during a traffic report. Sure enough the traffic reporter said trains were backed up on that line due to police activity at that particular station. Obviously, nothing I didn't know already.

News of what had actually happened didn't make the airwaves until after I had picked up my daughter. It turned out that a man had set himself on fire while riding on the train, not at all a common occurrence, even in a big city like Chicago.

Naturally my daughter was dumbstruck. "Why would somebody do that?" she said. "And especially on a train?" I had no answer. Then she added rather comically: "Why wouldn't he do it in the snow?"
"Good point" I thought.

It turned out the man who ignited himself survived the ordeal. A police officer was slightly injured during the melee to put out the fire, as was a transit worker, the real hero of the story, who actually extinguished the fire.

And yes there were bystanders present who recorded the incident on their cellphones, although at least from what I saw, none of them got anything close to as compelling an image as Weegee would have captured.

Had I been there, I certainly would have done no better. My typical response in bad situations (never been in one this bad) is to see if I can be of assistance, or get out of the way if other people are handling the problem. Even though I'm a photographer, typically the last thing on my mind at a time like that would be to take a picture of someone else's misery.

But by far and away the most chilling thought on my mind as the incident unfolded behind me was what would have happened had that day I left work just slightly later. I most certainly would have stuck on a train for maybe an hour, and had been late to pick up my daughter.

That evening for one of the few times of my life, I kept thanking my lucky stars for having been at the wrong place at the right time.

The CTA, Bringing People Together

Standing at the L platform the other day, I heard the familiar voice of the operator whose train I've been riding regularly for the past couple years. Unlike most operators who prefer to let the official canned voice of the CTA make the announcements, this operator went to extremes to make sure his passengers knew who was in charge of his train.

The train I usually take in the morning runs express for part of its run, and it was during this ten minute gap between stations where he usually took the opportunity to speak to his captive audience. "Good morning riders..." he'd say after pulling out of the station where I board the train, "...welcome to run number (such and such). I am CTA senior operator number (such and such), and welcome aboard CTA's love connection." Then he'd go on to describe details of that day's run, including possible delays or anything else out of the ordinary we could expect to encounter on the run. If there was nothing out of the ordinary, the exception, not the rule, he'd just shoot the breeze for about half the time between Howard and Wilson.

But the other day when I heard the voice over his train's external speakers, it was not my train. As he reminded us every day for the past month, the CTA in its infinite wisdom, was changing his runs. In one of his laments about about how sad he was to leave this particular group of riders and how it has been his pleasure over the years to serve us, he told a story. It turns out that one day, a couple came up and told him that they got together because of him. Day after day it turns out, this couple who were strangers, noticed each other but as is often the case on public transportation, respected each other's personal space too much to do anything about it. Eventually the ice between them was broken during one of the operator's trademark banters. when one of the two, (not sure which one), made a comment about him. Now the operator didn't mention whether the couple's first conversation ever was about how funny, or how aggravating he was, (he could indeed be both), but without question it was he who brought the couple together. Presumably this was the inspiration for calling his run the "love connection."

This week the morning train ride has been remarkably silent and ho hum. The general good feeling and even camaraderie that once existed between the riders is broken. Couples who are attracted to one another on the train are going to have to find some other way to break the ice. Or like me they can start riding the local, where operator number (such and such) can still be found, no doubt engaging, enraging, and bringing people together.

In the climate of division this country is currently experiencing, that can only be a good thing.

Courtesy Campaign

The Chicago Transit Authority is instituting a new publicity campaign focusing on certain behaviors that many riders find objectionable. Ads featuring humorous photographs like this one will be coming soon to a bus or train near you:

The most effective of the CTA's new signs encouraging more decorous behavior on the part of its riders.

This campaign is a departure from the no-nonsense signs posted on busses and L cars of my youth admonishing riders not to smoke or expectorate.

It seems those signs did their job, I can't for the life of me remember the last time I saw someone light up or hock a loogie on public transit. In the subsequent years, new annoyances came along and the CTA designed up to date signs to address them:

Notice there is no mention of spitting.

As you can see, loud radio playing, gambling, eating and littering have been raised to the level of smoking, that is to say violations so egregious, they can land you in the slammer. However truth be told, the last time somebody got busted for littering in Chicago, the Cubs were hoisting the National League pennant over Wrigley Field.

In case you don't follow baseball, that was a very long time ago.

After reading some of their mail, the CTA felt it was time to address a plethora of other issues that contributed to rider discontent. While there is some overlap, the issues the new campaign is directed at, are mostly kinder and gentler faux pas than the ones that made the verboten list.

As a long time rider of the CTA, I consider myself something of an expert on the subject. There is quite a range of offenses on the current no no list, from honest mistakes to outright violations of common decency. Folks on public transit may be excused for example, for failing to stand on the right side of an escalator, for not moving to the middle of the car, or not moving down the platform and using all the doors. These are learned behaviors, you're not born knowing this stuff. I have to remind myself of that whenever I'm tempted to yell at someone who enters the train before I have a chance to get off, giving them the benefit of the doubt that their mothers never taught them that piece of basic etiquette. Eating on the train, while to many may seem uncouth, is perfectly legal on Chicago's commuter railways, as is drinking alcoholic beverages. Therefore, the CTA's restrictions on eating and drinking must be clearly spelled out.

The truly boorish behavior on the list can be divided between sins of omission and sins of commission. Not surrendering your seat to a pregnant woman may seem to be as lame an act as possible, but as illustrated in the photo above, especially in our age of the electronic device, sometimes we become so engrossed in our own little worlds, we tune out the big one. I think all of us are guilty of that at times. Then there's that awkward moment of not being quite sure if a woman is pregnant. Do you try to do the right thing by offering her your seat and face the possible humiliation for the two of you if she is indeed not with child? Who knew riding the L could be fraught with such perplexing ethical dilemmas?

Listening to the radio the other night I heard a CTA official discuss the new program and its goals. He said the signs were intended to educate the public on the matter of bus and train etiquette, and in extreme cases, encourage appropriate behavior through humiliation. The thought is this, instead of directly confronting some jerk who insists upon leaving his bag on the seat next to him while other people are standing. a commuter could simply point to the sign above that says: "Did your bag pay a fare too?"

Rude behavior knows no bounds regarding
age, gender, race or country of origin.
Fortunately, the same holds true for exceedingly
polite behavior.

Well I'm sure the educational part of the campaign will have some impact but let's face it, jerks will be jerks and I'm afraid that all the humiliation in the world isn't going to change that. Some people simply wear their jerkdom on their sleeve like a badge of honor.

The truth is, in my decades of riding public transportation in Chicago and in other cities around the world, I've discovered there is a fairly constant, bell-shaped distribution of the behavior of public transit riders ranging from those who go above and beyond the call of duty, to total jerks. I'd say those two groups are represented in fairly equal numbers at either end of the curve, while the rest of us who are perfectly happy to do the right thing, albeit with a little bit of nudging at times, comprise the vast majority of riders.

Case in point, yesterday a woman in an enormous motorized wheel chair was about to enter the bus I was riding. At least ten people sitting in the front of the bus, got out of their seats without any prompting from the driver to make room for the lady. Two people who did not move on their own, made no fuss when the driver asked them to surrender their seats as well.

Then there's this guy in the photo above who despite the fact there were people standing on the train, (in this case, me), he continues to take up the seat next to him with his bag. Was his sin of omission inadvertent or was he an unrepentant jerk? Only he and his maker know for sure.

In case you're wondering, here's the complete list of transgressions the CTA plans to address in its new campaign:

• Move to the Middle of the Car
• Let Others Off Before You Board
• Don't Block the Doors
• Stand Right, Walk Left on Escalators
• Move Down the Platform and Use All Doors
• No Eating on the Train or Bus
• Offer Seats to Expectant Mothers
• Yield Priority Seats
• Don't Litter
• Don't Play Loud Music
• Don't Put Bags on Seats
• Refrain from Loud Cell Phone Talking
• Don't Hold the Doors

Quite an impressive list isn't it? I applaud the CTA for their efforts to introduce new civility into its system.

Right now as I'm writing this on the L, blasting over the loud speaker comes the motherly admonitions of the operator of our train, instructing passengers on the platform to let others off before they get on, others to move to different cars if they can't get on the car in front of them, and still others on the train to move to the middle of the car so as not to block the doors. People at this moment are listening to her, and obeying.

It just occurred to me that the authoritative reproach coming from this strong-willed woman, is far more effective at whipping us all into shape, than any advertising campaign which no doubt costs the cash-strapped agency plenty. I bet even the unrepentant jerks would fall into line at the sound of her shrill voice.

Short of having everybody's mother ride with them, maybe cloning this operator to drive all CTA busses and trains would be the real solution to making sure everybody on board behaves themselves. After all, a little maternal slap on the wrist every now and then never hurt anybody.

An elegy for soon to be Lost Chicago

Ask me to name my favorite street in Chicago's Loop and I'd have to go with Wabash Avenue. The buildings that line the street aren't necessarily the best this city's architects had to offer, but they all reflect the attention to quality and detail that late nineteenth and early twentieth century architects put into their work. While not one single building is what you might call a masterpiece of design, when you put them all together, they create a breathtaking streetscape, speaking to each other in a distinctly turn of the twentieth century language. The loudest voice in that conversation, both visually and audibly, is the elevated structure that has dominated Wasbash Avenue since 1894. The L is to Chicago what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, the Brooklyn Bridge is to New York, and the cable cars are to San Francisco, that is to say, a magnificent work of late nineteenth century engineering that continues to stir hearts, and symbolize its city.

Of the four, Chicago's L is probably the least universally loved. It's noisy and it casts a perpetual shadow on the street below. It can be terrifying as well, as anyone who has ever traveled on or stood below trains as they make the tight, precarious curves twenty feet above ground can testify. Fears of trains falling from the sky came true in 1977, when an Oak Park bound train bumped into another train standing just east of the State and Lake station. The forward momentum of the trailing cars on the 90 degree curve at Lake and Wabash caused them to jump the tracks and topple to the street below.

The technology was well in place in the 1890s and a subway system as intricate as New York City's was considered. Because the Chicago rapid transit companies were privately owned by different entities, overwhelming difficulties and costs prevented it. The Union Loop as it was originally called, would enable the L lines to arrive downtown, traverse the overhead tracks, then return to their original destination without having separate terminals in the central business district of the city. This greatly facilitated transferring from one line to another as there were no routes that ran through downtown. As a private entity, city statutes mandated that the construction of the elevated structure above city streets would require 100 percent approval from the property owners along those streets. This being Chicago, you can imagine the shenanigans that went on to get the approval to build the Union Loop. But build it they did, and despite all the commotion and racket over the years, the 120 year old structure is still serving us well as it thrills and terrifies us at the same time.

The real beauty of our L, is the structure itself. As one of the consolations to property owners along the proposed route who feared the structure would cast the entire street in shadow, the builders agreed to build the structure supporting the tracks using an open, lattice-work system of trusses,  rather the solid beams. Consequently the Loop L, as opposed to the rest of Chicago s elevated structures, has a light, open feel to it, which perhaps enhances the death-defying quality of the experience of  trains rumbling above your head.

Madison St. station house

The elegant, functional design of the L structure, contrasts with the design of the stations which were built in a more traditional, historic-revival style, such as the neo-rennaisance of the station house on the left, reflecting the popular architectural fashion of the time. Most of the Loop stations have been significantly altered over the years, with the exception of the Quincy and Wells station, which has been restored virtually to its original appearance, and the Madison and Wabash station, which at this writing, has just been closed for good and is awaiting demolition.

The purpose of the demolition is to replace two Wasbash stations, the one at Madison, and eventually the one at Randolph two blocks to the north, with one modern station spanning from Madison to Washington Street. This would serve two very practical purposes. Reduction of the number of stops in the Loop, as they did a decade ago on Wells Street will, theoretically anyway, reduce congestion and improve travel times. Perhaps more significantly, the new station will be built to current ADA standards, making it possible for people with disabilities to better access public transportation, a very good thing by any standard.

On the other hand it's likely that another reason for the new construction to cut costs in the long run by reducing the staff needed to operate one extra station. Of course politicians love to get their names all over shiny new things and you can bet you'll see the mayor's name (whatever name that may be) plastered all over the new station.

The old Madison and Wabash station was built in 1894 along with the Wabash Avenue leg of the Loop structure, the first section of the Union Loop to be built. As you can see from the photographs, the station has seen better days, no doubt a result of receiving only the most basic maintenance as its days have been numbered for a good time now. Yet even through the rust, the pigeon proofing screens, and the grime, you can still appreciate the fine detail work of the ornamentation of the station. The new station as you can see in the photograph of the "Coming Soon" poster below, will sport undulating rib-like beams (a recent article compared the station's design to the work of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava), which will support a transparent canopy to protect passengers from the elements, while giving them an unobstructed view of the architecture that surrounds them. From the renderings, the new station appears attractive, exceptionally functional, and respectful of its surroundings.

Still I'm going to miss the old station which I must say was one of my very favorite places in Chicago if for nothing else, the spectacular views of Wabash Avenue, provided by the bridge that spanned the tracks.

That bridge has long been redundant as passengers can now walk beneath the station to transfer to the opposite tracks, and there are no plans to replace it with another one in the new station.

Attractive as it may be, the new station will definitely change the character of the street, which is not entirely a bad thing. Still, destroying a structure that's been around for 120 years shouldn't be something to be taken lightly. Then there's the view...

Take a good look, once the bridge is demolished along with the old station, no one will ever have this view of  Chicago again.

My iPhone and I during the evening commute...

So I've had my iPhone for about two months and haven't quite gotten to the point where I feel lost without it, but I'm getting there. There are still a few things I'm fumbling around with, I still haven't mastered the art of typing on the device, especially on a moving train, as being able to write this blog during my daily commute was one of the justifications for getting this thing in the first place.

Another justification was being able to have a camera with me at all times without having to carry around my rather cumbersome gear. Again, taking pictures with my phone at a moment's notice, isn't second nature to me just yet.

But the other night on the way home during a spectacular "sky event" as a good friend would call it, I got inspired...

I posted this image on Facebook and got about 50 likes in a day, I'm guessing it was the sunset. A friend asked if I used any digital manipulation or if I published the image straight from the camera file. I responded merely that the image corresponded more or less to the way I saw the scene at the time, which was in fact, true. Having been a serious photographer since high school, a very long time ago, I know that photographs seldom look the way you see the image in your mind's eye when you take the picture. There are lots of reasons for this but the most obvious one is that a camera and the recording medium, whether it be film or an electronic sensor, do not "see" an image the way our eyes and brain do. Photographers since the advent of the medium over 175 years ago, have understood this and have worked very hard to make their final images look just the way they think they ought to look.

Yet another surreptitious smartphone photograph of
people using smartphones on the train.

In the case of the picture above, there is a great difference between the amount of light coming from the sky and the amount of light reflected by the woman's coat or the tracks. Photographers call this the dynamic range. Photographic media can record a far more limited dynamic range than we can see. When we take a picture, if the range between brightest part of the image and the darkest is too great, compromises have to be made. If we want to preserve detail in the shadow areas, then we have to be willing to lose some detail in the highlights which will be rendered as solid white. Likewise; if we want to preserve details in the highlights, such as the vivid colors in the sky, we have to acccept that the shadow areas will be rendered solid black, unless of course we do something about it.

Back in the day when we shot black and white negatives, we could control the exposure and the development of the film to maximize its potential of producing a suitable print.  Ansel Adams took this technique to its logical extreme when he developed what he called the "Zone System." Then when we made a print in the darkroom, we had the ability to selectively control the amount of dark and light by means of what we call burning (adding more exposure) or dodging, (subtracting exposure), to specific areas of the print. Burning and dodging a print is an art form unto itself; watching the hand gestures of a skilled photographic printer dodging and burning in the darkroom is a truly sight to behold, akin to watching a potter on a wheel or a woodworker on a lathe.

Moonrise, Rogers Park

Alas, as a result of modern technology, this is becoming a lost art as most of the post-production of the photographic images we see today is done on a computer. If prints are made, they are produced on a machine. Today we can digitally control images to a degree that we could only dream about in the old days.

We like to think of photography as a medium that accurately represents reality but the fact is, photographs represent reality no more than paintings or any other kind of visual representation, as the act of framing and recording any three dimensional image onto a two dimensional surface, whether it be film, paper, canvas, or a computer monitor, is by its very nature, artificial.

Moonrise  RP2

Ever since the advent of the revolutionary digital photo editing software Photoshop in 1988. many people have viewed any kind of image manipulation as artificial, and therefore, cheating. Some folks for example, go to the extreme of claiming that the photographs they publish on the social media site Instagram, were made without the benefit of one of that app's many image-altering filters. Somehow they feel this is more pure and honest. But the truth is that every photograph made since the very beginning of the medium has in one way or other been manipulated.

Do photographs lie? Of course they do. Every one of them, to some extent.

All digital technology has done is make the process simpler and more accessible to the general public.

Today, there are apps for smartphones that make it painfully easy to do what once took a skill developed after years of practice in the darkroom to accomplish.

So there's the long winded answer to my friend's question if I used Instagram filters and other digital manipulation techniques on these photographs from the other day. Here's the sort version:

You're damn right I did.

Casa Bonita and Venus (the planet)

About a tenth full

They say the difference between an optimist and a pessimist is that the optimist sees the glass as half full while the pessimist... well you know the story.

I've mentioned before that I'm the son of  woman who believes that if you anticipate the worst out of life you're seldom disappointed; and that philosophy has served me well for many years. But when push comes to shove. as far as my general outlook on life is concerned, I'd have to say I'm a glass is half full kind of guy. In other words, when things look pretty bleak, I figure it could always be worse, at least up to a point.

My optimism threshold is about twenty percent; that is to say, if the glass gets any lower than that, all bets are off. During this evening's commute, I encountered two women who put my capacity for optimism to shame. 

The train I take home is called the Purple Line; it makes local stops between Downtown Chicago and Belmont Avenue, then runs the next five miles express, north to my stop, Howard. Now the Purple Line runs on the same track as another train, the Brown Line. That is, up until Belmont, where the Brown line switches tracks and heads northwest. It's not unusual for Brown Line riders to mistakenly board a northbound Purple Line train at Belmont, only to discover after the doors close, that they are in for a ten mile detour. 

Some people rant and rave about their misfortune, sharing their woes with the rest of the passengers, while others suffer in silence. Some people take it all in stride, but the woman who sat across from me who made that mistake this evening was downright philosophical about her problem. Another woman sitting next to me, a seasoned Purple Line rider, struck up a conversation and was very comforting and understanding about the situation. "Oh this train is an express and it will only take ten minutes to Howard. You'll have plenty of time to catch the last express train that will get you back to Belmont in no time at all." Knowing better, I kept my mouth shut. 

The two women became fast friends and kept up their up-beat banter for most of the ride north. The so-called "express" train actually ran at a pretty good clip, unusual given the cold weather and the terrible condition of the tracks. We got up to Morse, two stops from Howard, in just as the woman predicted, about ten minutes. She said to her new friend, "you see, you'll be able to catch the express back, no problem. The Brown Line passenger, happy with this unexpected turn of events got up and went to the door as the train began to slow down, assuming that we were about to enter the Howard station where she could finally get off the train going in the wrong direction. Again, knowing better, and not wanting to sound like a Debbie Downer, I kept my mouth shut.

The train came to a stop, as it almost always does as we approach Howard. What I didn't want to tell the woman is that three different lines, all going inbound and outbound, use that station and there is always a delay in the evening as the crunch of trains going in six different directions at rush hour is too much for the system to handle. 

So we waited.

And waited.

The women for the first time during the ride remained silent. Then the voice of the operator came over the speaker. It was unusual as he did not spew out the normal CTA-speak explanation for the delay: "we are standing momentarily waiting for signal clearance. we expect to be moving shortly." His frustration was apparent as he said: "Folks, what can I tell you, we've been standing here for ten minutes and there are still two trains ahead of us, I don't know what the hell they're doing with these trains up ahead of us but we'll be sitting here for a while. All I can say is the CTA says it's sorry, and I'm sorry. " In all my years of riding the system, I've never heard such candor from an employee. 

After the announcement, the stranded rider sat down again. She realized, as did the rest of the passengers in the car, that she'd certainly miss the last express train and have to take the Red Line local back to Belmont, about a thirty minute ride, if she was lucky. 

Again, she was philosophical. She said to her new friend, "in these situations, I tell myself this happened for a reason. I imagine something terrible might have happened to me had I caught the right train." The other woman then relayed a story about how her ex-husband once missed a flight meaning he would miss a job interview and the opportunity of a lifetime. It turned out that the flight he missed crashed just after takeoff killing everyone on board. 

The story confirmed the woman's feelings, and seemed to make her feel better. 

Again, I kept my mouth shut, hoping and praying that nothing bad would happen to her on the way home.

Flyover II

I just finished writing an argument against the building of a rail overpass (the Brown Line Flyover) that the CTA plans to build just north of the Belmont rapid transit station that serves the transit agency's Red, Brown and Purple Line trains. 

In a nutshell, I oppose the building of this structure as the cost in terms of federal money, displaced homes and businesses, and the destruction of part of a neighborhood, did not justify the net gain of the project, amounting to only about 30 seconds of commute time on those lines. 

Here is a 2011 article written by Ed Zotti from the Chicago's free weekly, the Reader, that describes a complete overhaul of the Red, Brown and Purple Lines. In a scheme that Zotti and his colleagues exhaustively created, the three lines are reconfigured to more adequately serve the needs of riders on both the north and the south sides of town. 

As a patchwork, temporary fix that the CTA currently proposes, the overpass makes little sense. However when integrated into a visionary plan for the future as it is presented in Zotti's article, it may be something worth considering. 

Buyer beware however, the overhaul comes at a cost measured in the billions, not the millions. 

Money worth spent in my opinion but I may be in the minority on this one.

Brown Line Flyover

After years on the drawing table, the Chicago Transit Authority has recently announced plans to build a new structure on the elevated tracks shared by the Red, Purple and Brown lines at the Clark Junction just north of Belmont Avenue. The structure would be built for north-bound Brown Line trains, elevating them above three sets of active tracks which they currently must switch across in order to continue on their journey culminating at Lawrence and Kimball Avenues in the Albany Park neighborhood on the city's north side.

The CTA puts a price tag of 320 million dollars on the project which if realized, would necessitate the demolition of at least sixteen buildings in the Lakeview neighborhood. That's too much money and sacrifice some critics suggest, to eliminate the average 84 second delay the CTA claims that riders on all three lines experience today. The CTA would no doubt counter that when you multiply those 84 seconds by the combined daily ridership of the three affected lines, (around 400,000), it turns out to be quite a few saved seconds indeed.

A friend of mine who works in the transit industry, but not for the CTA, posted a comment on Facebook stating that a handful of shortsighted people, i.e.:  neighborhood residents, preservationists and other concerned citizens, are standing in the way of a much needed project that will greatly improve the lives of everyone who rides those lines.

"I can authoritatively say..." said my friend, "...trust me, you want this." Calling opponents of the plan the "mental midgets," he claimed that the flyover not only will allow for a 15 to 30 second reduction of commute time (he apparently doesn't buy the CTA estimate, and for the record neither do I), but it will also allow the system to run more trains on those lines, further reducing wait times and delays.

Sounds promising doesn't it?

Well at the risk of sounding like a mental midget, I for one am not so sure. Now I'm far from an expert on the running of a railway, unless you count the number of hours I've spent with model trains. However I am very well versed in delays, especially those on the Red, Purple and Brown Lines, all of which I ride regularly. Please indulge me for a moment to prove my point:

As my morning commute begins at the Howard Street station, the terminus of the Red Line, I have the option of taking either the Red or the Purple Line to work in Chicago's Loop. If the transit gods are with me, which is usually not the case, a Purple Line train arrives at the station just as I get there. That train runs express (so to speak) to Belmont where if I'm lucky, a Red Line train will be waiting. There, if I'm willing to give up my seat, I'll switch over to that train since the trip to the Loop from Belmont is much quicker on the Red Line as it has fewer stops and takes a less circuitous route than the Purple. If my connections are good and there are no delays that day, again the exception not the rule, I can make it to work door to door, in a tad under an hour.

Between the two lines, the average difference in transit time from Howard to Belmont is approximately equal to the amount of time that the Purple Line trains are spaced apart, meaning that theoretically, if I miss a Purple Line train at Howard, the odds should be good that it's no worse than a break-even proposition to wait for the next one, rather than to board a Red Line train already at the station. (Red Line trains are spaced much closer together). Furthermore, a lot of passengers not boarding the Red Line at Howard is a good sign that its been a while since the last Purple Line left the station, and the odds should be good that another one is coming soon. Therefore it stands to reason that waiting for a Purple Line at Howard should be a good bet.

But alas, despite all the thought put into deciding which train to take, choosing between the Red and the Purple Line at Howard is little more than a crap shoot. There have been many times when I've waited twenty to thirty minutes for a Purple Line train with no explanation for the delay, all the while watching countless Red Line trains leave the station. There have been other times when after just missing a Purple Line, I've boarded a Red Line train, only to have it passed by three or four Purple Line trains before Belmont.

My point is this: the most frustrating thing for a commuter is not the amount of time of the commute, but inconsistency. It's nice to know that if you leave home at a given time, you will arrive at your destination in a set amount of time, give or take a minute or two. Delays of course are an inevitable part of commuting, but some of them, like the one at the Clark Junction are predictable and can be calculated into your commute time. Frankly in the ten years I've been riding this route, I can't remember ever being held up at that junction more than one or two minutes at the very most. Quite often like this week, going to and from work, there were no delays at all at the junction.

Since I do consider myself something of an authority on this very particular subject, I can say without reservation that the delay caused by waiting for Brown Line trains crossing over the tracks at the Clark Junction is definitely one of the LEAST significant delays during my commute.

Far more annoying are the unexpected delays when a train of any color line stands between stations anywhere along the line for five, ten, or more minutes. More often than not the operator will explain (if he or she bothers to), that the delay is caused by a backup of trains ahead. Ah you say, but if the new overpass is built, it would eliminate many of those backups. But from my experience, the most serious delays in the morning occur past the junction, when Brown and Purple Line trains all vie for the same right of way. Since southbound Brown Line trains are the only trains going through the junction that are not affected by the crossover, it's difficult to imagine how a backup of those trains could possibly be caused by the crossover.

On the ride home, by far the biggest irritant is trains backing up at Howard Street. Three lines use that station, in addition to the ones mentioned above, the Yellow Line, formerly known as the Skokie Swift, like the Red Line uses Howard as its terminus. Backups at this station, especially during rush hour are the rule, and it is not uncommon to sit on a train from ten to twenty minutes within sight of Howard, waiting for trains ahead to clear the station. As these backups happen on my way home, they are not as critical, but every bit as annoying. It's very difficult to explain how a one minute delay at Belmont could lead to a twenty minute delay five miles north.

Again I'm not an expert on what's causing these delays that seem much worse now than in the past but I have a few suspicions. The most obvious cause I think is wear and tear on the infrastructure. This past winter wreaked havok with the system and frequent delays occurred on a daily basis. That's just the nature of the game and I don't blame the CTA, apparently things were much worse on the Metra, Chicago's commuter railway. However it's hardly a surprise that an elevated structure that is over a century old would show signs of age. Currently, trains that should be capable of speeds of  30 to 40 mph are frequently reduced to a snail's pace because of poor track conditions.

Switches malfunctioning, and not just at the Clark Street junction, are another cause for delays. Back in the day, there were control towers at the major rail junctions manned round the clock by operators who were on hand who could manually operate the switches if the mechanical systems failed. Today the switches are controlled remotely at a central location, a great cost savings at the expense of efficiency in the case of problems. About ten years ago the CTA eliminated more personnel when they went from two person crews, an operator and conductor aboard each train, to one person crews. That meant that minor problems aboard a train which could once be addressed by the conductor while the train was in motion, now have to be dealt with by the operator, obviously stopping the train and with it, every train behind it.

Also, CTA trains now must be wheel chair accessible which is a great thing. Unfortunately with a one person crew, if a passenger in a wheelchair wants to board a train, it is the operator who is usually responsible for fetching and placing a metal ramp between the platform and the train for the passenger's access. Then the operator must return the ramp to its container before proceeding back to the controls. I've seen this highly inefficient process take up to five minutes to complete. Then the entire process is repeated once the passenger needs to get off the train.

The cash-strapped CTA can sometimes be forgiven for these and a whole slew of service related problems as I often think it's a miracle the authority is able to run at all. However with 320 million dollars burning a hole in someone's pocket, I think the agency would be do well by addressing some of these other problems before they tackle building the "Brown Line Flyover" as it has been called.

Given the chance, this is how I would prioritize spending that money:

• Fix the infrastructure - My question as to why trains have been moving so slowly lately when there is no traffic ahead was answered one day when I stood at the back of a slow moving train and looked at the condition of the tracks we had just rolled over. Instead of two straight lines converging into the distance, the rails resembled the wavy lines of an active oscilloscope readout. One day as our train huffed and puffed at a breakneck five mph, a woman asked her companion: "where do you get on the express train?" "This is the express train" was the answer. It's obvious that trains running at these painful speeds cost commuters far more than one or two minutes per ride.
• More efficient stops - Obviously, stopping for passengers takes up a lot of time. Along the Red Line between the Loyola and Wilson stops, stations are placed at intervals of three, and sometimes even two blocks apart. Having stations that close together runs contrary to the idea of rapid transit. Of course the proposal to eliminate stops would go over with the public like a lead balloon. So how about this: go back to the old system of alternating stops during rush hour? Long time Chicagoans will recognize the idea of designating lower volume stations as either A or B stops which would be served exclusively by alternating A and B trains. The more used stations would be designated AB stations where all trains would stop. The CTA successfully used this system for years. Metra uses a similar system during rush hour. Fewer stops per train would result in shorter ride times and fewer opportunities for unexpected delays.
• More efficient make-up time after delays - Today it seems a much less common practice after a delay to space out trains by running the leader train as an express. Using this practice more often would help reduce backups caused by trains bunched together after a delay. It's true that using these efficiency measures would inconvenience some riders, but on the whole, the system would benefit. In both cases, computer algorithms could be put into place that would determine which and how many stops should be skipped by each train to maximize flow while minimizing passenger inconvenience. 
• Hire more people - I know that not in a million years will we see the return of regular two person crews on L trains but perhaps it would make sense, at least during rush hours to put another crew member aboard each a train to help make things work a little smoother. Re-manning switch stations at the major junctions would speed up the delays caused by inevitable equipment problems. Also, stations today are inadequately staffed. With the CTA's confusing and bug-ridden new Ventra Card payment system, attendants are now spending so much time helping passengers figure out how to pay for their ride (several minutes per passenger in some cases), that they are unavailable to assist with other things, such as assisting handicapped passengers board and alight from trains. Short of that, perhaps a mechanical ramp system could be put into place that people in wheelchairs could easily operate themselves, eliminating one extra job for the already overburdened operators .
• Replace track on already existing right-of-way - The elevated structure south of Armitage and extending at least to Chicago Avenue, used to support four sets of tracks. Over the years, two of those sets were abandoned and left to decay. Ultimately they were removed. Since the acquisition of property for right-of-way is the most expensive aspect of building new rail projects (including the Brown Line overpass), would it not make sense to restore these tracks on already existing right-of-way to accommodate express trains from Fullerton into the Loop? This would not only free up some of the backups on the Brown and Purple Lines, but it would give at least some passengers the option of saving an extra ten minutes of commute time.

It's not difficult to understand why executives like CTA president Forrest Claypool, and politicians like Mayor Emanuel like projects like the Brown Line Flyover. They can point to these splashy projects as part of their legacy. They can say they created jobs and improved the system, however modestly. On the other hand, it's a little hard to place your legacy and engrave your name upon a new section of track, a train that doesn't make all the stops, or an extra station agent.

As anyone who has read this blog knows, I am a huge advocate of public transit. I believe that all great cities give residents and visitors numerous options of getting from one place to another that don't involve the dangerous, over-priced, over-taxing, over-polluting, personal transportation device known as the automobile. Articles by two local writers whom I admire, Blair Kamin, and Lynn Becker, I believe slightly overstated the issue when they compared the Brown Line Flyover to the massively destructive public works campaigns of Robert Moses in New York City and Richard J. Daley in Chicago. If I could be convinced that this project would significantly improve Chicago's transit system, even at the cost of sacrificing some buildings, I would wholeheartedly support it.

However looking at the matter from a practical, cost/benefit perspective, I have to seriously question whether spending money that could be used far more constructively, displacing homes and businesses, and destroying several buildings, some of them over 100 years old, some of them not even ten years old in a vibrant community, is worth it in order to possibly shave off a few seconds of travel time for commuters.

Remember folks, I'm one of those commuters, not somebody who lives in the affected neighborhood complaining about change. Personally I have everything to gain and nothing to lose if the Brown Line Flyover is built, that is with one exception:

To me the greatest fallacy is the assertion that if the Flyover is built, it would enable the CTA to run more trains over the three lines impacted. From my experience as I previously stated, the system in its current state south of Clark Junction, simply cannot efficiently handle the number of trains it has running at the present time. Unless most of the changes I stated above are enacted, how on earth will it be able to handle more traffic?

The answer is simple, it won't, and I'm afraid that unless plans can be put in place that will make the entire system run more efficiently, the Brown Line Flyover will only create more traffic problems than it will solve. Without those plans in place, in addition to the destruction of part of a neighborhood and the homes and livelihoods of its residents, I can't help but believe that the Brown Line Flyover is a foolish idea.

Farewell Michael...

The end of the year causes most of us to sit back and take account of the events of our lives, our communities, and the world over the past year. Most of us take the good with the bad, and we consider a year to be good if we come out slightly ahead.

For Chicago, my home town, it's been a year of losses. It was a particularly bad year for architectural preservation as we lost the beautiful and historic St. James Church in Bronzeville. We also lost the battle to save Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Women's Hospital which is being demolished as I write this. Perhaps worse than the loss of the building itself was the devastating precedent of the ruling by the city's Landmark's Commission, which declared the building worthy of landmark status then in the next breath, determined that economic considerations trumped that status, clearing the way for the building's destruction. After that disastrous ruling, no building in this city is safe from the wrecking ball.

More mundane to be sure but also worth noting was the loss of the enormous baseball that proudly announced the presence of the former Thillen's Stadium at Devon and Kedzie on Chicago's far north side.

Chicago lost a long time institution this year as all of the Dominick's grocery stores closed their doors for good this past Saturday, leaving thousands of workers unemployed during the holidays. Some of the locations have been purchased by other businesses but the vast majority of them will remain shuttered for the foreseeable future. As many of these stores anchored shopping centers, the businesses that shared those centers no doubt will suffer as a result. And a city already well known for its "food deserts" will have one fewer source of fresh food at reasonable prices in neighborhoods that can't afford to be without them.

There is one more loss to the city that I'd like to note. Today was the last day on the job for a wonderful man who for 36 years was the operator of CTA trains, mostly along the Red Line which runs almost the entire length of Chicago from 95th Street on the south all the way up to its northern boundary at Howard Street. His name is Michael Powell. I first met Michael about ten years ago as I was taking my young son to his grandmother's apartment downtown. As I did as a child, my boy liked to sit up front to watch the operator drive the train. Most of the operators I think appreciated the attention but for the most part kept quiet as the company rules prohibit them from talking to passengers while the train is in motion. Given that by now he's finished his last run, I can safely say that Michael had little regard for that rule. My boy and I learned Michael's life story that day, especially his love of trains. He never wore the standard issue uniform, as you can see in the picture he preferred the more traditional striped engineer's uniform and cap, his "Choo Choo Charlie outfit" as he liked to call it. If anyone was born for a particular job, it was Michael. I was shocked when he told me earlier this month that he was about to retire.

Michael Powell on his penultimate run

Another policy that Michael had little regard for was the application of the recorded voice of the CTA that calls out stops and lets the passengers know, as if they didn't know it already, that there was a delay. On Michael's runs, you seldom heard that smooth but impersonal voice. Instead you heard Michael's friendly, high-pitched voice commenting on the events of the day, or just informally shooting the breeze in a stream of conscious manner. As Michael delivered his train into the Loop during rush hour, he would typically bid adieu to his passengers with: "May the Force be with you" or other popular aphorisms. Sometimes he would simply say: "goodbye and have nice day." Never would anyone of Michael's regular riders think for a moment that he didn't mean that from the bottom of his heart.

Michael's humor could be cornball but every once in a while he hit the nail right on the head. My favorite experience of riding aboard one of his runs was the day we had a blizzard that dumped about three feet of snow on the city. The storm was so bad that most businesses discharged their employees even before the first snowflake fell. Since we were in the middle of a project, my colleagues and I chose to stay at work and by the time we left, about a foot of snow was already on the ground. Needless to say, the train platform was crammed with cold and frustrated passengers who had no idea how long the journey home would take. After what seemed like an eternity, a train pulled into the station. As luck would have it, it was Michael's train. Although the train was packed like sardines, Michael told everyone to keep calm, that we were all in this together, and that by cooperating, we'd all get home in due time. His charming sense of humor calmed everybody down and soon he had the passengers eating out of his hand. I'd say the blizzard reached it's apex right around the time our train got to the Sheridan station, just north of Wrigley Field. The unfortunate people who got off at that station were hit by a tremendous gust of wind and snow; frankly it was a bit comical as the poor folks looked as if they didn't know what hit them. "Don't laugh..." Michael told the rest of us over the loudspeaker, "...pretty soon, that will be you."

Luck was with me again today as I left home unusually late this being New Year's Eve. It just so happened that I boarded Michael's train for one last time. I heard that familiar voice and remembered him telling me a few weeks ago of his imminent retirement. Something was strange however. That canned CTA voice kept popping up on the loudspeaker, much more often than it ever did during Michael's runs. Just every once in a while, Michael broke in to say "all aboard, thanks for riding." When our train dipped into the subway after Fullerton, that familiar voice broke in again saying, "My name is Michael and I'm about to retire after 36 years. It's been my pleasure to serve you." There was a collective groan from the passengers. Someone aboard our car informed us that in the first car people were signing cards for Michael. Just about everybody got off and headed there to sign his card and wish him well.

So did I.

I got off at my stop, shook his hand and said good bye. He told me that he'd miss me. I said that I'd miss him too.

All choked up, I never got the chance to thank him. It was always a pleasure to ride with him.

Happy New Year Michael, and may the force be with you.

A little landmark

On a jaunt down to Hyde Park last month, I grabbed this cellphone photo of the oldest extant L station in Chicago, built in 1892. From the Landmark plaque visible at the left of the building:

Built as part of Chicago's original elevated line connecting downtown with the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park, this is one of the oldest surviving mass transit stations in the United States and is the last surviving example of the City's original "bow-fronted," Arts-and-Crafts-styled street-level stationhouses. The station and its accompanying ornamental street overpass spanning Garfield Boulevard also represent a rare example of graceful transit design intended to relate to the City's famed park boulevard system.

As you can see from the quite ungraceful roller doors on both sides of the canopy, this station has served a very different purpose from what it was intended for a number of years. Those hideous doors and numerous coats of paint can't disguise the care of the design that was common in the day when public transit was privately owned and had to compete with other conveyances for riders. Back in the early days of the L, the trains were pulled by noisy, soot belching, steam locomotives and it's not hard to imagine that it took some convincing to get riders to climb aboard those trains some twenty feet up in the sky. For those early riders it must have been an exhilarating, if not harrowing experience.

The station was designed by Myron Church, and was designated a city landmark in 2001, the same year that it was replaced by the new station across Garfield Boulevard. Here is Chicago-L.org's take on the station.

Straphangers

The new 5000 Series rail cars were introduced this month on the CTA rapid transit Purple Line. I got to ride on one the other day. To those who don't notice such things, these cars may not appear all that different from the other cars on the system, the oldest of which date back to the sixties. Although I missed the announcement of their release, as a bit of a transit buff I was immediately struck by the LED destination sign at the head of the train which replaced the ancient nylon scroll system that dates back to the time of Julius Caesar. Gone are the color coded signs which the CTA adapted from the MTA in Boston several years ago. This means my four year old won't know for sure what train she is on, at least until she learns to read in another year or so.

Another major difference is the seat configuration. Like the New York subway system, the majority of the seats now face the aisles instead of forward or backward. This reduces the number of seats on the train but greatly increases the capacity of each car which will be welcome during rush hours. At other times it will mean that a rider is less likely to get a seat which is not entirely welcome news. It also means that the much treasured (for some) window seat will be even more difficult to come by. As an inveterate window gazer, I for one will find this the most unpleasant change of all.

What will be striking for some is the re-introduction of the hanging strap, those vinyl loops hung from the overhead support bars to help support standing passengers, which were once a fixture of New York City's subway cars. While the term "straphanger", referring to a regular user of public transportation, apparently was coined right here in Chicago, the devices themselves haven't been seen around here for a very long time, certainly not in my lifetime, and I'm guessing way beyond.

The ride on the new cars is certainly more comfortable, both smoother and quieter. The Purple Line doesn't run in the subway but I'm guessing these cars perform even better underground. The public address system is also improved, you can now hear the dulcet tones of your operator, not to mention the canned announcer guy, in high fidelity. Gone as well is the familiar bing-bong tone before the doors close, also ripped off from the New York Subway, replaced by a more tasteful, subdued audio signal.

Coolest of all in my humble opinion are the line maps above the doors where a flashing light marks your current location. I saw these for the first time in Tokyo and wondered when we'd be seeing that nice touch here, now I know. There are as well LED signs at both ends of the car displaying the next stop, the date and time and I'm assuming other pertinent information when necessary. These are also found on the newer cars in the Washington Metro (as well as our newer buses and Metra trains), and are very helpful.

Most of the features of the new cars, such as intensive video surveillance, have to do with safety and are not immediately apparent to the rider. For the rail geek in us all, here is one of my all time favorite sites, listing in detail the CTA's entire fleet of rolling stock, including all the information you will ever want for the new cars.

As you can see, the folks at the CTA are not loathe be inspired by other transportation systems, which I suppose is a good thing. In my youth, the L had to be one of the most arcane systems of its kind anywhere in the world. Getting around on it used to be difficult enough for natives. It was virtually incomprehensible for visitors.

Chicago's L may not be as modern, efficient and comfortable as the Washington Metro, which itself is beginning to show its age, nor as beautiful as the Moscow Underground, which had the unlimited resources of a totalitarian government to build it. It's not nearly as comprehensive a system as New York's or London's, not to mention as charmingly idiosyncratic if you mind the gap. Yet to me there are few greater urban experiences than riding around the Loop on the L, and I wouldn't give that up for any other urban transportation system, with the possible exception of San Francisco's cable cars.

All the nifty features aside, I still kind of miss the old 6000 Series cars of my childhood, many of whom were built from parts taken from the beautiful, discarded Green Hornet streetcars. I still fondly remember riding the classic Chicago L cars in the subway in summertime with all the windows wide open, where the sound level was several decibels above the threshold of pain. And no one had a portable electronic device for distraction.

We were tougher back then.

Chicago Rapid Transit

The CTA last week announced plans to extend three of its existing rapid transit lines. The Red Line would be extended south to 130th Street. The Orange Line would be extended south to the Ford City Shopping Center. Finally the Yellow Line, formerly known as the Skokie Swift, would be extended north to just west of Old Orchard Shopping Center.

From an extremely unscientific survey I made the other day judging from internet comments, it seems that the folks along the two south side lines welcomed the extensions while those up in Skokie for the most part opposed the project. This could be due to the fact that the Yellow Line extension would be built closer to existing homes and businesses while the other two lines would be built in relatively undeveloped areas. A couple of north siders even suggested that the Yellow Line extension would bring crime along with it.

The haves vs. have nots factor could also account for the difference in attitude as the south side has traditionally been bereft of rapid transit service. The Red Line extension for the first time would extend the L all the way to the city's south limits. It would also hopefully be a shot in the arm for development along the transit corridor, as the construction of the elevated line to Howard Street a century ago was to the Edgewater and Rogers Park neighborhoods on the far north side. The same could be said for the Orange Line extension, although it would not extend to the city limits as would the Red Line.

Another excellent post from the Urbanophile can be found here. It suggests that while these projects indeed have merit, they should be integrated into a far more comprehensive, Burnham, "make no little plans" style plan that would include major renovations and extensions, some practical, others perhaps not. The idea would be to bring the issue of public mass transportation to the forefront by including the entire city.

I couldn't agree more. Big plans for the future of the city are a far more fitting tribute to the legacy of the Burnham Plan than the two insignificant temporary pavilions by (St)archchitects Zaha Hadid and Ben van Berkel which are currently on view at Millennium Park.

I think the time is right to plan big in terms of public transportation in the city. In that vein I think the south side is the place to start by conceiving plans for a light rail system. If the Olympics come to Chicago, the opportunity will be right at our doorstep.

Let's not drop the ball.