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greathotshave · 7 years

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Reverie on Commuting

For nigh on twenty years, my daily ride into Chicago on the Metra West line has included a most singular and blatant lie: “Next stop: Ogilvie Transportation Center.” Within twenty seconds of this canned announcement, the train would stop in a railroad yard well outside of Chicago and let off some workers. It’s a terrible way to enlist trust, but there are also worse things I can imagine. I have great memories of my forty-plus years of commuting. I’d like to share it if you would indulge me.

When Jessie and I first moved to Chicago in 1974, we lived in Hyde Park. Once I’d given up on grad school, we rode the Illinois Central (IC) downtown. Back then, you could open the windows on some of those cars, and a good thing, since people could smoke on the train! I would get off before the main stop at Randolph and walk down Jackson Blvd to an old building that was across the street from the Willis Tower (Sears Tower, back in the last century). I was at a training session on 550 W. Jackson a few weeks ago, a few blocks west of where I worked so long ago, and saw Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant where my colleagues at Nelson-Hall Publishing would have breakfast for lunch.

When we moved to East Rogers Park, I caught the Howard (Red Line now) train and changed at Belmont Avenue to a train that would go elevated to let me off west on Madison. Nelson-Hall moved to Canal Street, so the walk was much shorter than from the Michigan Avenue IC Station.

The CTA was quite the cattle car experience:

A woman sitting next to me on a crowded car had passengers of the six-legged variety

Afternoons in the summer would have a fair share of happy, drunken Cub fans

A late night ride I sat motionless while an angry man vented at me, taking three stops before he was escorted from the train by CTA police

The urinal smell of stairwells in and out of CTA stations

Long, very cold stands in the winter waiting for delayed trains and watching full ones roll by “express”

A job change put us both at the John Hancock Center for a couple of years, so we drove Sheridan Avenue to Lake Shore Drive. It could be a very hairy drive in the winter. During better weather it was all a matter of minutes getting ahead of the eventual slowdown that meant being fifteen minutes early or twenty minutes late. The Magnificent Mile was quite a change from the southwestern corner of the Loop! But it didn’t last.

My next job took me to Lake and Michigan, Contemporary Books. Back to taking the Howard L, but all the way to the Randolph stop, I believe, and a short walk to CB. When we moved to West Rogers Park, I had choices of taking a Touhy bus to the Howard Station or a different bus down Western to the elevated CTA station in Lincoln Square. With the variety of ways to travel, I was immersed in the diversity of the City of Chicago. I loved it.

After nineteen years and with two pre-teens in tow, we moved to the western suburbs and Glen Ellyn. I could walk or ride my bike to the Metra station there and always get a roomy seat on a train similar to one my father used to ride into the city from Downers Grove. Only when there was a Championship celebration of one sort or another, were the trains ever packed beyond seating capacity. Delays were rare but all-the-more annoying because unlike the CTA, there was a schedule, and the next train, particularly at night, could be an hour away. I also was on a train that ran over someone, sad to report, and that was an automatic 90-minute delay while the police and EMT people handled the terrible situation.

Rare occurrence: note the blue engine. A West Line Metra train stalled, so our train pushed it into the station. Not all the cars of the pushing train aligned with the platform, so we had to march through a few cars to get out.

The biggest contrast, of course, was the change in fragrance: urine in the CTA exits, honeysuckle getting off the Metra. (I do believe the CTA has addressed this issue in the intervening 20 years; feel free to correct me on this.)

From the Ogilvie Transportation Center (OTC), to get to the River North area of Chicago where I worked at the American Library Association, you crossed the river twice, either walking or taking the 125 bus. Not sure when, but halfway through my tenure there, I discovered the Chicago Water Taxi (CWT) run by Wendella Boats. What a treat to walk down Michigan Avenue and catch the boat to ride downriver to a dock near OTC. (This was well before FitBit took over my commuting decisions.) The service was wonderful; a real treat on a foggy morning. One summer their Christmas in July event brought forth kazoos for all riders along with no charge.

Sometimes, getting off at Clark Street from the Chicago Water Taxi included dealing with River Roast’s hostility toward commuters in the form of barriers.

When I returned to the workforce in 2012, I was walking again, mainly following Wacker Drive along the river to the American Bar Association, which was just across the Clark Street bridge. Just the right distance for walking to and from work. On rainy days, the water taxi had a dock on the north side of the river between Clark and LaSalle, so I could avoid most downpours. And the building’s ID was recognized by Wendella for riding without needing a ticket! One of my fellow staffers loved the taxi so much, she invited everyone to celebrate her birthday with pizza and ice cream on the boat, ferrying down to Michigan, back past Clark to OTC dock and finally to Clark. Very nice on a warm sunny day on the boat’s upper deck.

A Photo Essay on the Chicago River Experience

Construction at the river bend: 155 Riverside (right of center) and 444 River Point (right and completed, below).

Above, the longest section (The Boardwalk) at the end of what allows a continuous walk from Navy Pier has a ramp winding down to a lane along a hill of grass. Below are piers and floating gardens of The Jetty under construction.

Completed in November 2016, you could walk it with a strong feeling of ownership because not many others made the effort (Jetty shown above). Below, shooting through a tree planted along the ramps of The River Theater.

No stopping for traffic as you walk under the bridges.

The final piece of the walk to and from work is the plaza at 155 Riverside: two levels of walking along the river after it turns south. It has (below) a seating area for watching river traffic and maybe concerts. They actually planted grass so you could take off your shoes at lunch and commune with nature. The second photo below shows an accessible ramp way with plenty of greenery to an upper plaza.

My last year for walking to work has been the best. For two years, riding the CWT, I’ve been watching the construction of the river walk between State and Lake Streets (going along Wacker, the river curves so this is literally true even though the streets are perpendicular at State and Lake). Furthermore, the construction along the bend in the river has been spectacular. When I finally began walking it starting in November, I couldn’t get over the difference: no street crossings and the sounds of the streets muted. No visual movements of cars and other vehicles, no exhaust smell. A real feeling of peace along with the water despite getting close and personal with the abundance of debris in the water is the reward for taking the long way home.

With Spring, the route is becoming more popular to commuters and not just the occasional runner. There are trees and plants, a fountain, and ramps. The final course toward OTC takes one over the bridge between the new towers at 444 River Point and 155 Riverside, where you can continue along the riverside. The plaza is so inviting with trees and plants everywhere. It beats walking along Canal Street lined with pathetic trees attempting to overcome the watering of various pets in the vicinity.

Over all these years, the one consistent aspect of these daily hikes is the vast community of people going every which way to their own destinations. I am sure you can score the migratory-like movement to something like Darth Vader’s March (Imperial Attack?) but I tend to feel the Ode to Joy animating us as we walk. Yes, today many are hunched over cell phones, making quite a difference in the way people perform this ritual than when I first ventured forth. Many are listening to their own soundtracks, too. But I’m content to listen to the sounds of the city, smell the chocolate when the breeze blows in the right direction, and look around like a tourist at the rise of so many walls of glass, steel and stone.

I would be remiss to overlook the major change from forty years ago: Richie Daley’s emphasis on greening the streets of Chicago as well as the gentrification of the downtown area have had an incredibly positive impact on being downtown..

I still prefer hikes in the green and blue of mountains and hills. Someday I will miss walking the great city of Chicago; the myriad memories I have are cherished beyond mere words.

#Chicago #Chicago Water Taxi #Ogilvie Transportation Center

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