Bad Urbanism Ideas

Chicago’s Onion A.V. Club has a list of train stops that should get the ax to help save the city some money. The list is, as far as I can tell, supposed to largely be entertainment with a smack of insight but it comes off as trying too hard. And below the failed humor is poor rationale for limiting public transportation. This one is the worst:

Wilson (Red Line)
With all due respect to everyone headed to Truman College, does any El stop suck life out of the city more than the squalid hellhole at Wilson? The dueling stenches emanating from the Popeyes beneath the platform and the makeshift urinal in the southern stairwell certainly don’t help matters, nor do the droves of escaped mental patients selling hot socks just outside the station. The all-hours boozing at nearby Nick’s on Wilson (773-271-1155, 1140 W. Wilson Ave.) makes a nominal argument against Wilson’s date with the wrecking ball, but the piss and grease smell even worse at 3 a.m. than they do at 3 p.m.

When a rail station is a “squalid hellhole” it should be improved, not taken down. That’s the city’s failure for not providing a basic level of decency.

Here’s one that’s not much better:

Wellington (Brown and Purple Lines)
Sandwiched between the Diversey and Belmont stations, Wellington provides an inexplicably convenient stop for nearly nothing. Sure, it’s always fun to stop at Chicago’s Pizza (3006 N. Sheffield Ave., 773-755-4030) at 4 a.m.; unfortunately, trains stop running three hours prior. During the daylight hours, Wellington’s proximity to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center sounds like a benevolent reason for its existence—but seriously, would anyone in need of hospitalization ever rely on the CTA to go there?

Again, the value of the train station isn’t being considered here. In this case,  it’s the value of the surrounding area that’s worth “nothing.” If there were more around there, there’d be more reason to get on the rail station. And who’s to say that the station is worthless? I imagine someone uses it to go there or it wouldn’t have been built in the first place.

The only reasonable sounding cut is this one:

Skokie (Yellow Line)
In 2008, the two-stop Yellow Line boasted an impressive 21 percent gain in ridership, although with the bulk of that increased use coming from weekend riders, only one conclusion makes sense: No one likes spending their weekends in Skokie. And despite its proximity to the course, would members of the Evanston Golf Club really take the El to the links? And if said member were en route to one of the EGC’s legendary shooting days, would anyone really want them to?

And the reason I don’t think this is a worthless is because it got a chuckle out of me.

–Daniel Strauss

(Crossposted)