Chicagoist: Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

guest

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 08:40:03 -0600

Where's Mike Royko when we need him?

the new guest number 2

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:46:24 -0600

Yes, let's change the whole structure because some backwater rube thought there was only one stop in all of downtown. I think the CTA has better things to spend their money on than a ton of new signs, maps, etc.

MK

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:58:43 -0600

I'm a lifetime Chicagoan and I still find it baffling and frustrating that so little effort appears to have been put into naming El stops. Three distinct lines with stops called Chicago? That's the best they could manage?" Umm, that would be because that is the name of the street. "Worse still, the Blue Line has two Harlem stops, two Cicero stops, two Pulaski stops..." So what? It has two stops on each of those streets. And they aren't even on the same branch. ""In light of the city's continuing effort to court international business, tourism, and events of Olympian scope, it would behoove the CTA to reshape the landscape by naming some key stops after neighborhoods or landmarks. You know, actual destinations that people use the CTA to reach." That is truly a nutty suggestion. Nodody would be able to figure out where a stop is located. Metra's stops in Chicago (other than downtown) are all named after neigborhoods and it tells you very little about where a stop is located. I know many people who have been confused by this. If someone only knows the name of the stop, under your suggestion, they would have no idea where it is. If they wish to find it to get on the train they will have trouble(as I did once when I assumed incorrectly that Metra's Clybourn station was on Clybourn). If they want to get off the train they would not really know where they would be. Who cares if it does not require effort to name the stops the way they are? It is the most informative and passenger-friendly way to do it by far. Would you want your home address to be named in some exotic and complicated way just so that it requires more effort to do so? After all, it requires very little effort to simply use a number that is between the two locations next to it and to simply use the street name. Of course, it means people can find your house.

guest

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:18:55 -0600

I am amazed that a once-great newspaper town continues to give valuable newspaper real estate to the likes of Schmich (or Roeper). God, she just simply sucks. Has she ever written anything with that old-fashioned quality some of us like to call substance? At least Roeper is so bad he can make you laugh--sort of like your aging drunk uncle who doesn't realize the glory has faded from his Rush Street lifestyle.

guest

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:21:58 -0600

To say that Mary Schmich is one of the "good columnists" in Chicago's papers is to damn with the faintest of praise. Her columns complaining about back-up beeps and the "wear sunscreen" article are just 2 examples of her facile "wisdom." Feh!

guest

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:33:34 -0600

I'm a lifetime Chicagoan and I still find it baffling and frustrating that so little effort appears to have been put into naming El stops. Three distinct lines with stops called Chicago? That's the best they could manage? (Incidentally, I've actually seen somebody start to get off a Blue Line train at Chicago because she thought, "Oh, great! This is, like, the main stop in Chicago!") Worse still, the Blue Line has two Harlem stops, two Cicero stops, two Pulaski stops... In light of the city's continuing effort to court international business, tourism, and events of Olympian scope, it would behoove the CTA to reshape the landscape by naming some key stops after neighborhoods or landmarks. You know, actual destinations that people use the CTA to reach.

guest

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:10:09 -0600

I thought it was a great article. Against my better judgement, I will say it was cute.