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In Praise Of The Division Blue Line Stop

By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 10, 2017 3:29PM

On Sunday, the Chicago Tribune named the Division Blue Line station "runner-up for cruddiest station" in the entire El system—and that is an incorrect assessment. The Division Blue Line station is obviously good. It has a surprisingly high, three-star average rating on Yelp—an early sign of quality. More to the point, I used it every day for several years, and loved almost all of it (except the moment when I got my wallet stolen). Here are five reasons I love it.

1. It's underground.

The Trib calls it, correctly, "dingy and dank, with pools of standing water caused by leaks in the ceiling, and black water stains on the walls"—but they're forgetting what a blessing is that the station has walls at all. And a ceiling! In winter, and in the hottest parts of summer, this is a miracle.

(It's especially a miracle because the El is called, you know, the El. For elevated train. Yet still, the Division station perseveres below ground.)

2. It has fun acoustics.

It's almost on par with the shower, in terms of singing spots.

3. It has character.

The Trib says Division "looks like a set for a gangster movie showdown"—which is just a crabby way of saying that the station is full of visual interest. This is especially true if you stare at the tracks for long enough. You will discover an entire rat civilization! It's like NIMH down there.

4. It has screens with arrival times.

There are still stations that don't have these! Why isn't one of THEM the second-cruddiest CTA station?

5. It got some fresh paint! Five year ago.

I know this because there were a lot of signs around that said "Fresh paint." One, due to some kind of typo or general deterioration, just said "Fresh pain"... which stuck with me.