Tag Archive
Waiting for the Bus
Today, there is no bus along 31st Street. In the neighborhoods the street cuts through, east-west bus service is lacking. Between Cermak Road and 47th Street, Chicago’s grid system of bus service breaks down, leaving large areas of white space on the CTA system map and roughly 200,000 people without a direct route. »
Picturing the transit Doomsday
The Chicago Transit Authority’s long-rumored Doomsday has finally come. Starting on February 8, bus routes and trains across the city saw steep reductions in service, corresponding with the layoffs of over one thousand CTA employees. Though some cuts may be overturned quickly thanks to renewed talks between agency officials and transit unions, the city’s... »
Going for the Gold
The galvanizing effect that Barack Obama’s campaign has had on the South Side community is reflected in the recent organizing success of SOUL, a nonprofit coalition of congregations known as the Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation. By its own estimates, approximately 600 Chicagoland residents turned out last Sunday for its annual Martin Luther... »
Next Stop: The future of the CTA on the South Side
Chicago’s first elevated train went into operation in 1892, and since then the system has been constantly shifting. Today, few remember how it looked at its peak, before the formation of the CTA in 1947 out of the privately owned Chicago Rapid Transit Company and Chicago Surface Lines. Since the consolidation, the CTA’s rail... »
Church and State: Bishop Arthur Brazier has built the Apostolic Church of God into a megachurch and influenced city politics
“A large church is pretty much like a small town,” says Bishop Arthur M. Brazier, and he should know. Brazier is the pastor of the Apostolic Church of God (ACOG) in Woodlawn, whose congregation numbers around 22,000, more than any other church in Chicago. By any standard, this qualifies the ACOG as a megachurch,... »
Blogspotting: Highlighting the blogs that talk the most on community development, local art scenes, and everything else essential to living on the South Side
Hyde Park Progress: When someone asks what Hyde Park Progress is all about, “chicago pop,” one of the blog’s three contributors, makes a plea for his community’s development. Hyde Park used to be pretty awesome when it was bustling with commerce and public transportation. Since World War II and the racial and social changes... »
Doomsday: The CTA’s decades-long death throes
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) entered the 21st century riding high. After a series of service cuts in the 1990s, it was slowly eating away at its deficit while conducting line-by-line modernization of the El. According to its long-term Destination 2020 plan, published in 1998, several major projects were in the works, including expansions... »
