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 network has declined from a high of 227 stations to only 144. Today, however, the tide is turning the other way: although the CTA’s economic difficulties led to the recently announced fare hike, capital projects, like new facilities, stations, and tracks, are often eligible for millions of dollars in funds from the federal government. With Olympic hopes on the horizon, environmental concerns and volatile gas prices driving people out of their cars, and the city once again seeing positive population growth, now is a good time to take a look at a few ways our transit system might expand in the near future. Read the rest of this entry »

“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, which Brazier says is a label he would embrace. Read the rest of this entry »

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 that followed, however, the Hyde Park Establishment (the blog’s collective term for organizations like the Hyde Park Herald and the Hyde Park Historical Society) has adopted a protectionist philosophy in order to protect its community from decline. In other words, this place is pretty boring. The blog’s proposed solution? Open the community’s arms to outside businesses and watch the magic happen. (Elise Biggers) Read the rest of this entry »

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 of the Orange and Red Lines and a new Mid-City Transitway that would connect the Northwest Side to the Southwest and South Sides without going through downtown. In 2005 the CTA posted its highest ridership numbers since 1992. Nevertheless, at the presentation of the 2007 budget in October 2006, then-president Frank Kruesi announced that unless the CTA received an additional $110 million in public funding, unspecified cuts would be necessary. Read the rest of this entry »