My friend from Chicago and I drove around the Southside last week and took photos of randomness. I'll take some more tomorrow and post them in part II

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Undergoing renovation:

 

Not too sure about this one though:

 

 

 

 

More coming soon....

 

Excellent photos; the area looks colorful despite the winter overcast.

 

Not long ago I rode the 4-Cottage Grove bus from 58th to the Loop. It passed through some parts of the South Side that didn't look nearly that good -- downright scary, in fact.

nice work hayward.

 

re the "el" train pic, am i seeing two sets of tracks? it strikes me as odd they would go to all the expense of building it and only make it double-tracked. rob?

Not long ago I rode the 4-Cottage Grove bus from 58th to the Loop. It passed through some parts of the South Side that didn't look nearly that good -- downright scary, in fact.

 

Well the south side of Chicago, is the baddest part of town, and if you go down there, you better just beware, of a man named Leroy Brown.

nice work hayward.

 

re the "el" train pic, am i seeing two sets of tracks? it strikes me as odd they would go to all the expense of building it and only make it double-tracked. rob?

 

I think this the pic is of 63rd Street, where the Green Line L goes to its terminal at Cottage Grove Ave.  It's only double-tracked.  I think it is wide like that only to accommodate the wide street and with the wider spaced poles it was easier, engineering-wise, to place the tracks directly over them... That's my guess, anyway.  63rd, the Loop and, I think, Lake Street are odd in having L's over them, because most lines travel over alley-ways behind building lines... much like this:

 

Double-track is plenty adequate for the Green Line, too, from what I've seen. It doesn't carry anywhere near the ridership or traffic density that the Red Line does. Mid-day, if I remember correctly, trains leave Cottage Grove every 17 minutes. Most times I've ridden, there are only a handful of riders who board there, and they never fill up.

Great job!

Sweet!  I still need to visit some Chicago neighborhoods.

Wow, I always had heard of the South Side being a tough neighborhood, but it doesn't look to bad!

The South Side of Chicago is NOT that bad.  The westside is FAR worse.  The southside has pockets of "bad" places (Wild 100's, for example) but really, go west and see Chicago's "finest."

The South Side of Chicago is NOT that bad.  The westside is FAR worse.  The southside has pockets of "bad" places (Wild 100's, for example) but really, go west and see Chicago's "finest."

 

Some years ago I was visiting a friend who lived in Oak Park. On a Saturday night we went out to hit some of the bars on the north side, and after closing we took the Lake Street El back to Oak Park. He was used to it, I guess, but I was scared sh!tless! Between downtown and Oak Park it seemed like mostly a no-man's land at that hour, and on that part of the ride the train was full of a lot of pretty scary-looking and -acting folks.

Double-track is plenty adequate for the Green Line, too, from what I've seen. It doesn't carry anywhere near the ridership or traffic density that the Red Line does. Mid-day, if I remember correctly, trains leave Cottage Grove every 17 minutes. Most times I've ridden, there are only a handful of riders who board there, and they never fill up.

 

thx rob. you're saying service is adequate, but what i meant was that it seemed odd to me to go to all the expense of building an "el" structure at all back in the day and not adding a third track. with that limited of service you wonder if some other type of transit service would have been cheaper. of course, maybe that area today is depopulated from what it once was?

 

Love the graffiti shots.

... maybe that area today is depopulated from what it once was?

 

From the Green Line trains, it sure looks like it. There are whole blocks near the el that have maybe one or two duplexes on them. In some areas there's a lot of rehab and infill going on, but there are also some failed rehabs - buildings that appear to have been completely rebuilt, but they're boarded up or standing vacant with broken windows and busted doors. The turnaround appears to be a long, painful birthing process in some of those spots.

 

The present transit alternative to the Green Line is the #4 Cottage Grove bus. I've ridden it, and it's a long standing-room-only haul to the loop; I'd guess that typically it takes at least twice as long as the el. Even if you're lucky enough to get a seat, on a lot of Chicago streets the buses ride really nasty. The el gives a much less abusive ride.

^I think the south side section of the Green Line has changed a lot since its construction in the late 19th century- I was poking around recently and saw that it used to have a few other tendrils of service that were slowly demoed over the years- you can still see the rights of way of some of them in satellite aerials.  Wouldn't surprise me if much of the elevated structure had more tracks back in the day.

The South Side of Chicago is NOT that bad.  The westside is FAR worse.  The southside has pockets of "bad" places (Wild 100's, for example) but really, go west and see Chicago's "finest."

 

Some years ago I was visiting a friend who lived in Oak Park. On a Saturday night we went out to hit some of the bars on the north side, and after closing we took the Lake Street El back to Oak Park. He was used to it, I guess, but I was scared sh!tless! Between downtown and Oak Park it seemed like mostly a no-man's land at that hour, and on that part of the ride the train was full of a lot of pretty scary-looking and -acting folks.

 

Rpb you've got to learn how to blend in!  "sweet and innocent" doesn't work everywhere.  LOL

 

Granted, 35 street is as far south as I have gone on the Green Line - It didn't look to bad.

The South Side of Chicago is NOT that bad.  The westside is FAR worse.  The southside has pockets of "bad" places (Wild 100's, for example) but really, go west and see Chicago's "finest."

 

It's pretty dispersed but according to crime maps the southside seems a little worse.

 

Here's a map showing the last 100 assaults from the latest time period on record from the site.  Assaults are just one aspect of crime but I think it's one of the most indicative. Other types of crime all show similar marks geographically.

 

Keep in mind the Westside has half the population of the Southside.  I'd be more interested in per-capita stats.

More pictures will come soon.  I was really hoping to impress you all with photos of the abandoned Brach's candy factory on Cicero Ave, but the guard dog signs made me a bit nervous.