Project: LOOP

Roosevelt road- it’s near the museum campus, so therefore it’s convenient to have a Metra train station there, right? Well, if the horrible rotting hovel occupying that space could be called a train station then you’d be correct. Roosevelt road’s train station is anything but convenient- it’s just downright disgusting.

The ‘station’ consists of a nasty old shack with the roofing falling apart and which only just recently gained doors (which the city did not even bother to paint). The doors were not an improvement because they keep the noisome

odor of urine and some kind of cleaner product trapped inside. This would be a good time to mention that this station does not even have any employees- who would want to work there? Instead, there are two ticket machines that cannot die from the smell or be offended by the misspelled graffiti. The fact that no people work there makes the station a lovely place to be at night- if you enjoy becoming paranoid that you may be mugged.

Connecting to the rotten hut is a long wooden bridge that is probably also rotting and which has been nearly stripped of whatever covering it had on the floor boards. One wonders if they will be the person on that bridge when it finally falls down. The city also decided to disconnect it from the main road so part of it has been blocked off in a haphazard manner and left to further decay instead of being taken down.

A glimmer of hope arose when a construction crew arrived on the grass before the entrance to the bridge. Could the city finally have noticed it’s most dilapidated and embarrassing station? Of course not. They came to build a large scale piece of ‘art’ that consisted of scattering bronze colored human legs about what used to be a nice grassy park-like area. Why did the city feel we needed useless and ugly art instead of rebuilding a station that badly needed it? We’ll never know.

Remember how this station is near the museum campus? Tourists come from all over to see Chicago’s museums, bringing children and grandparents alike. Imagine how beautiful they must think Chicago is when their train stop lands them at the dump that is Roosevelt road train station. I hope the city is proud to be showing off its gross neglect to visitors.