18 Aug The best stations on each El line in Chicago: Gree …
Okay so yeah, the Green Line. There is a LOT going on just below the surface. Much of the Green Line seems deserted, especially on the South Side. Getting on/off at Halsted, Ashland, 51st, and the like is just not the most fun thing. Unlike the brown line, where you can get off the train at some seemingly dead stations and there is some cool commercial activity nearby – I am thinking about Rockwell or Francisco – and have the novelty of already being at street level, the Green Line has no such chill thrill.
For awhile, the Halsted Street station seemed sooooo promising. There was that gleaming clean Whole Foods, wavering between accessible and ridiculous in prices but with a smoothie bar, the Friday night wine and DJ events, fresh made sandwiches that didn’t come through a plexiglass window, and a public bathroom that was clean, well-lit, and a good place to handle your business. It was supposed to be the anchor for the development that on-the-cusp of being on-the-cusp Englewood needed, but no one shopped there. NO ONE. I lived walking distance for several years and I NEVER had to wait in line behind more than 1 person, and usually there was no one in front of me. After the George Floyd riots – I don’t know what else to call them, people really tore things up around the way – they cleaned up the debris and reopened the next day. Nothing else did, and so even though Whole Food is big and bad and corporate, at least they showed up. Until they didn’t, but I cannot blame them.
The 63rd Street station used to have a donut shop too, I am old enough to remember that, are you? It is long gone. So… I cannot vote for the 63rd and Halsted station, alas. I like the stop at Garfield, but it too has little commercial activity nearby. The Currency Exchange restaurant is gone, and that funky little record shop is just not enough.
Morgan Street? Meh, not really the best vibe. Damen? Looks promising, that is for sure! I love that new station, and I love that they have soooo much free parking nearby. Ashland has a lot of free parking nearby too, and I appreciate it for letting me park near the loop and bike or ride to get downtown to fight what seems to be a never ending series of parking tickets wrongly gifted to me.
But for me, my money is on the return of the Racine Street Station. So the best station is simultaneously not here yet and long gone. But that nice little grocery store downstairs, run by IMAN Chicago, and the nearby flower shop staffed by odd hipsters who never appear to be there, and the proximity to Hamilton Park, with its nice picnic spots and tranquil residential streets nearby… that for me is the best station on the Green Line. I feel like the CTA will one day see that Englewood is on the way back and open it up with some fanfare – in fact I heard they are already working on it in top secret hush hush tones – and Englewood will return to its rightful place as the commercial anchor for the southwest side of Chicago. Englewood, where I lived until recently, where my mom went to high school, where you can get downtown, to Hyde Park, to Chatham, all in less than 20 minutes.
And when the Racine Station rises again, like Chicago itself did after 1871, it will be satisfying, and cyclical, and long overdue, but still, it will be risen.
Final note: the photos are of the new Damen station on the Green Line. I wanted to take some photos of the Racine Station, but it doesn’t exist yet/anymore!
