The ELephant of Chicago
Do you remember the first time you took the el? I’m sure for many Chicago natives it was not a notable experience, but for people coming from out of state, I bet they can tell you what it was like. My first experience was when I came to DePaul for orientation. I decided I would take the El from O’Hare to DePaul, not realizing the trip ahead of me. After finding the entrance to the O’Hare stop I had to work out how to get a ticket. Now for most of us, this is not a challenge, but for someone who had no idea how to do anything related to public transit, it was a struggle. I have a distinct memory of sitting on the blue line watching someone eat McDonald’s, and thinking that something would happen to them, because of all of the postings about “no food or drink on the el”.
As much as the phrase “the city is our campus” pains me, the el truly is the third campus of DePaul. There is no avoiding it at this school. The separation of the two campuses requires students to take the el. The school even requires us to get a CTA pass. Despite all of this, rarely do we think about the el. To most students, it is simply a mode of transportation around the city, but to think of it in this light is to diminish what it truly is. The el is a distinct number of cultures that define the city in a number of different ways. The el in many ways is Chicago for most DePaul students.
The geography alone of Chicago is vastly changed by the el. How far do you think the Loop campus is from the Lincoln Park campus. I bet you, and most DePaul students, would not be able to say. I am sure though that most DePaul students could tell me how many stops on the Red Line it is between the two campuses. The answer, by the way, is about five miles, but that doesn’t matter. Miles do not matter when your transportation is centered around the el. The map of the city is completely changed. In freshman year I thought Wicker Park must be several miles from the Lincoln Park Campus, but in reality that is not true. Wicker Park is not far from Lincoln Park, but I thought it was, because I related it to the struggle of having to switch from the Red line to the Blue line to get there. The el sections off many areas of the city by making them inaccessible or harder to reach through the el.
It is not just about the area the el covers though, but also the space within the carts. I am sure that most of us think of the el as just transportation, but this discounts what happens within the actual cars. I think most people would agree that the el is a lawless land. The rules of the el are broken every day in a multitude of ways. When I came to DePaul, I thought eating on the el was a serious offense. Little did I know what goes on in these trains. Think of all of the times you have seen someone walk from one car to another, or the many drugs you have seen sold or taken on the el. I, and I am sure most DePaul students, have seen things on the el that we would never imagine to see in public. Every DePaul student has their “crazy el story” because it is indeed a crazy space. While we may think that this does not affect us, and we shut it out, it really does. All of these actions within the space affect how we feel and think.
Who can blame people for breaking the rules of the el though? It is not the most welcoming of places. I’ve never walked into an el car and thought “this space looks and smells great”. It always vaguely smells like urine, and every seat has a dark stain on it that you hope is not anything contagious. The bleak space invites hostility. It is not just the look of the space, but also the sound. You can feel it, the constant rattling that infects every part of your body. The sound of the plastic wheels endlessly shaking against the rails. You may not actively think about it, but you know about it. There is no escaping the pain of the noise. Next time you are on the el, make sure not to wear headphones and focus on the noise. You will feel the vibrations in every part of you.
To think of the el as one space though is to limit what it truly is. Chicago is the city of neighborhoods, and the el reflects this. Each line has a distinct culture surrounding it. I remember one time I was on the phone while riding the brown line at 9 pm.This should not be significant, but it was, because of the quietness of the car. Despite being decently populated, I was the source of most of the noise on the car simply by talking on my phone. I cannot imagine this scenario happening on most of the other lines. There are certain scenarios that only happen on certain lines, and that affects how we think about these lines. Even the distance between our location and some of the lines affects how we think about them. I have an unfavorable view of the Green line, simply because I rarely ride it. Each el line is it’s own unique culture, so we cannot equate them all together.
In the Roman Empire, there was an area known as the baths. This was a space that was meant for commoners and aristocrats alike, and it caused a mingling of all the populations. The el does a much similar thing. It brings together much of Chicago in a way that only public transit can. Despite it’s unwelcoming, hostile nature it provides a merging of all of these neighborhoods. So next time you’re on the el, think about what’s happening around you, and think about how it affects you.
