Horrible smell from Hobo Corner deposit merits varied reactions
We left the Sox game a little early Saturday night with the Men in Black holding a comfortable 8-1 lead en route to a 9-2 victory over Kansas City. We figured we would get a jump on the huge crowd and hop a Red Line train north before the fireworks were over.
We walked the length of the platform and boarded the second car. Immediately the horrifying stench assaulted us. It was unmistakable. Human shit. We walked to the other end of the car where it really wasn't as noticeable and began our people-watching. It was similar to anthropological research -- observing how people reacted to it.
There was a broad mix of reactions, from outright screams, to fingers over noses and hands over faces. I duly noted people scrunching up their faces, and quickly moving to my end of the car. Many people totally fled the car altogether at the next stop.
Being your intrepid Tattler reporter, I ventured closer and found it was a large deposit "hidden" under a newspaper under the seat in the Hobo Corner.
Amazingly, two women with a baby rode 30 minutes in the seat directly behind the Hobo Corner. I can only deduce they must have been drunk or totally lacking working olfactory glands.
I did inform the motorman, who just shook her head and thanked me.
I'm amazed that something as comparitively trivial as an NYC subway flasher can make national news when we have THIS to deal with!
Ahhhh...public spaces and places. You can almost smell the egality..or is that human fecies?
:)
Posted by: matty | May 09, 2006 at 09:27 AM
I asked on Carole's blog, but I won't hold my breath for a response: what is procedure after being alerted to an incident like this?
Is a CTA employee required to have someone address it (feces on the train) at the next station or at the end of the line?
Posted by: deepkid | May 09, 2006 at 11:05 AM
The worst that's ever happened on the L was either a homeless man who urinates on himself and he smells the part or another guy who is just totally musty forces everyone on the car to move to the next car. But using the bathroom on the train is just wrong.
Posted by: Levois | May 09, 2006 at 01:27 PM
on valentines day i sat behind some guy with a gun OBVIOUSLY hanging out of the back of his pants and watched him light and smoke a blunt on the green line all the way from river forest to cicero. if he looked cleaner i would have asked for a pass..
Posted by: seth | May 10, 2006 at 12:33 AM
Last summer I was riding north from Berwyn on the red line. As soon as the train left the station I noticed a stream of liquid coming out of the hobo corner and trickling down the aisle. I'm sitting in the seat by the window to the hobo corner. Then the smell hits me...URINE! I turn and look (wish I hadn't) and the guy in the hobo corner is just pissing away. He wasn't even standing...he just spread his knees, aimed it at the wall and let it go. It was hitting the wall and trickling down and out of the hobo corner. He must have really had to go because the river of piss made it all the way to the other end of the car...NASTY!
About 3 months ago a girl who I know is a hooker from my neighborhood boards at Lawrence with a guy. They make a mad dash for the hobo corner. This time I'm sitting in the wheelchair seats diagonal from the hobo corner. Out of the corner of my eye I see weird movement. I glance over and she's totally giving him a BJ right there in the hobo corner. The guy exited at Loyola leaving her behind. Service on the Red Line...NASTY!
Posted by: LadyDay | May 10, 2006 at 10:05 AM
Just wait for the new train cars that have seat facing towards the aisle. The Hobo corner will not be our biggest problem, it will be the bums that will take four or five seats as a bed. I will like the look of people standing during rush hour when a bum is napping away.
Posted by: Rich | May 11, 2006 at 07:14 PM
Rich's comment here is right on. I think we need to bring this to the attention of the brass at the CTA. We need partitions between the row of seats for this reason. If not, I'll put money on the table right now that sleeping/drunk people will make a nightmare of it.
Posted by: Aaron | May 15, 2006 at 03:38 PM
A friend of mine tells a similar story. She got on the train at O'Hare, and there was a terrible stench from the hobo corner. Of course, she moved to the next car. While waiting for the train to leave the station, there was a procession of people who would get on the car with the stench, wrinkle their noses, and change cars.
Some would stay in the smelly car for a while. Eventually, an airport employee who was watching this pointed out, "Look at that. Some people are so stupid they won't get out of the shit car."
Posted by: Vasyl | May 17, 2006 at 11:31 AM