CTA Tattler

South Side rapper entertains CTA riders

El train rapper Albert Griffith gets star treatment in a Trib profile today.

While there are plenty of bus stop and platform performers, this guy takes his rap to the riders on the Green Line. And he's been at it for 14 years.

Even a CTA worker acknowledges "he's got talent. I don't know why he's wasting his time on the train."

Maybe because he makes anywhere from $80 to almost $700 in a (long) day's work.

Of course he admits that not everyone appreciates his rap.  And he has to watch out for both cops and "stickup men." But that doesn't keep him from being a great self-promoter: "I don't want to sound egotistical or arrogant, but my favorite emcee is me."

Hear some samples here from his EP "The Mind of a Teacher."

(Chicago Tribune photo by Charles Osgood)

Out the wankers with cell photos

The wanking and harassment continues, as Cmama reported recently.

New York City had cracked down hard on pervs who expose themselves and masturbate on the transit system and elsewhere, with a big assist from women brave enough to shoot photos of offenders on their cell phones.

In the past year a New York blog sprung up to accept photos of sex offenders of all types, not just transit-oriented.

And now a Chicago sister site also take submissions. Be brave ladies. Step, aim your cell phones and out these jerks.

CTA - Collision Transit Authority?

That's a question posed on Brent's blog, Lincoln Park Chad Society. And it wasn't quite a train collision, more like a sideswipe of trains going in opposite directions around a tight curve.

From his post:

Northbound Purple Express train car 2561 collided with an inbound Brown Line train at 5:31PM today while rounding one of the many turns between Merchandise Mart and Chicago.

I was dosing off, listening to music on my video iPod, when I heard the start of metal scraping up against metal. I looked up and out of the corner of my eye I saw a shower of sparks covering the window area of the EL car window.

The last car of the Purple Line that I was in had sideswiped the Brown Line car and was emitting an array of sparks. The collision jostled and a few Trixies and they were thrown off balance.

What did our CTA operator do? Slow down a little bit but after a few seconds we sped towards the Chicago stop.

Giving up seats: Men should be ashamed

Earlier this week in the general "tell your CTA story" area on this site, a young mother wrote to thank the WOMEN who have given up their seat on a full train for her and her 3-year-old daughter:

"In the 2 years I have been riding the train with my daughter every Monday-Friday, only 3 times has a gentleman offered me a seat. All other times it has been a woman. I can't thank you enough."

Come on guys, we should all be ashamed! I know, this may be an isolated incident and it's bad to generalize, but really. She recounts TWO YEARS of experience, and says only three guys gave up a seat?

I'm embarrassed for the whole male gender.

And thank you ladies.

Let's develop subway smell map for Chicago

A reader turned me on to New York's subway smell map, from gawker.com.

Such a handy resource. Someone has to step up and develop one for Chicago. All the "raw" materials for the CTA map can certainly be found in CTA Tattler archives.

And Gapers Block readers also have given plenty of ideas for stops on that map.

Washington station, tunnel closes Monday; Brown Line work this weekend

Weekend news:

The Washington Street subway station and tunnel to the Blue Line will close for two years starting Monday. Remember, it's a temporary (two year) inconvenience, permanent improvement.

I guess that means that they really really are going to build the superstation under Block 37.

Expect delays this weekend on the Red and Brown lines this weekend.  Same old same old, until the Brown Line project is done in 2009.

Finally, did you hear how a cracked rail at Grand Thursday shut down subway traffic for almost two hours? Kinda scary.

Clutching Cliff closely

A woman in her early 20s boards the Red Line at 7 am with a phone glued to her ear.

"Oh, I'm sorry for waking you up. You can go back to sleep now."

The woman talked so loudly that she woke up train riders, so I doubt her friend was going back to sleep.

"Well I've been pulling an all-nighter. I've been up since 3 pm yesterday working on this stuff.

"Well, I have to do a three-page character.analysis on one book and a three-page character analysis on another. I just don't see how writing papers are gonna help you in life."

Ah yes, the Eternal Question. Well, at least those two Cliff's Notes books she's carrying should help her some in writing those papers.

CTA train lights identify route

A commenter on this post (about telling the difference between a Purple and Brown Line train) reminded me about how lights on the front of a train tell you which line it is.

So I went to the ultimate source on all things about the Chicago El: http://www.chicago-l.org/

Of course there's an exhaustive article on the issue. But here's a screenshot from the site that summarizes the markers for each line:

Reader creates Wikipedia El station articles

Here's an email from a reader:

Hello there! I'm a not-long reader of the CTA Tattler and a not-long resident of Chicago (month and a half). Because of my somewhat autistic nature, I managed to create a Wikipedia article for every 'L' station. That exists. It took a while, but it's done.

However, I am no omniscient 'L' rider. I have my stop, 35-Bronzeville-IIT, and I know Roosevelt pretty well too, but I'm not a big expert on the other stations. As such, some of the articles are really, really short and offer no real information at all. Because of this, I'd like to invite you and your readers to edit Wikipedia and get some information onto these station articles.

I'd love it if you guys could visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_on_the_Chicago_%27L%27 , find your favorite station(s), and get some info and, if you're willing to release pictures under a free license, pictures out there. I must stress, though, no direct copying-and-pasting; these have to be original work due to copyright issues. As well, no "Monroe/State sucks!" (even though it does); we must strive to be objective and verifiable.

This would really help Wikipedia, and help get some station info out in an easy to find place. Thanks a million, and keep the CTA stories coming.

Casey, a.k.a. BorgHunter

-- OK, this is Kevin here. Casey makes a great effort here, but he does need some help. He admits he doesn't know it all (how refreshing), so let's help him out.

The El Evangelist strikes again

She announces herself loudly and purposefully as she enters the train car at Wilson: "Dear Lord, bless me and everyone on this train."

I've written about her before, the El Evangelist. This time I sit back and enjoy the show -- while writing copious notes, of course.

"I was sleeping at 5:40 this morning just like you and didn't want to get up. But before I knew it I was up and dressed and on my way under God's wings."

Passengers avoid all eye contact with the 50ish average-sized woman, looking quite stylish in a brown leather jacket and sporting a fuzzy pink pillbox hat.

"Now, don't even think about messing with me on my job, calling the CTA or police. My job is different from yours, and I don't bother you on your job. You can be rude or ignore me, but when it's all over, you'll have to bend your knee and praise God." And she kneels down in the middle of the aisle.

Finally, the passengers are getting restless. A woman sitting next to me complains to her: "I have a hearing aid and you're hurting my ears." Then she and another passenger bring out cell phones -- not to dial 911 but to amuse their friends. They hold their phones up so they can catch her rants.

Then another rider does call police, as fellow passengers help by providing the car number. She just ignores them, telling those boarding at Fullerton:

"Oh, you're in for a treat today! Don't let me scare you, let me bless you. You know, they smoke dope on these trains, they do drugs, they talk on cell phones."

Finally she figures she's done her job in this car, and prepares to exit at North and Clybourn. As she leaves the car, she exclaims:

"Don't worry about me. I've been taking abuse like this for years. I'm used to it."