Ramblings

I was able to corral Michele and Clare Thursday afternoon for a walk on the 606, a 2.7-mile trail along a repurposed railroad spur.  The trail, sitting atop an embankment similar to the NYC High Line, bisects a number of gentrifying Chicago neighborhoods north and west of downtown.

It was a good walk, if on the dangerous side.  Pedestrians, cyclists, rollerbladers, skateboarders, dogs and toddlers are not meant to share the same space, or at least they haven’t learned to yet; we saw one bicyclist nearly flip over his handlebars trying not to hit a three-year old whose parents had let him walk ahead unattended.  From what I could see, common sense did not match family income.

The city of railroads could lend itself to slew of such trails.  The only problems would be cost (2.7 miles at $95 million) and safety; some of the potential trails would be located in still-active train corridors.  You can be dumb on the 606 and come away with nothing worse than a few broken bones.  You can’t be dumb around rolling stock.

I am old enough to have passed beneath the 606 when it was a working rail spur connecting area factories.  First, the factories left, then the box cars.  The upscaling of neighborhoods, or “gentrification” if you will, is a surprising, complex thing.  People are paying big bucks to live in loft space where assembly lines once stood and in the houses of those workers who once manned such lines.  I don’t completely understand it, but I do appreciate the chance for a nice walk, even if it’s in kind of a cemetery with the potential for a trip to the emergency room.