95th becomes focus of beautification project

Medill Reports:

The last stop on the Red Line – 95th Street – is not, for most of the South Siders who travel there daily, a final destination. The station instead is a gateway to a multifaceted commute home.

More than 20 CTA, Pace and Greyhound buses all converge at this one station, which sits under three intersecting highways. Riders wait inside and outside the crowded, doorless facility, wondering how long it will take to get home -- and whether they will get there unscathed.

The city’s attention to violence among CPS students in the wake of the beating death of Derrion Albert has put focus on 95th Street.

As a result of the district’s open enrollment policy, high schoolers travel all over the city on trains and buses just to get to school. Consequently, this station serves as a meeting place for students from rival high schools – a hub for youth-on-youth violence.

One community group, Developing Communities Project, is trying to adopt the station as part of the CTA’s Adopt-a-Station program. Members of the organization have said that 95th, like a needy, neglected child, warrants support and special attention to address some of its darker issues.

“Boundary shifts have forced students from schools like Fenger, Carver Military, Corliss and Julian into corridors where they are strangers. There’s always been issues about safety and shootings at or nearby the station,” said John Paul Jones, who works with the organization, by phone last week.

The idea to adopt 95th came up this summer when the Roseland-based organization toured the station with CTA officials as part of CTA’s proposal to extend the Red Line farther south. Lori Baldwin, who is heading the adoption project, said the transit hub has so many needs that the group decided it was a community issue.

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The main idea is said to be for 95th to be a cleaner greener hub. Expect to see more local art at the station. Perhaps a project for the creative students at Harlan!

Another point to note is that the aforemention group (in the excerpt) wanted to put doors onto the crowded station. If you go to the 95th station page at Chicago-L.org there are pictures that show that once upon a time there were doors that would lead you to the fare controls. Who knows when the station was revamped especially before the more recent revamp between 2002-2004, however, it's safe to say that putting doors back onto the station is one step back towards the past. Who knows it could solve some problems.

At the same time, another reason for the needed extension further into Roseland. It might take another few years to get that project started but the one benefit I can see for extending the Red Line may well to be to lessen the traffic at 95th from all the high schools that may be serviced by the terminal.

What do you think about this project?