Zones
nan turpin photographs
Saturday and Sunday are the calendar equivalents of life beneath the tracks and so today and tomorrow Primary Source is running fresh snaps of some of what we ride over when the Brown Line el leaves Belmont Station.
In some cities, here Chicago, we are lucky to have miles of elevated train tracks. They are massively material. They weigh heavily on our landscapes, reminding us that humans had to somehow get all that stuff up there so we can then climb aboard and fly around above the city.
The world under the El changes by neighborhood. Just now in Chicago, life along a particular stretch of Brown Line track is endangered and causing us to review how important the El is to our civic imagination and the ways we connect with each other. The City wants to make a “flyover” that would rise in the air with the train wrapped in a tube. At least sixteen buildings would be razed to make way for a more sanitized version of per-square-foot profitability. In this world the alley rats would no doubt be replaced by alley minks, they bite but oh they’re soft.
Primary Source loves a good alley and even more so a great timber and steel alley with elevated tracks rising above the blue recycling bins and “Target Rats!” signs. When the El goes rattling overhead it’s the soundtrack to our endless urban movie of past and present.
Tomorrow Part II of our Beneath the Tracks photo essay. Please come back. We promise no rats -not in these alleys any way-and so far no minks either.
northbound rush hour Brown Line, at that famous curve where the purported 4-minute delay (City Hall) or several second delay (numerous riders with stop watches), where Brown Line stops to let Red Line pass…our train sat 4 minutes (dang, was the mayor right?) but no Red Line ever came. Once we’d paid our 4 minute- fine for daring to time the thing, our driver proceeded north.
PRIMARY SOURCE 