A couple days ago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CTA President Forrest Claypool announced a new “Station Renewal Initiative.” Since the day of the announcement, crews have been in the station that I use daily, the California Blue Line.
I’ve noticed they’ve been painting a lot of the metal rails in the station. The CTA Station Renewal web page says they’ll also be power washing walls, floors, stairs and ceilings; repainting painted surfaces; making lighting improvements; removing graffiti; cleaning gutters and drains; replacing outdated or damaged signage and replacing windbreaks. The California Blue Line station has been open since 1895 and honestly, it looks like it. It’s not falling to pieces, there’s not a lot of graffiti, but it definitely could use some TLC.
I hope they take some before and after photos like they did for the Logan Square Blue Line clean up, one stop north of the California station.
I read somewhere that they did the LS clean-up in like 4 days. If so, that’s amazing.
California is my stop as well. I’m really hoping that they can figure out a couple of places to install the train tracker screens.
I hope they do something with that space that is just empty and fenced off with chain link. It would be a nice alternative exit, but that seems like too big of a job for this sprucing up initiative.
I agree. It struck me as odd that they fenced it off and spread gravel. Seemed really random, so maybe they DO have a plan for it, if they can get funding.