thread on the chicago transit authority. last night the CTA stopped all trains & buses to dwntwn to trap protesters & allow the CPD to make mass arrests. this is part of a long history of the CTA being used to keep chi. segregated and enact violence against black chicagoans

when the CTA was created in the 1950s the first thing it did was axe most of the South Side Elevated. chi is the most segregated city in the us & the south side is a predominantly black part of the city. they tried to abandon the S.S.E. outright in the 90s & almost got away w it

this is a map i made of the South Side Elevated. the small dots are demolished stations (more than half are gone). the gray lines r abandoned branch lines. the green lines r active lines and the big dots are active stations. i used data frm http://chicago-l.org  to make this

during this time the north side of the system (the predominantly white part of CHI) suffered no similar cuts. and in the 60s, when the CNS&M RR ceased operations, the city bought them and established rapid transit service to the suburb of skokie. north side gained service

the west side of the city also saw service cuts, and when the eisenhower xpwy was built, it followed the route of the west side el, removing the west side el and the dense neighborhoods surrounding it and relocating the rail line to the median http://interactive.wbez.org/curiouscity/eisenhower/

the CTA did this again (this time adding a rail line to the south side, the red line) with the Dan Ryan expressway, on the south side. the line was added as a concession to the neighborhood and it doesnt replace the people who lost their homes and the neighborhoods that are gone

in the 1980s the city hastily planned and constructed the orange line to get service from downtown to midway airport (was only built because an IL state representative voted yes on sending money to the contras and reagan oked the funds for the orange line in exchange)

because its primary goal was linking the airport to downtown, and was not truly built to serve the southwest side neighborhoods it ran thru, it was built along a freight railroad right-of way and most of its stations are in a dense industrial area filled with warehouses.

most people who take the orange line have to walk very far from their homes or catch connecting buses to get to the stations.

i am sure there are other instances that i did not include in this thread. this thread is just what i have learned about myself. the CTA has a long history of enforcing segregation and destroying black communities. its actions during these protests are part of that.

if u are unwilling to criticize the CTA because you think the concept of trains is inherently good i think u should have to explain yrself to the people who live in neighborhoods that lost el service in the 1950 cuts, or the people whose houses and neighborhoods

were destroyed and whose local train line was relocated to a median, and to the people who have to walk far distances to board orange line trains, the people harassed by CTA police officers every day, etc etc