L-o!

Well, after a 9-month hiatus, the Diversey L stop is open again, and I, for one, am happy to be walking one block to the train rather than four blocks. For those of you who don't know, the Chicago Transit Authority (the organization that ruins lives, not the original name of the band Chicago) decided a while back to renovate nearly every station on the Brown Line so that all stations can accommodate 8-car trains, rather than 6-car trains, and so that people without working legs can also have the pleasure of riding an elevated train. The Diversey stop closed June 25, 2007. It was scheduled to be closed for exactly one year. No more. No less. Within a week, the platform was torn up. Over the next six months, workers managed to accomplish nothing. Literally nothing was done. After sitting idly by during the summer and fall, when most other workers -- professional and otherwise -- were busy, well, doing work, the CTA decided to choose late December to begin constructing a new station and the accompanying elevator shafts. And then at some point in February, the CTA announced that Diversey would be opening early (i.e., yesterday), but with a temporary platform. They managed to construct an entire, working temporary platform -- made from real wood -- and a temporary station within about two weeks. I can't help but think that maybe if the CTA hadn't wasted an entire 6 months doing nothing on the Diversey station, then they would have been able to construct a fully functioning permanent platform, willing and able to accommodate 8 cars and people with or without legs. If the CTA was any less efficient, it would be the -- the -- the -- wait, nevermind, it's categorically impossible to be less efficient than the CTA. At least seniors get to ride for free.