A hypothesis has been posed by a FOTIC (that’s Friend of the Indignant Citizen) that the possible rearrangement of seating on Chicago el cars from the current dual forward/backward facing configuration to dual rows of inward facing seats will change not just the el riding experience but the entire climate of human relations in the Chicago area.
Chicago, the FOTIC suggested, has a reputation as a friendly Midwestern city where people look you in the eye and aren’t afraid to strike up a conversation. Switching the seating configuration on the el could change that by forcing people into almost confrontational situations in which they stare at each other across the cars, fostering a culture of floor-gazing much like what the FOTIC has heard New York is like, and turning el riders from borderline friendly to surly. So the question is: can simply rearranging seats on a subway car alter the social contract in ways that change a city’s character?
The Indignant Citizen is no expert on transit sociology. But having lived in Chicago and New York, and relied on both the subway and el systems for daily transportation, the Indignant Citizen feels he is qualified to at least explore some possibilities.
To start let’s lay out some possible ways the seating configuration could change social interaction. Riders are going to be facing each other across the aisle now. Also with the new seating configuration the cars can carry more people; more people means more crowding. And with the new seats come new poles and bars to hang onto, and in New York at least, that particular configuration means you’re more likely to get someone’s stinky armpit in your face than with the current el car setup. You’re also more likely to find yourself knee-to-knee with whomever happens to be grabbing the bar if you're sitting or seated right in front of you if you're standing. It can be confining to be sitting on the bench when a longitudinally oriented car gets full. You’re shoulder-to-shoulder with other seated passengers and then somebody stands right in front you. If you’re not careful you can find yourself staring at some guy’s package or a woman’s belly button. It can make for an awkward realization, but at that point there’s usually no place else to look. Bums on benches are also an issue. Depending on the stink factor and whether the bum is upright or laying down, an entire section of seating may be off-limits.
(It should be noted that not all NYC subway cars have exclusively longitudinal seating. Some routes on the BMT and IND lines have some two-across seating.)
Here are some handy rules for riding the subway , New York style, courtesy of New York Magazine. It was easy to find, the Indignant Citizen just typed “subway etiquette” into the Google search engine and there was the magazine entry.
Finding tips on “el etiquette” was more difficult, mainly because typing “el etiquette” into Google brings up a number of Spanish language websites unrelated to proper decorum on public transit. However Tom Sherman has a short post from 2004 on what not to do when you’re on the el. Nos. 1 through 4 apply equally well in either a subway or el environment, but No. 5 highlights a key difference between the longitudinal seating of the NYC subway and the side-by-side seating on the el. On the subway if there’s an open seat, you sit in it. On the el, human interaction may be required to ask someone to move over. This can initiate conversation.
“Excuse me, do you mind if I sit there?” or “Would you mind moving over so I could sit down?”
This could be followed by the response, “Why certainly, I’d be happy to” or maybe “Why don’t you sit by the window, since I’m getting off at the next stop,” either of which could provide an invitation to further conversation.
On a crowded train, say, on the Red Line, aisle standers don’t have poles to hang onto unless they’re near the doors. You have to grab the stainless steel handle sticking up beyond the seat back. With the jerky motion of the train, it’s possible the head of the person sitting in the seat could smash your hand. Another opportunity for conversation, especially with someone you find attractive: “These fucking bastard drivers are trying to kill us all. Hey, how YOU doin’?”
See, the possibilities for conversation on the el as it is currently configured are almost endless. Change the seating, and you change the dynamic. Change the dynamic and it’s conceivable you could change the atmosphere, reduce conversation and relegate riders to staring out the window or at one of the ads that should have been removed in 2003.
Now, this is all interesting to think about. But another viewpoint might be that the city’s social conventions are set at a macro level, and merely carried onto microcosm of the el. In that case, seating configuration shouldn’t matter. Friendliness will override whatever uncomfortable social situations arise from looking up and finding some guy’s unzipped package in your face, or having that empty seat next to you filled by a 300-pound woman with a beard.
Midwesterners are generally considered more friendly than their East Coast counterparts, and even Chicago, the largest of the Midwest cities, and a town with a bit of a rough past, has a reputation today as a down home kind of place, a big small town, almost. Some of that may well be rooted in the reality that people here aren’t crammed on top of one another the way they are in New York, a city with an international reputation for abruptness and even rudeness. Metropolitan New York has a population of about 8 million (people, not rats; the rats are more populous) crammed into roughly 300 square miles. That’s roughly 26,700 people per square mile. Chicago has roughly 3 million people spread out over 228 square miles, or about 13,150 people per square mile. That’s about half the density of New York.
Now with almost 26,700 people per square mile, New Yorkers could be excused for being rude on occasion. But the Indignant Citizen found New Yorkers by and large to be pleasant folks, eager to help newcomers or visitors get around. And if you haven’t been, you need help, particularly in the subway system. New Yorkers can be abrupt, or maybe they just like to get to the point. It’s ingrained in them. No lollygagging, no time for small talk or chit-chat about the weather or the kids. If you’re in line, there are probably a dozen people in line behind you, waiting for you, staring at the back of your head, waiting for you to fuck up so they can curse you or throw batteries at you. There are lines in Chicago, but it’s not as oppressive. There’s almost always a shorter line nearby. You can breathe here. Plus, you can see the horizon here, and the sky. All that makes people less on edge. It’s got nothing to do with transit, people here bring their better attitudes with them onto the train.
Extending the thought process further, though, it’s possible to speculate that even a good attitude could turn dark quickly on a crowded el car if you’re forced to stare across the aisle at some guy’s nose ring from Belmont to Jackson on the Red Line, or contemplate the merits of birth control as you ride across from an overwhelmed woman with six wild children traveling from Adams/Wabash to Pulaski on the Orange line.
So after rambling on, where are we? The Indignant Citizen does not think the sociological differences between Chicago and New York are caused by seating configurations on public transit, but they may be affected it. If the Chicago Transit Authority changes the seating on all el cars, there may indeed be a difference in the vibe on the trains. At first it will probably be confined to the cars, but given enough time it could spread to other parts of the city, and could lead to Chicago becoming less friendly. Any change, though, will likely take decades to be widely perceived and the Indignant Citizen, and the FOTIC, will probably be dead by then.
In the meantime it’d be nice to be able to get more people riding public transit rather than driving on the streets and highways. If longitudinal seating will accomplish that, the Indignant Citizen is for it. Bring it on, and we’ll worry about the decline of civility later.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Monday, July 03, 2006
Getting it Good & Hard
John Stroger’s manipulation of the Cook County Board, and of the county itself, has not been hindered by the fact that the man can’t sign his own name to the resignation letter his handlers distributed last week because he remains paralyzed following a stroke in March. Stroger and his political henchmen—including Chicago 7th Ward Alderman William Beavers, Stroger’s son and 8th Ward Alderman Todd Stroger, and Cook County Commissioner Bobbie Steele—have continued to run roughshod over the democratic process, if not Democratic Process, even as the Chicago media have, after months of taking it up the ass, stepped up and begun to seriously question how it is a 77-year-old half-paralyzed stroke victim can claim to be running Cook County government.
More accurately, papers in their editorials and TV news in its stepped up coverage of the opposition, have chafed at the blatant lies being told to them by Stroger’s family, staff members and political supporters. Todd Stroger had a particularly trying two weeks in mid-June during which he had to face skeptical questions from reporters every day about his father’s condition, whether he was back in the hospital, and when he would bow out of the election and resign from the board and the board presidency. Todd Stroger tried as best he could to stonewall the press, but he is a politician with limited skills, and once the tide of public opinion began to turn against him he quickly broke up on the rocks of reporters’ persistent questions.
The low point probably came when Todd Stroger claimed he would not talk any more about his father’s health condition until July, and cited patient confidentiality laws as one reason why. This was seen by many as ridiculous and within two weeks—before the July deadline originally set by Stroger’s family—the announcement came that Stroger would not only not seek re-election but that he would step down from the County Board President position.
Of course the jockeying for John Stroger’s various jobs had already begun months earlier. Todd Stroger had held himself out as one possible candidate, even as the family and Stroger’s staff maintained he would someday be back, and chastised others who expressed interest in the job. Eventually even Todd Stroger was forced to back off lobbying for the job and return to spreading the lie that his father still hoped to return one day to run the county board. Even that wasn’t good enough, though, as various John Stroger staff members, when peppered with questions about who was running the county is John Stroger’s absence, tried to convince reporters that John Stroger was alert and running the county from his bed.
Finally the load of lies became too heavy.
Which brings us pretty much up to speed. There is ongoing speculation about who will take over for John Stroger in his various jobs, including Cook County commissioner, board president and party boss. One school of thought holds that Dems will appoint a caretaker board president —possibly John Daley, Mayor Richard Daley’s brother—to do the dirty work of ramming through what’s sure to be an unpleasant county budget that will include tax hikes to close an estimated $44 million gap. That would leave Todd Stroger to run for county board president, and possibly his father’s commissioner seat, with a clean slate.
It would be, of course, a classic bait-and-switch and if it were to succeed, another black eye for Cook County voters.
The real travesty from the public’s perspective is not that Stroger suffered a stroke, or that he’s paralyzed or even that county board leadership has languished in his absence. The stroke and paralysis are terrible physical issues for anyone to have to deal with. But what’s appalling is the way his family and the Cook County Democratic Machine have treated his positions as some kind of property, to be inherited or bestowed as they see fit. Equally appalling has been the county board’s lack of action in the face of an impending fiscal crisis. Rather than do something that might be “disrespectful” to John Stroger they chose to do nothing. This is about par for the course for Cook County government. You never get the smart ones on the county board; it’s always the wannabes and the hacks, and now we’re all going to pay the price.
This equates to paralysis of a different kind, exemplified by Bobbie Steele, who actually said at a county board meeting when asked about acting to replace Stroger, “July is just around the corner. We waited this long. . . .” What a bumblefuck thing to say. It’s like if Joseph Hazlewood had been awake at the controls of the Exxon Valdez, known he was about to hit the reef and said “Oh fuck it. We’ve gone on this long, may as well ground the bastard.”
Of course, Cook County voters chose Stroger over Forrest Claypool in the primary election, and they knew they were getting an invalid when they did so. They also knew, or certainly should have known, that Stroger’s replacement would be hand-picked by Democratic ward bosses and party hacks following extended back room dealing. That’s exactly what’s happened. Now in order to repudiate these slimy tactics the only recourse is to pull the lever for the wing-nut Republican challenger, Tony Peraica. County Dems are betting most voters won’t be pushed that far. Here’s hoping they’re wrong.
More accurately, papers in their editorials and TV news in its stepped up coverage of the opposition, have chafed at the blatant lies being told to them by Stroger’s family, staff members and political supporters. Todd Stroger had a particularly trying two weeks in mid-June during which he had to face skeptical questions from reporters every day about his father’s condition, whether he was back in the hospital, and when he would bow out of the election and resign from the board and the board presidency. Todd Stroger tried as best he could to stonewall the press, but he is a politician with limited skills, and once the tide of public opinion began to turn against him he quickly broke up on the rocks of reporters’ persistent questions.
The low point probably came when Todd Stroger claimed he would not talk any more about his father’s health condition until July, and cited patient confidentiality laws as one reason why. This was seen by many as ridiculous and within two weeks—before the July deadline originally set by Stroger’s family—the announcement came that Stroger would not only not seek re-election but that he would step down from the County Board President position.
Of course the jockeying for John Stroger’s various jobs had already begun months earlier. Todd Stroger had held himself out as one possible candidate, even as the family and Stroger’s staff maintained he would someday be back, and chastised others who expressed interest in the job. Eventually even Todd Stroger was forced to back off lobbying for the job and return to spreading the lie that his father still hoped to return one day to run the county board. Even that wasn’t good enough, though, as various John Stroger staff members, when peppered with questions about who was running the county is John Stroger’s absence, tried to convince reporters that John Stroger was alert and running the county from his bed.
Finally the load of lies became too heavy.
Which brings us pretty much up to speed. There is ongoing speculation about who will take over for John Stroger in his various jobs, including Cook County commissioner, board president and party boss. One school of thought holds that Dems will appoint a caretaker board president —possibly John Daley, Mayor Richard Daley’s brother—to do the dirty work of ramming through what’s sure to be an unpleasant county budget that will include tax hikes to close an estimated $44 million gap. That would leave Todd Stroger to run for county board president, and possibly his father’s commissioner seat, with a clean slate.
It would be, of course, a classic bait-and-switch and if it were to succeed, another black eye for Cook County voters.
The real travesty from the public’s perspective is not that Stroger suffered a stroke, or that he’s paralyzed or even that county board leadership has languished in his absence. The stroke and paralysis are terrible physical issues for anyone to have to deal with. But what’s appalling is the way his family and the Cook County Democratic Machine have treated his positions as some kind of property, to be inherited or bestowed as they see fit. Equally appalling has been the county board’s lack of action in the face of an impending fiscal crisis. Rather than do something that might be “disrespectful” to John Stroger they chose to do nothing. This is about par for the course for Cook County government. You never get the smart ones on the county board; it’s always the wannabes and the hacks, and now we’re all going to pay the price.
This equates to paralysis of a different kind, exemplified by Bobbie Steele, who actually said at a county board meeting when asked about acting to replace Stroger, “July is just around the corner. We waited this long. . . .” What a bumblefuck thing to say. It’s like if Joseph Hazlewood had been awake at the controls of the Exxon Valdez, known he was about to hit the reef and said “Oh fuck it. We’ve gone on this long, may as well ground the bastard.”
Of course, Cook County voters chose Stroger over Forrest Claypool in the primary election, and they knew they were getting an invalid when they did so. They also knew, or certainly should have known, that Stroger’s replacement would be hand-picked by Democratic ward bosses and party hacks following extended back room dealing. That’s exactly what’s happened. Now in order to repudiate these slimy tactics the only recourse is to pull the lever for the wing-nut Republican challenger, Tony Peraica. County Dems are betting most voters won’t be pushed that far. Here’s hoping they’re wrong.
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