In this episode, Opinion Editor Alexia Sextou, Assistant Opinion Editor Ivy Frater and Copy Editor and columnist George Koutrouvelis dive into what distinguishes the Chicago “L” train system’s Blue Line from others — in both good ways and bad.
WALLIS ROGIN: My hot take is that blue and brown is an underrated color combination.
LEXI NEWSOM: My hot take is that rom-coms are overrated. I think that romance movies in general are pretty uncomfortable, except for “10 Things I Hate About You.” I love that one.
CHARLIE PERLMAN: My hot take is that Wildcat Deli is the best spot in Norris by far.
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ALEXIA SEXTOU: You just heard hot takes from Audio Editor Wallis Rogin, Print Managing Editor Lexi Newsom and Assistant Photo Editor Charlie Perlman. From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Alexia Sextou.
IVY FRATER: And I’m Ivy Frater.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: And this is “Who Asked You?”, a podcast capturing opinions on the issues that matter to us and to you. And today, we are joined by…
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: George Koutrouvelis.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Yeah, Who writes this phenomenal column, called “Through the Blue Tint,” about the “L” Train, which we all love. And I wanted to talk about your recent column, which was about the Blue Line. You had mixed feelings on the Blue Line.
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: I did.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: But before we go ahead and critique it, I do want to give it some credit and ask you, what’s something that makes the Blue Line different or special?
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: I think the biggest thing that makes the Blue Line special is the fact that it’s one of the two lines that runs 24/7 with the Red Line — which obviously everyone knows the Red Line, I’d hope. But just that 24/7 service means that it goes straight to O’Hare. And so people can get on it at any time, go to the airport if they need to, but also go to the West Side and Northwest Side, too.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: So, for those of you who don’t know, the Blue Line is the one that goes to O’Hare Airport, is that correct?
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: That is correct, yeah.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Yeah, and the other end of the Blue Line is where?
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: The other end is just going off into the West Side.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Mm, okay…
IVY FRATER: I have a special connection to the Blue Line because I live 20 minutes away from the California stop. So it has a special place in my heart. But I did really resonate with your point that it is a little inconvenient, especially since a lot of the places you can get to, you can get to through like driving. And I feel like personally, I rely a lot on buses. So, would you ever do a bus column?
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: I actually probably would love to do a bus column. Back where I’m from, they just recently cut 500 stops — bus stops — and one of them actually serviced my neighborhood. So, I was really sad to see that go, and I actually took that — you know, not personally, but I took it pretty difficult because that’s how I got to a lot of places. I haven’t had a chance to experience it or like travel with buses in Chicago. But, you know,I think that’s why I started this column. I wanted to travel through Chicago with the metro system with the trains. And so something might be in the works in the future. Who knows?
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Yeah, you are from Washington, D.C., right?
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: Yeah, I am.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: So you said that they recently cut bus lines. I do have to say that when I was taking the bus when I was in Washington, D.C., for Medill on the Hill, they were not the most reliable forms of transportation. What is your take on that?
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: So, I would honestly have to agree. I think before they even cut the 500 bus stops, they weren’t that reliable anyway. I never really relied on them too heavily. It was actually my sister who did, who relied on them to get to school. And so she was extremely upset when they cut the stop right next to our house. But I know also from taking it with her to go to school and then taking it to go to tennis practice, they are terrible. I mean, they come very inconsistently. But when they do work, they work, you know, wonderfully. I think, though to that point, the Metro system is at least in D.C., a lot, a lot better.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Really? Ivy, have you been to the Metro in D.C.?
IVY FRATER: I haven’t.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: I, okay, so when I lived there for a little while, I do have to say, I still prefer the “L.” I know that the metro, I know that’s a hot take, but listen, hear me out, okay? The Metro in D.C. — it’s very efficient, very nice, very easy to use. But there’s just something about the “L,” where, just the things that you see when you ride, let’s say, the Purple Line or the Red Line or the Brown Line. I just really like the things that you see when you ride through it. The more downtown you go, there’s those more crazy things happening on the train, which can get kind of exciting. So I don’t know. I think we have a disagreement here, George.
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: Well, I think part of me has to say that the D.C. Metro system is one of my home metro systems, so I’m obviously definitely a little bit biased. I do love it because it’s efficient. I do love the stations because most of them are very beautiful, very like brutalist architecture surrounding them, especially when you go downtown. I will say, though, that the one thing I have noticed when writing this column is that Chicago’s “L” system is so unique in the fact that it can actually be fully integrated into the city.
When I rode the lines like the Pink Line and the Brown Line — especially the Brown Line — I noticed how it was not just another way to get across the city, but it was a form of transportation that was really a part of the city. And I think you see that just everywhere when you go downtown — even as a tourist or just as a resident, the “L” lines are everywhere. There’s the Loop, and you use them directionally, too. And so I’d have to almost agree with you in the sense that it is really amazing to see public transportation be used not just as a form of transportation, but as a form of community building.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: What do you think about this as a Chicago local, Ivy?
IVY FRATER: I agree. I feel like I have a lot of interesting “L” stories. Whenever I get on, there’s something going on. I like that sometimes. Sometimes, I wish I could just sit there and listen to my music. But I love the “L” specifically, like I really like taking the Purple Line, I’ll take the Purple Line and then I’ll transfer, take it back home. Because it’s really cool to just like watch the city pass, and I always love passing Wrigley Field, because, especially, that was like such an important place for my childhood. I spent so much time there. So, just watching it, I always have so many memories.
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: I think that’s beautiful. I think that’s what some of these train lines are supposed to be. You look outside of them, just like, I guess the name of the column. You look past the tint of the windows and you actually just can be able to explore the city. I think that’s so beautiful.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Is that how you came up with the title of the column, “Through the Blue Tint”?
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: Yeah. And I will say, some of the windows — I would say most of them — aren’t really necessarily tinted blue. That’s more of a Metra thing. But I have been on a fair share of trains that do have blue-tinted windows. Yeah, that’s kind of how I came up with it.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Well, I guess “Through the Clear Tint” doesn’t have such a nice ring to it as “blue tint.”
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: No, not really.
IVY FRATER: What is the most interesting story or thing that you’ve seen on the “L”?
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: Mm, I think, maybe to your point before, there’s a lot of stuff that I wish I didn’t see happening on the “L.”
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Things that are not PG-13.
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: I don’t think I can go into them in this. But I think that I’ve seen — I guess, back to what I said before, a lot of community on the “L”. What’s beautiful about it to me is there’s always someone doing something or someone going somewhere. And I think it just reminds me to slow down a little bit in life. It might sound ironic, considering that it’s a train that’s going really fast and everyone’s moving in and out of it. But I think being so cooped up in college — especially where you see everyone basically working towards something here, whether it be classes or whether it be any extracurriculars — being able to go outside of the college bubble, the Evanston bubble maybe, and see life move for a ton of different people, I think that is probably the best thing that I’ve seen on it.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: That is really beautiful. I know that at the same time, though, you did critique the Blue Line a little bit.
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: I did.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: You said you wished you saw more culture, I guess, that is much more present in other Chicago lines. And previously, you’ve written about the Brown Line and the Pink Line. I wanted to ask which lines are the ones that are most heartfelt and close to you, and why do they stand out compared to the Blue Line? What is missing from the Blue Line for you?
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: Yeah, I think the main thing that’s missing from the Blue Line is the fact that it doesn’t service the Chicago communities. It services Chicago as a place, it services O’Hare. But it misses one of the things my favorite lines do have — those being the Brown Line, the Pink Line, parts of the Purple Line — is that those are more integrated into the fabric of specific areas in Chicago, and they really work to almost aid them in a way. And being on a line, being on the Blue Line, and seeing it go just above, across highway systems, whether it be at the top end near O’Hare, or on the West Side, it really doesn’t service any of the community that it’s actually dropping you off at. I mean, if you’re getting dropped off in the middle of a highway, at a station that’s supposed to be for a community that’s probably a 15 or 20-minute walk away, then that’s not really helping the people that are there.
I mean, I guess it is in the sense that they can get downtown, but you don’t feel it. And I think that’s one of the things actually I said, ironically, I loved stations — like, I think California was one of them — because they’re above ground and because when you go to areas that they’re there, like Wicker Park and like Logan Square area, that you feel like when you’re walking by, that those lines are not just underground or they’re not just far away, distant lines. They’re actually right there. If that makes sense.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Well, it does make sense. I remember when I took the Blue Line with my dad. I’ve only taken it once, and we went to O’Hare together. And it was, first of all, as you said, kind of in the middle of nowhere. I was like, “How are these people getting to these stops?”
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: Yeah.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: But secondly, and more importantly, it just, it took a really long time. I don’t know how that compares to other lines. Are other lines faster. You guys would probably know a lot better than me.
IVY FRATER: I feel like the Brown Line is pretty slow, but I think the Brown Line is so beautiful. The Brown Line is my favorite line just ’cause the views you get of the city. And even though it is slower, I will go out of my way to take the Brown Line. But the Blue Line, I kind of just take it because I have to. I wouldn’t take it if I didn’t live right there.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Tell me more about the Brown Line, Ivy.
IVY FRATER: So it goes to a lot of the same places as the Red Line. It goes into like Lincoln Park and like downtown and stuff like that. But it’s just, it’s very slow. And I kind of like that it’s slow, because George was saying, you kinda get to look out and you’ll look out at the river and stuff like that. And I don’t know, I just like it.
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: Yeah, I think it’s exactly to that point, even though it’s slow, I think being slow doesn’t necessarily mean it’s inefficient. And I think it does its job really well. The Blue Line, ironically, was developed as a line that’s supposed to be modern, and it’s supposed to be sleek and get people to where they need to go.
Now, in areas like Forest Park, I believe, it actually is one of the slower lines in the actual CTA network. And that’s because of a whole lot of maintenance issues and issues with the tracks themselves. But I think for a line that’s supposed to be modern and sleek and get people to where they need to go in a pretty efficient manner, it’s actually pretty inefficient in that regard. And I think obviously, you know, it’s probably faster than the Brown Line. It’s probably faster than parts of the Pink Line or parts of the smaller lines. But if it’s supposed to be one thing, it’s really almost annoying that it’s not even good at being that one thing.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Okay, that’s the shade on the Blue Line. What is the next line, the next color, that we will be learning about from you, George? What’s coming up?
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: So, the Green Line is actually coming up.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Exciting. Any sneak peeks of what there is to expect there?
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: I can’t give you too much details, but I can say it services a lot of nice areas that the Blue Line also tries to service. So there is some overlap, but what it does do is it’s not in the middle of a highway, so it does service these communities a lot better.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Perfect. Well, we’re very, very excited to read it.
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ALEXIA SEXTOU: And with that, from The Daily Northwestern, I’m Alexia Sextou.
IVY FRATER: And I’m Ivy Frater.
GEORGE KOUTROUVELIS: And I’m George Koutrouvelis.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: Thank you for listening to “Who Asked You?” This episode was written by Alexia Sextou, Ivy Frater and George Koutrouvelis. It was produced by Claire Coffey.
The audio editor is Wallis Rogin. The multimedia managing editors are Ruby Dowling, Isabella Jacob and Matt Wasilewski. The editor-in-chief is Anavi Prakash.
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