Racing to the rescue

Curious accident involving a Chicago Police vehicle:

A report of an “assault in progress and a person on the tracks at the Fullerton Red Line stop” apparently required a police SUV to race from River North all the way to Lincoln Park. All possible routes between these two locations involve at least two miles of driving. This author would be very interested to hear the rationale for requiring officers to race across the city in order to respond to crime at one of the busiest stations in the CTA. Averaging out daily ridership between 2002 and 2010, the Fullerton CTA stop was the fifth busiest in the system. Surely a strong police presence in the vicinity of Fullerton and Belmont on the Red Line is justified, yet officers responding to a disturbance at Fullerton had to come from River North.

There are possible explanations for this. One is the responding officers called for backup and said backup had to come from River North due to officers nearby being engaged in other duties. Another is that perhaps the officer being summoned had special training that would be useful. The article in question does not say why the officer had to travel so far. This is just another example of the nonsensical approach to police deployment practiced by the CPD. Some might recall the officer who was killed when his cruiser skidded off Lake Shore Drive while responding to a burglary at a cell phone store in the 3100 block of North Clark:

Robber charged with death of responding cop in traffic accident

An officer or two stationed at Belmont for the upcoming rush hour could have literally drove a few blocks around the corner and responded to this burglary. Instead an officer had to be summoned from over a mile and a half away to respond to a property crime and was killed. Even the Town Hall District police station was closer to the scene of the crime.

This author looks forward to the Chicago Police setting a new record for distance traveled during a crime response at a transit station:

“This just in. Chicago Police cruiser struck at Lake Shore Drive and 31st Street while responding to assault at Union Station, Chicago’s main commuter and long distance rail hub”

Red and Purple Line Express versus lakefront buses

The lake shore express buses are one of the few positives about the CTA. If someone’s destination is the far north side they can use the 147 Outer Drive Express bus to reach their destination instead of the Red Line. While the CTA has historically had express service on the L and continues to use express service in the form of the Purple Line rush hour service to Evanston, it isn’t tremendously useful in its current incarnation.

The Purple Line Express has several flaws that limit its effectiveness to commuters and reduce its attractiveness to city residents. The primary problem with the Purple Line Express is the shear number of stations it serves in the Loop and River North neighborhoods. Express services are most effective when they have a minimal number of stops; each additional stop increases the complexity of the service by introducing an increasing number of commuter types. Short haul commuters find themselves fighting against long haul commuters when they need to exit the train as a result.

The Purple Line would be more effective if it traveled express all the way to Fullerton after leaving the Loop. Unfortunately this is no longer possible due to the removal of the express tracks south of Armitage. While these tracks were removed because of structural problems their absence has resulted in a lost opportunity to increase capacity. The Brown and Purple lines are now interlined for a significant amount of the Brown Line’s length, which limits each line’s capacity. Purple Line Express wait times are already longer than average, so missed trains means more commuters crowding platforms and competing with Brown Line riders.

Another weakness of the Purple Line Express is that it competes with the Metra Union Pacific North Line in that they both exist primarily to serve suburban riders. The Purple Line Express is useful for commuters to Evanston and other suburbs but not for city residents along the densely populated north lakeshore. The Union Pacific North Line scheduled travel time from Ogilvie to Evanston Main Street Station is twenty minutes on some runs. Unlike the Purple Line Express there are only three stops between these stations so the Metra trains can make very good time consistently. The Purple Line Express is scheduled to make this trip from Washington/Wells in 38 minutes. While riding Metra requires riders to walk farther west Ogilvie has the advantage of being a terminus station with consistent time tables. The Union Pacific North Line also has an advantage in that it does not have to share track with other services during its journey which reduces its susceptibility to delays caused by other trains. A Purple Line Express train can be delayed by a problem on the Pink Line, Green Line, or Orange Line since they all share the Inner Loop track.

The 147 Outer Drive Express does not suffer from any of the aforementioned problems. After Michigan and Delaware just north of the Magnificent Mile the bus runs express for almost six miles to Foster and Marine in the Edgewater neighborhood in about 13 minutes. All the times I’ve ridden this bus it has consistently made this run in the alloted time even during rush hour. 5.8 miles in 13 minutes equals an average speed of approximately 27 miles per hour which is an impressive speed for a bus in urban conditions. During times I have ridden the bus from Wacker to Foster and back it has managed to make the trip in approximately 25 minutes. This is consistent with the published schedule and a slightly faster than the Red Line. The Red Line has a lot more stops between downtown and the north side than the 147 so the chance for delay is greatly increased; 27 minutes from State and Lake to Berwyn is optimistic on a good day.

The Outer Drive Express is an example of effective express bus service, dedicated to collecting passengers in the commercial core and then shuttling them as fast as possible to a residential area. Suffice it to say, I will be using the 147 to travel to the north side from downtown from now on.

Grand Central Hotel + Condo Chicago

The Grand Central Hotel + Condo in Chicago was a project undertaken by a group including myself as part of a final demonstration of topics mastered during a class concerning real estate finance fundamentals. The challenge involved developing a mixed use retail/hotel/condominium project in the South Loop of Chicago just south of the Congress Parkway and east of the South Branch of the Chicago River. My contribution focused on the financial and space allotment aspects of the project, determining the precise size of hotel and condo units as well as the unit mix in both components in order to provide a conservative yet appealing financial return for investors. This involved extensive zoning research to determine how to maximize building space and revenue while remaining within municipal provisions.

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Ferry Terminal

This was a 50,000 square foot project for a multi-use building located southwest of Navy Pier in Chicago. The primary function of the facility would be to act as a ferry terminal for lake ferries from Michigan and other states. River boats would serve this terminal as well allowing for water-to-water transit connections. As part of the FAT philosophy, every space in the building would have multiple uses so the facility could be occupied as long as possible every 24 hours.