Chicago by 'L' with Geoffrey Baer

if there's one thing that  instantly says chicago it's the l our downtown is named for it and  it sprawls out beyond the horizon   connecting neighborhoods rich  and poor trendy and traditional   i'm jeffrey bear and i freely confess i love the  owl it's the best way for me to show you chicago   it's many cultures what do you  think about it jeffrey it's hot   hidden gems at first did you think how can we  do all this in this like shipping container   we're really big on utilizing what we  have the resources and making it happen   and world famous treasures oh yeah and the l is  a story in itself from the schemers who built it   to the unseen controllers who keep it running and the one voice that every chicago knows  doors closing the only things more colorful   than a cta map are the neighborhoods  and people will meet along the tracks next stop chicago by elle leadership support for chicago by l with  jeffrey bear is provided by [ __ ] harris   bank with major funding from people's gas  proud supporter of arts and culture in chicago   joyce and matt walsh and patty and  dan walsh in memory of richard gray   and in honor of mary elle gray additional  support is provided by ann and rich carr   the joseph and bessie feinberg foundation itw  and jim and kay maybe and by the following donors if this restored prairie  style station house could talk oh the memories it would share of old-fashioned l trains of commuters in  wool suits and fedora hats and families   dressed up for a saturday of shopping in  the loop a new station replaced it in 1993   here in wilmette at the farthest northern end  of the l system today we call it the purple line   the station might be newer but for the first  leg of our journey we'll ride on a vintage l   train these were part of the 6000 series  of l cars that served from 1960 to 1992. yeah i know they used to be painted green like me   many people consider these the  quintessential l cars oh man this is great i totally remember these trains i used to ride  them all the time yes i'm old like all our l   lines this one began as a private company in  this case the northwestern elevated railroad   which ran from the loop north to wilson avenue  and was extended all the way to wilmette by 1909 long ago virtually all the land in this affluent  town belonged to one couple archangel wilmette   and her husband antoine she was potawatomi and  he was one of chicago's first settlers the u.s   government gave them more than a thousand acres of  lakefront land in exchange for helping negotiate   treaties that banished native peoples west of  the mississippi but just a few years later the   wilmettes moved west to join them their children  later sold all that land for a thousand dollars well there was no air conditioning  on these trains but who needs it   remember this you can just roll up the window heading south we cross the north shore  channel this man-made river was built   as part of a mind-boggling project to  reverse the flow of the chicago river   so that our sewage would no longer flow into lake  michigan you know the source of our drinking water   the channel originates at a lovely  lakefront harbor in wilmette   gates control the flow of  water into the river system   and soaring above the harbor is wilmette's most  famous landmark the baha'i house of worship   the baha'i faith was introduced to america at  the chicago world's fair of 1893 the founder of   the faith was a persian prophet named baha'u'llah  he preached the oneness of the world's religions   symbols of many world religions can be found in  the lavish ornament construction started in 1920   and took more than 30 years to complete the canal  weaves through wilmette and into evanston the   strip of government land on either side is leased  to a golf course with some very unusual obstacles purple is not only the color of evanston's l line  it's also the color of its university northwestern   probably not a coincidence universities like  northwestern seem to be in a perpetual race to   outdo each other with dazzling new buildings like  the global hub for the renowned kellogg school of   management by the canadian architecture  firm kpmb and the benin school of music   designed by chicago's getch partners  when it opened in 2014 chicago tribune   music critic jon von rein raved about  both the architecture and the acoustics northwestern gave birth to evanston in 1853  when the fledgling school purchased the land   and mapped out the town evanston is in fact  named for one of the university's founders   john evans a personal friend of abraham lincoln's  those founders were devout methodists and they not   only declared evanston dry they forbade the  sale of alcohol within four miles of campus   saloons that flouted the law became  frequent targets of temperance crusaders   the most influential temperance crusader of  all lived in this historic house in evanston   francis willard was president of the  women's christian temperance union   under her leadership the wctu became the  largest women's organization in the country   and championed broader social reforms including  women's suffrage by the time she died in 1898 she   was said to be the most famous woman in the world  evanston long ago lifted its ban on booze and it's   now home to micro breweries and a craft distillery  but progressivism remains deeply embedded in the   dna of this community where some live in stately  lakefront homes and others struggle in poverty   the city council and schools have adopted formal  policies to promote racial equity and immigrant   protection and to fight climate change evanston  kids don't have to run away to join the circus one of america's foremost schools of circus arts   is right in town the actor's  gymnasium founded in 1995. the terminal at howard street is where we say goodbye to the purple line   and hello to maybe the oddest l line of all  because it's very short and only has two stops what's the curious history of the yellow line well it runs on tracks laid in the 1920s for  high-speed rail service all the way to milwaukee   this was the skokie valley branch of the  north shore line one of many inter-urban train   lines that connected cities in the days before  improved highways put them all out of business   the north shore line's sleek electroliners shared  l-tracks from the loop to howard street chomping   at the bit until they could go full throttle 90  miles an hour on their own skokie valley tracks   when service to milwaukee ended in 1963 the cta  took over a short segment between howard and   dempster street to create a shuttle billed as the  skokie swift the view of these power lines from   the train is definitely less than scenic but it's  a big clue to this line's history commonwealth   edison president samuel insell built this railroad  in part to develop the sparsely populated farm   towns in the skokie valley into modern suburbs  that would of course need electricity from com ed   before the north shore line came through here  skokie was just a small hamlet of mostly german   immigrant farmers called niles center it was so  remote that babyface nelson's henchman dumped   his body here in 1934 after a fatal gun battle  with the fbi in barrington is a potawatomi word   sometimes translated as swamp which is exactly  what surrounded niles center until the land was   drained in the 1930s jews began migrating  to the renamed community in the 1950s from   traditional enclaves in chicago at one time they  made up more than half the population of skokie   today the community has become a melting  pot a quarter of the population is now   asian-american and nearly a hundred languages are  spoken in skokie homes according to surveys taken   by the local school district the chicago tribune  called skokie the ellis island of the north shore   the yellow line dead ends at dempster street   the old prairie style dempster station  built in 1925 for the north shore line   was moved 130 feet to the east and  beautifully restored for reuse as retail   instead of trains it now serves cars and coffee now let's board a modern day l train at  howard street and head south on the red line the density of houses and apartment  buildings along the tracks   tells us right away we are not in the suburbs  anymore you know as a sheltered suburban kid   the only time i ever got to ride the l was  when we'd go to the cubs games and i would   ride on this very line i couldn't believe  how close we came to all the buildings   i don't know which was more exciting riding the  train or seeing the cubs probably riding the train rogers park is one of chicago's most diverse  neighborhoods and its affordability has long   attracted artists the cobblestone glenwood  avenue arts district is home to chicago-style   storefront theaters live music venues art  studios and galleries rogers park was once   a suburb of chicago like many neighborhoods  it was annexed to the city in the late 1800s   the neighborhood shared the national spotlight  in 2018 when loyola university's basketball   team scored upset after upset making it all  the way to the ncaa final four cheering them   on from the sidelines blessing them in the  locker room and offering post-game analysis   was 98 year old team chaplain sister jean  who became a national media darling in her   own right loyola is one of the largest jesuit  universities in the country it was founded in   1870 the year before the chicago fire at what is  now saint ignatius college prep on roosevelt road   and moved to this lakefront campus in rogers park  in 1909 loyola's beautiful art deco style chapel   is called madonna de la strada which roughly  translates to our lady of the highway why well   when the chapel was built there were plans to  extend lakeshore drive to chicago's northern   border but the highway never came through so  our lady of the highway looks out to sea instead   continuing south we cross into edgewater another  former suburb that's now a chicago neighborhood   the andersonville enclave in edgewater  claims to have chicago's largest   lgbtq plus population historically lesbian the  gay population has diversified in recent years   the neighborhood is also famous for  fiercely promoting local businesses   the swedish american museum which was always  a winner with my kids when they were this age   recalls an earlier population that settled in the  neighborhood the swedish flag water tower atop the   building has been a neighborhood beacon for nearly  a hundred years so important in fact that when the   original wooden tower had to be removed in 2014  it was replaced with a non-functional replica next stop's argyle and the station  itself gives you a big clue to the   ethnic identity of a part of this neighborhood this is where a weekly night market gives you a  taste of pan-asian street food i like to wait a   second one of these how hot is that that is pretty  hot one of them if i bit that it would be awesome   it might burn i would cry i would cry if i did  all right one chili okay i'm a one chili guy   my guide is hawk tron from a merchant's  association that promotes this strip as   asia on argyle it's not that hard it's  not that hot he says but he's refreshing   a good combination of the greenest and  spicy what do you think about it jeffrey it's hot it is hot so what are you cooking so she's grilling up skewers beef skewers  chicken skewers as well squid i'm not going   to be polite i'm just going to bite it what do  you think of the marinade looks like a marinade   yeah it's probably fish sauce sugar i don't want  to reveal all her secrets go go pretty nice now she's not going to tell us  she's not going to tell us   it's her secret asians are among many immigrants  and migrants who found a port of entry in uptown   in the mid 20th century including appalachians  and native americans the idea of a new china   town along argyle dates back to the 1960s when a  few chinese restaurants opened here but the person   most often credited with making it happen was  relentless promoter charlie sue he was known as   the mayor of argyll street his small grassroots  group got city grants to remediate the run down   street and storefronts in the 1980s and attracted  shop owners restaurateurs and new immigrants like   hawk tron's parents my dad taught english my  mother was his assistant and they met there in   1975 they fled the vietnam war and actually a  few years later they reconnected on this street   and our guy on argyle and they both reconnected  they're over ebola if it weren't for foot and this   street you would not be here talking to me today  how do you feel when you see a crowd like this because of my connection to this year i feel  loved in a way that people are coming here   supporting the businesses and just you  know having a great time for themselves   that trickles down to the community members and we  see that support i mean i've seen more than a few   people come up to you and like you know shake  your hand maybe i'll be you're the new mayor uptown was known for night life  long before the night market   the aragon ballroom and riviera theater are  reminders that this was once one of chicago's   so-called bright lights shopping and entertainment  districts many were clustered around l stations the big department stores they're gone   but you don't have to use your  imagination to remember the history just pop in to the green mill jazz club  which is still swinging almost every night uptown's opulent wilson l station has  been restored to its appearance in the   neighborhood's glory days this was the  end of the line for l riders coming from   downtown chicago on the northwestern elevated  which is now the red line later the line was   extended north to howard street and beyond  along the right-of-way of a steam railroad   what if you could gather a  who's who of chicago history   all in one place well it's a good  description of graceland cemetery it's the final resting place of marshall field  inventor of the modern department store real   estate magnate potter palmer and his wife bertha  the queen of chicago society industrialist george   pullman is buried under tons of steel and concrete  to prevent desecration by labor activists there's   haunting statuary like eternal silence by laredo  taft architect daniel burnham who made no little   plans has his own private island mies van der rohe  on the other hand favored a less is more statement   graceland was part of the rural cemetery  movement of the 1800s it was the solution   to overcrowding in urban cemeteries they  featured bucolic landscapes with native plants   peaceful ponds and rolling hills they were so  beautiful that they became popular with picnickers just when you think you've seen everything in  chicago you discover another hidden neighborhood   you ever heard of alta vista terrace  each side of this block long street is   a mirror image of the other modeled on  london row houses an oddity in chicago   but not as odd as the rather pompous developer who  built it samuel eberly gross he also developed the   suburb of brookfield which he originally called  grossdale until fed up residents renamed it the l and wrigley field go together like chicago  hot dogs and well everything except ketchup   charles wigman built the park for his federal  league chicago wales in 1914 to take advantage   of the nearby l station weigman brought the cubs  here in 1916. he was the first owner to allow fans   to keep the foul balls they caught weigman  sold the team to the wrigley family in 1920.   a different family owns the cubs today and to  say the ricketts have transformed the whole   neighborhood that would be an understatement a  former patrick gravel has been turned into a park   open to the neighborhood except on game  days when it's limited to ticket holders   70 miles an hour i get a hat no problem 53 that's not bad   well see he's showing me two fingers it's  a curveball i gotta throw a curve here the hotel zachary across clark street replaces a  beloved mcdonald's it's named for the architect   who designed the ballpark zachary taylor davis  bias okay as the neighborhood grew around the park   apartment dwellers across the outfield walls  discovered their rooftops offered a fringe benefit   entrepreneurs eventually turned  to the rooftops into private clubs   setting off legal battles over the  neighbors right to profit from their views   and the cubs right to block those views  as they modernized the park with video   scoreboards the cubs finally put an end to the  controversy but just buying up all the rooftops passing through some neighborhoods  we'll visit later we enter the first   subterranean stretch of the tour in new  york they call their transit system the   subway even when it's elevated here in chicago  we call it the out even when it's underground we snake our way beneath the near north side   and below rush street bars packed with  tourists suburbanites and bachelorette parties just past grand avenue we dip slightly downward  pass beneath the chicago river and arrive   at the longest subway platform in the world  according to the guinness book of world records the state street subway beneath  the loop is one continuous platform   and the train stops at three places along it money to build it came from the wpa  part of the roosevelt era new deal   after five years of construction  powerful mayor edward kelly gave   himself the honor of cutting  the ribbon in october 1943 we emerge from underground in the middle  of a vacant parcel of old railroad land   south of the loop and past chinatown's  pride and joy ping tom park   it's one of my favorite places in chicago  this lovely asian themed landscape brought   desperately needed open space to chinatown and it  pioneered the transformation of the chicago river chinatown looks feels and definitely tastes like  china chicago's chinese began migrating here in   the early 20th century from an earlier  chinatown in the loop they built this   exuberant community center in 1928 for all its  convincing chinese design the architects were   norwegian americans because there were no  chinese architects in chicago back then when you think of public housing stylish  is not the first word that comes to mind   but architect bertrand goldberg brought  the same groovy aesthetic to hilliard homes   that he created for chicago's iconic marina city   the chicago housing authority has beautifully  restored hillyard as a mixed income development   it wasn't so long ago that the dan ryan was  lined with mile after mile of high-rise public housing generations of chicagoans  grew up and formed communities here   stateway gardens and robert taylor homes  named ironically for an african-american   activist who opposed high-rise public  housing were built in the 1950s and 60s   african americans had been concentrated in  this area for generations by racist housing   restrictions and were later walled off by the dan  ryan expressway which was supposedly rerouted here   to avoid bulldozing mayor  richard j daly's power base   just to the west in bridgeport without adequate  support services the towers spiraled into decay   they were torn down beginning in 1997 with  a promise to provide replacement housing after more than two decades some  affordable housing has been built   but much of the land still sits  vacant awaiting redevelopment   an oasis in the project was this park created  on the site of an old coal yard in the 1980s   it's named for olympian ralph metcalfe  who shared gold in the relays with jesse   owens in the 1936 berlin olympics and went on  to become a chicago alderman and u.s congressman all right i hope my fellow  cubs fans don't see this good afternoon ladies and gentlemen young white  sox fans welcome to guaranty rate field the home   of your chicago white sox yes the red line serves  both of chicago's major league baseball teams   one of the white sox all-stars doesn't play  baseball he's the most famous groundskeeper   in america roger bossard aka the sod  father are you ready i'm ready man   bossard has helped teams around the country create  their fields of dreams and before each sox game he   custom grooms the infield to the preferences  of each player if there's a bad hop today but no amount of tlc from roger and his crew can  help me now i am so nervous with the mic and the   cameras i imagine you're gonna go from out of  the mouth you know yeah oh yeah yeah everybody watching well at least i didn't throw it in the dirt hit  the ground so we're good hey thanks a lot man   that was about as high an inside as a high inside  pitch could be but at least i didn't throw it in   the dirt in this age of screens the live action  at the ballpark has a lot of competition for your but attention rate field does have one low  tech reminder of dearly departed kamisky park america's first exploding scoreboard was just one  of the crowd-pleasing gimmicks master showman bill   vek instituted after he bought the white sox in  1959 in the 1940s and 50s the white sox actually   shared the ballpark with one of the great teams  of the negro leagues the chicago american giants   their owner manager and pitcher rube foster  was also the president and treasurer of the   league all that pressure eventually got to him  he had a nervous breakdown in 1926 and retired   you know hosing down the field before  the game was an honor but by the fourth   inning i'm ready for the showers  hey guys i volunteered for this duty traffic at a stand still on the  ryan should have taken the train 79th street is a good place to stop if you're  hungry for barbecue baked goods or a vegan   restaurant that could convert the most committed  carnivore but that looks like ribs haiti israel i   want you to know that it's just a form of vegan  ribs i gotta try it please are you allowed to   say what it's made with or is that like a family  secret or so you see how it ripped ripped really   good so so this is our answer to ribs though  they're unbelievable and the great thing about   our vegan food is that you don't miss the taste  oh my god brother and sister r.l israel and   lori say now run this restaurant called original  soul vegetarian founded by their parents in 1982   rl actually has never eaten meat or dairy in  his life how come we have italian beef here   it's italian vegan it's not beef i love sandwiches  i'm such a sandwich kind of guy this is chef r.l's   creation that's amazing the thing about everything  that you're eating here it's made in-house   it's all made here it's all sliced here  it's all baked here and it's made for you   vegan soul food might sound like an oxymoron  after all traditional soul food born of slavery   was made from whatever scraps were available  including less desirable parts of the pig   and fat used for frying vegan soul food offers a  healthy alternative while preserving the culture   soul food is food that's good for the  nourishment of the body you enjoy the taste   it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside once  you eat it food brings the community together   food is conversation when you conversating  with somebody it gives you an opportunity   to get to know them understand and for them to  express themselves chatham is one of several south   side neighborhoods along the red line that changed  from nearly a hundred percent european american   to nearly 100 percent african-american when  restrictive housing covenants were outlawed in   the 1960s over the last half century generations  of middle class black families have called it home   across the dan ryan is a surprising urban  eden in the neighborhood of auburn gresham   once a swampy lake a developer drained the  land by building these lagoons crossed by   scenic bridges in the 1890s the neighborhood has  suffered from disinvestment and population loss   making this little piece of  paradise especially important all right we're pulling into 95th street  that's like a palace for public transit   this 280 million dollar train and bus terminal  opened in 2019 with state-of-the-art interactive   video signage and other customer amenities  and oh yeah the occasional dance party this dj booth is called aesop which  stands for an extended song of our people music suits the average species i mean they're going to dance with us they  might laugh for us but they better when they   leave out the station artist and community  activist theaster gates dreamed it up   as part of the cta's public art program  that enlivens l stations throughout the   system the cta says more than 80 works of art made  possible by government grants and private donors   create a friendlier more inviting atmosphere  for riders and offer a glimpse into the   rich history and unique character of the  surrounding neighborhoods back at 95th street the art reflects the cta's fundamental to mission people just like your car l trains need a tune-up from  time to time and just like your car there's a   place for that welcome to the skokie shops our  hope is to get about 25 years out of an elk car   this one here with the truck down is the 5000  series it's been operating for over five years   it's time for its quarter life overhaul  typically with an elk car some of the   things that take the most beatings are the big  couplers up there that link one car to another   you are going to develop flat spots on your wheels  it's a giant wheel lathe that re-cuts those wheels   into perfect roundness all of the flexible cabling  that brings the 600 volt current to the motors we   are literally turning out a married pair which  is two cars permanently married together every   day with the 5000 series we have roughly about  730 rail cars so yes it's a it's a large number we are always challenged to think outside the  box and that keeps us moving forward and helps   us you know maintain that huge demand  of moving this many people in this city on the near west side the l overlooks  union park which one weekend a year   hosts alt-rock and hip-hop fans  at the pitchfork music festival union park was named in the years before  the civil war to promote the union of the   united states chicago's wealthiest families  lived in this area before the great fire   the neighborhood was spared but residents  watched in horror as their businesses burned   just blocks away after the fire the wealthy  moved away white and black working-class   residents moved in and union park became one  of chicago's only integrated public parks   many of those folks belong to labor unions  which built their union halls nearby   lending a new meaning to the name union park  the ashland l station opened in 1893 when   stations along this line looked like victorian  painted ladies it's one of chicago's oldest l   stations and it serves chicago's newest l  line the pink line which opened in 2006. this part travels along a reactivated l structure  that had been unused by the public since the 1950s   there's the united center home of the blackhawks  and tonight the bulls i'm always amazed by the   workers who morph arenas like this in a  matter of hours from basketball courts to hockey rinks and on other  days to concert venues and more   of course before there was a united center  there was chicago stadium fdr was nominated   for president there three times and fans cheered  the bowl's first three-peat stan makita sinatra   and elvis i saw my first rock concert there  the beach boys and chicago together in 1975.   the stately neoclassical exterior of the old cook  county hospital stands in contrast to the decades   of raw human drama that took place inside the  tv series er set here captured it pretty well   from the beginning the hospital served  patients with little or no ability to pay   for care it was also considered one of  the country's top teaching hospitals   it established the first medical internship in  the country and the world's first blood bank strojer hospital replaced the  aging cook county hospital in 2002   after sitting vacant for 17 years and being  threatened with demolition a meticulous   restoration began in 2018 to convert it into  a hotel today the pink line serves multiple   health care facilities in this area dubbed the  illinois medical district including the dramatic   butterfly-shaped rush medical center by ralph  johnson of perkins and will completed in 2012. crossing all these railroad tracks we get into  pilsen this whole neighborhood is so vibrant and   colorful the l station at 18th street welcomes you  pilsen style almost every square inch is covered   in artwork painted by community members reflecting  the mexican-american heritage of the neighborhood pilsen is famous for its murals many in  the great mexican tradition of political   agitation through paint advocating  for workers and immigrants rights the damon avenue station is a  good place for a coffee break do you know how to do that whole thing where you  put like a little pattern in the top of the coffee   my thing with latte art i have a thing latte art  latte art our line in the morning and it's moving   like all the way all the time i tell them listen  we don't have time for that we're going to serve   them a good cup of coffee and they're going to  be happy eleazar delgado who owns pilsen's famous   jumping bean cafe opened this miniature version  that he calls el cafecito to give riders an   alternative to the corporate coffee found at other  l stations you have to have that flow you get   people sometimes being like a little rude like my  train's coming my trains well they'll come in how   fast can you make a latte well watch me it's not  gonna have art if the name pilsen doesn't sound   mexican that's because it actually comes from the  bohemian immigrants who settled here in the 1870s   mexicans began moving into the  neighborhood in the 1950s and 60s   it was really a whole different neighborhood than  what it is today how is it different this is the   neighborhood of immigrants and it's always been a  neighborhood of immigrants so it's always evolving   the neighborhood's history can be traced  through saint at delbert's church built   in 1912 an exuberant eastern european style it  later offered services in spanish the archdiocese   closed the deteriorating structure in 2016 and  preservationists began a campaign to save it there's a parallel universe in  pilsen it's also an artist colony   a developer began renting cheap live work  loft space to artists decades ago in east   pilsen which has been rebranded the chicago arts  district artists show their work once a month at   an open house called second fridays artists  are often the vanguard of neighborhood change today amidst the mexican  restaurants there are trendy bars   and the old talia hall that served czech  immigrants has been restored as a music venue but so far pilsen has resisted wholesale  transformation what do you say to people who   say oh cafe that's gentrifying the neighborhood  yeah we got we got accused of that plenty of times   but we're an organization that gives back and  we hire from the neighborhood people say about   gentrification is it changes the character of the  neighborhood but it sounds to me like you really   want to preserve the character of the neighborhood  first thing when people visit the cafe   like from outside wow really three bucks for  this latte yeah why is that something wrong   you know you could be charging a lot more for  that yeah well yeah but i love this neighborhood i love the people and i love what the  neighborhood represents it's that community feel   you feel a sense of pride being part of it it's  a place for everyone just west of pilsen the   l cross is an earlier way of getting around  chicago one of america's earliest boulevard   if the l was created for speed the boulevards were  for enjoying the journey an 8 mile an hour speed   limit was strictly enforced on this system of  leafy pleasure drives that circled the city in the   1860s connecting parks on the south west and north  sides like douglas park one of three spectacular   west side parks laid out in the 1870s the parks  and boulevards offered an escape from overcrowded   neighborhoods and they still do a program called  girls in the game uses douglas park to bring   healthy movement and messages to young women  it feels pretty awesome to be a part of a team   because if we're down then we have another person  to get us back up many of these girls come from   chicago's most marginalized communities like  the neighborhood right next door north lawndale lawndale was named by a  developer in the late 1800s   to promote the subdivision's suburban  feel and proximity to douglas park   later as industries like the mccormick reaper  works and sears moved nearby immigrant workers   moved in and built more homes like these nearly  identical houses in a part of north lawndale   called k-town because all the streets start  with the letter k like karlov keeler and kedvale there's a whole generation of jewish chicagoans  who remember lawndale as the great vest side   in the early 20th century jews started moving into  the neighborhood from the crowded maxwell street   area on the city's near west side and by the 20s  and 30s north lawndale was a vibrant center of   jewish life home to many synagogues and jewish  organizations and nearly half the city's jewish   population by some estimates this is another  neighborhood that went from virtually all white   to nearly all african americans starting in the  1950s today former synagogues are black churches   and the old jewish people's institute as a charter  school but african americans couldn't own the   homes they lived in here because the federal  government wouldn't insure their mortgages   by the mid-1960s much of north lawndale  was suffering from widespread disinvestment   and poverty in 1966 martin luther king and his  family moved into a dilapidated apartment in the   neighborhood to focus national attention on racist  housing policies two years later his assassination   set off widespread rioting at least nine people  died and many homes and businesses were destroyed this tower stands as a beacon for lawndale's  future it was chicago's first sears tower   it was part of the company's vast  merchandise building long ago   demolished after lying dormant for decades it  was restored in 2016 by a philanthropic group   that rents affordable space to  neighborhood service organizations   including free spirit media a group that trains  underserved youth for careers in video production this old chicago firehouse has been converted to  a community arts center dedicated to interrupting   the cycle of violence among youth by giving them  a way to tell their stories and learn job skills   through visual art audio and video production  and even fashion culinary arts and dance look at that old tower that's all that's left of  a huge western electric factory in cicero called   hawthorne works western electric was like apple  back in the day at its height in the 1920s it   made almost every telephone in america some 25  000 people worked here those workers and their   families suffered an enormous tragedy in 1915  more than 800 were killed in a bizarre steamship   accident in the chicago river they had boarded the  ss eastland bound for a company picnic in michigan   when the ship suddenly rolled over on its  side it was the deadliest disaster in chicago history cicero was once much larger encompassing  parts of chicago oak park and berwin its   factories attracted many eastern european  immigrants in the early 20th century   al capone famously made cicero his  base of operations in the 1920s and it had its share of political  corruption later in the 20th century   today this working-class  community is majority latinx it's been said the population of west suburban  forest park is more dead than alive about 15   000 people live here but more than  eight hundred thousand are buried in   its many cemeteries and some of those permanent  residents took their final journey here on the   l the precursor to today's blue line once offered  chartered funeral train service while other   cemeteries discriminated forest parks welcomed  minorities and those on the margins of society like the dozens of circus performers  buried in a mass grave in woodlawn cemetery   they were killed in a horrific circus  train wreck in northwest indiana in 1918.   since then many other circus performers have been  buried in what's known as showman's rest five   anarchists hanged for their alleged involvement  in chicago's haymarket riot are buried in forest   home cemetery decades later the famous anarchist  free speech champion and pioneering feminist emma   goldman was buried nearby according to her last  wishes today the area around goldman's grave   is called radicals row because so many other  anarchists and activists are buried near her jewish waldheim was originally a cluster of  small cemeteries serving immigrant jews from   chicago's maxwell street district getting  here by road in the 1870s was a day-long   ordeal so like nearby lutheran concordia  cemetery waldheim had its own l station don't get me wrong about forest  park there's a lot of life here   the main drag has a quaint small town feel   the 16-inch softball hall of fame celebrates  a game that's very much alive and pure chicago   softball was invented in chicago in 1887 by yale  and harvard alumni gathered at the farragut boat   club one of them threw a boxing glove at  a rival alum who hit it with a broomstick   a 16-inch ball obviously replaced the boxing  glove as the game spread across the country   the ball got smaller and harder but true  chicagoans still favor that big mushy clincher and life is sweet in forest park ferrara candy company began in 1908 over on  taylor street making candy coated almonds   used in traditional italian weddings and grew  to produce legendary sweets like lemonheads   red hots and boston baked beans this was the  first rapid transit line in america to run   down the middle of a highway median but the  train was here long before the eisenhower   like the pink line this was once part of the old  metropolitan west side elevated a privately owned   railroad that went into service in the 1890s  the tracks were relocated temporarily while the   expressway was being built and then permanently  rerouted to the median in 1958 all right if we   keep our eyes peeled here we might just be able to  spot the top of one of three basilicas in chicago see it see this spire all right now you can go back to your iphones the dazzling our lady of sorrows in east garfield  park completed in 1902 a basilica is a church   designated by the pope for its historical  artistic or religious significance the   chicago architecture center says this renaissance  revival church may be the grandest in chicago   the university of illinois chicago was founded  to serve students who wanted a state college   education without leaving home it was built  at the confluence of three major highways and   originally dubbed circle campus making it probably  the only college named for a highway interchange   mayor richard j daly's choice of this location  in 1961 set off a huge battle with greek town   and little italy residents led by restaurant  owner florence scala appealed to the u.s   supreme court to save their neighborhoods to  no avail the bulldozers rolled and about 8 000   people and more than 600 businesses were displaced  architect walter netsch designed a concrete campus   with elevated walkways built around a central  amphitheater it was supposed to evoke a greek   agora but like much of modernist urban planning  it felt austere and unwelcoming worst of all   it was walled off from the surrounding city like a  fortress the university has spent decades undoing   the original design to humanize it bring in  natural light and connect it to the neighborhood well little italy might be littler than it once  was but it's still big if you've got an appetite you guys want to stop beneath this the old  school italian fair is a living reminder   of the crowded immigrant neighborhood  that residents fought so hard to save and here's another reminder jane adams established  hull house in the heart of this community to serve   italians eastern european jews greeks and more  as they struggled to make a new life in america   adams was born into a wealthy family she moved  to hull house along with other women of means   and offered the immigrant poor everything from  language and cooking classes to daycare public   baths recreation and the arts jane adams was  the first woman awarded the nobel peace prize   as we approach the loop the  blue line goes subterranean   and like all subways it's really noisy down here but between trains the tunnels  echo with sweeter sounds they got this audience and they're listening  all of a sudden they're gone right and you get   a new audience you get a new audience every  five minutes you don't get too many critics so i actually wanted homeless in 2016 somebody  who's also a street performer on the north side   was like you should get your permit probably  make some money so i got my permit with whatever   address i could use at the time i've been doing  street performing going on three years now you know a lot of people come down here  and then to them it'd be about the money   but to us it's just about reaching the  people on the positive note give me unlike the red line which passes  beneath the loop in one straight   shot the blue line follows a  curving path below the skyscrapers we're right underneath the goodman theater   don't worry we're not disturbing the show  when they built the theater in 2000 they   actually soundproofed it using technology  designed to earthquake proof buildings rounding another bend the tunnel takes us  below wolf point where the three branches of   the chicago river come together and then  heads northwest under milwaukee avenue by the time we're back above ground we're  far from the loop in wicker park and once   again we're traveling on an l structure built  for the old metropolitan west side elevated   the historic damon avenue station from 1895 has  been restored and feels just as it did to riders   more than a century ago except the  passengers have a lot more tattoos   and man buns and there's ample parking for  bicycles this was the epicenter of the fourth   hippest hipster neighborhood in the country  in 2012 according to forbes and nextdoor.com a different crowd first settled wicker  park after the great fire of 1871.   these beautiful brick and stone mansions were  built by wealthy germans and scandinavians   who fled the charred center of the city  and wanted homes made of fireproof material   many mansions were later cut  up into multi-family homes   as working-class polish immigrants moved  into the neighborhood so many immigrants in   fact that it was considered part of the polish  downtown or old polonium along milwaukee avenue   the ornate north avenue baths offered immigrants  from russia and ukraine a steam room a cold pool   and bowls of borscht like in the old country  the chicago tribune wrote that politicians   loved it because it's hard to wire tap  someone sitting naked in a steam room   by 1959 the neighborhood was sufficiently down  on its heels that novelist and poet nelson algren   lived on the third floor of this building where  he wrote lovingly about chicago's underbelly   and carried on a torrid affair with french  writer and feminist simone de beauvoir nothing better illustrates the transformation  of this neighborhood than this once abandoned   freight railroad embankment reborn as  a lovely linear park called the 606   designed by the celebrated brooklyn-based  landscape architect michael van velkenberg   it runs about three miles through wicker park  bucktown and humboldt park it opened in 2015   after years of being used by local urban  pioneers as an unauthorized nature trail here's one place that's been here through  all the ups and downs over the decades   greek immigrant peter george poulos started  selling gargantuan homemade ice cream creations   and candies here in 1921. is this all his son  later renamed the joint margie's candies for   his sweetheart the third generation still  runs it you don't think i can finish it   just watch the beatles famously stopped here  after their concert at kaminsky park in 1965. a   few years later the rolling stones showed up okay  and asked to sit in the same booth as the fab four   here's a place to work off that banana split the  royal palms all right arm relax down down down   feet together step and push with the left look at  that oh now i'm gonna try to hide around you there oh that's a smooth 21 points right there not bad and to think i thought shuffleboard  was only for retirees on cruise ships   this branch of the defunct metropolitan west side  elevated once ended in logan square at a huge   elevated terminal that old terminal is long  gone and the line now descends back underground   it passes right below logan square's most visible  landmark it's the centennial monument dedicated   on the 100th birthday of illinois in 1918. a  century later logan square may have eclipsed   wicker park on the hipster index the restoration  of the rundown logan theater in 2012 signaled a   rapid change in an already changing neighborhood  the western part of logan square remains solidly   working class and brings the latin x population  in the neighborhood overall to almost 50 percent   this exuberant blue line  subway entrance in avondale   from 2019 by carol ross barney proclaims in  no uncertain terms that this is the blue line when we return to ground level we find  ourselves in the median of the kennedy   expressway heading for o'hare we passed  the old polish downtown a few stops ago   but if you want a taste of polonia jefferson  park is the place to get off the train   this is the winged cavalry of poland  this is how they would go into battle   yeah you would go into battle just like this  yes it's a little intimidating i have to say   why is this annual fest of food and polish  culture here and this beer is called because this is the home of chicago's polish  cultural center the copernicus center once   a movie palace by the famous architect's  rap and rap it was converted in the 1980s   and a tower was added modeled  on the royal castle in warsaw okay where is chicago's oldest house  it's way out here in norwood park   when english immigrant mark noble built this  home in 1833 this area was just open prairie   miles from chicago today the metropolis sprawls  far beyond norwood park to the suburb of rosemont   one of the most interesting things about  rosemont is that one-third of its land   area is taken up with a highway interchange  but they make pretty good use of the other   two-thirds and their proximity to  one of the world's busiest airports fewer than 5 000 people live in rosemont but  it attracts more than 50 000 people each day   thanks to its many hotels convention center  all-state arena outlet mall and restaurants the community describes itself  as an entertainment suburb   architect john portman's hyatt regency o'hare  in rosemont dazzles hotel guests with a soaring   atrium and glass elevators portman first used this  formula for a hyatt hotel in atlanta and repeated   it in dramatic buildings all over the country  including detroit's famous renaissance center   rosemont has been governed by the same family  since it was incorporated in 1956. donald stevens   served as village president for more than 50 years  until his death in 2007 when his son took over when you ride the blue line you see some  folks who have a very very long daily   commute so uh where are you guys headed going  to miami tonight go to miami that's right yeah   you probably have the biggest commute of anyone  in chicago we'll be home in about nine hours   do you ever worry that you're gonna miss your  flight i've never actually been late on the   train before the train has not made you late  never once i've actually never been ladies no   should we have flight attendants on the l  that's what train attendants train attendants   i don't know i don't know amtrak does yeah  yeah you know serving well no they don't   serve anything on airplanes anymore so you have  like uh you know an oxygen mask that falls down   and uh don't need it not at this elevation  yeah you're on the ground true enough the blue line ends at o'hare airport in a terminal  designed by famous german-born chicago architect   helmut yan it opened in 1984 when an extension of  the blue line from jefferson park was completed   jan was a pioneer in making modern architecture  more dramatic with his use of colors and curving   shapes you can also see this in his united  terminal from 1987 which features a subterranean   passageway to a satellite terminal with a  dramatic neon sculpture on the ceiling by   artist michael hayden quite a departure from the  spare modernism of the airport's original design   by c f murphy associates when it was  dedicated by president john f kennedy in 1963   the airport was named for world war ii  fighter pilot edward butch o'hare in 1949.   he fought a solo battle downing five  enemy bombers in 1942 in what his medal   of honor citation described as the most  daring single action in combat aviation   history less than two years later he died in one  of the first nighttime aircraft carrier missions   butch o'hare's father took a different path in  life he was in business with al capone he informed   on the notorious gangster and was gunned down in  a mob hit in 1939 with the dawn of the jet age   the construction of the kennedy expressway and  the long planned extension of the l here o'hare   was destined to become the hub of air travel  for chicago and the entire nation i'd love to   be jetting off to some exotic destination  right now but i've got a train to catch the green line station at 63rd and cottage grove  in woodlawn is at the end of chicago's oldest   l-line and what do you know chicago's  oldest restaurant is right here too what should i order everything on the side on  this side okay this is the breakfast side yeah   what's your favorite thing i just had a omelet  it was delicious yeah yeah and how long have   you been coming here when it was across the  street uh we used to go it was it was a treat   when she would take us over there across the  street and then if they got their homework you   know if you got your homework done so you were a  kid when you came here we just walked over here   and uh that was a treat an irish immigrant  named john daly opened the first incarnation   of this restaurant across the street in 1892  he came to america for a construction job   building the l but realized there was money to  be made feeding his fellow iron workers instead all right how are you good the restaurant's  new building is part of the redevelopment of   woodlawn it was built with federal grant money  by a group called partners in affordable housing   how long have you worked here 34 years 34 years  yes you were like 9 when you started working   not quite has it changed a lot  and it changed the whole lot if the looks sorta chopped off here at cottage  grove it is when the line opened in 1893   it continued east all the way to jackson park  just in time to carry legions of fairgoers there   for the dazzling world's colombian exposition  the so-called white city it took more than   a year to build the fair and many of the  construction workers were regulars at dailies   what does daley's mean to this neighborhood  what is this place a family it was always a   family restaurant everybody came in they were  families but this is kind of more like the real   neighborhood real neighborhood this is it real  nature since we're at the end of chicago's first   l line we'll ride the cta's oldest operating  train built in 1923. it's lovingly restored   maintained and operated by volunteers look  at you guys hey welcome aboard thank you one of those volunteers has a day job as  a cta general manager graham garfield is   a walking encyclopedia of l history look at these  people in the station here like hey how you doing   oh that's always a lot of fun to  see the reaction on people's faces   see the rubber necking the surprise looks and then  a big smile on their face it looks old-fashioned   to us today but it was a big improvement over  the city's first l trains which were pulled   by small steam engines these cars operated for  half a century the last one was retired in 1973. that's the old l train right there this part of the green line began as  the south side rapid transit company so the very first l line the south side elevated  was actually built next to allies for most of its   length it earned it the nickname the ali elle  and they actually called it the allyl in the   advertising they did yeah and the advertising  and even painted on the elevated structure in   a few places so why run it up the alley instead  of running it over the street as we see today   so a 1872 law called the cities and villages act  would have required them to get the consent of at   least half the property owners along the route  which requires usually uh bribes or some other   sort of horse trading literal or figurative the  world's fair brought a building boom to woodlawn   in the early 20th century the western part of  the neighborhood was one of the few places in   chicago where middle class african americans could  live but even here they weren't free of racism   lorraine hansberry based her landmark play a  raisin in the sun on her own family's ordeal   when they moved into this neighborhood a white mob  threw a brick through their window on the eastern   side of woodlawn white business owners and the  university of chicago used restrictive covenants   to prevent blacks from moving there until these  racist policies were finally outlawed in 1948   as the neighborhood became overwhelmingly  african-american in the 1960s the woodlawn   organization formed it used radical and  sometimes controversial organizing techniques   to achieve what it called black self-determination   but the neighborhood continued to suffer  from disinvestment and population loss   recently more people are moving back into the  neighborhood and property values are rising   thanks in part to the announced location  of the obama presidential center nearby at king drive we passed the childhood home  of michelle obama the low-income housing   development parkway gardens it was built  by and for african americans in the 1960s   offering them a rare opportunity  for cooperative ownership   it stands on the site of an amusement park that  opened in 1905 and where african americans were   unwelcome it was called ironically enough white  city a reference to the nearby world's fair another branch of the south side elevated  opened in 1907 to serve englewood there   was no dan ryan expressway back then oh my god  look at this i hope you're not afraid of heights you've got the green line going over  rail lines going over the red line right   going over the ryan we're way up it is it  is a wedding cake of transportation for sure the l helped transform englewood  from a neighborhood of irish and   german stockyards workers into the busiest  shopping district outside of downtown chicago   anchored by a huge sears store the  neighborhood went from virtually all white   to nearly 100 percent african-american starting  in the 1950s when housing restrictions were lifted   banks stopped investing in the neighborhood  and businesses and homeowners suffered   an ill-conceived plan to boost business turned  63rd and halstead into a suburban-style mall it   proved disastrous and by 2017 the population  of englewood had declined almost 75 percent   a powerful force for good through the  hardships in englewood and so many other   neighborhoods has been the black church like  englewood's antioch missionary baptist church and many organizations have stepped up to bring  new hope to englewood kennedy king college opened   a 40-acre campus at 63rd and halstead in 2007  one of its signature programs trains future chefs   for restaurant careers and if those aspiring chefs  need to pick up a few ingredients there's now a   whole foods a block away it's part of englewood  square that opened in 2016 with city assistance   since then starbucks and other retailers have  leased up almost all the available storefronts   the group igrow chicago says it takes a  holistic approach to quote heal the hood inhale   yoga is one of the many programs  they offer to englewood residents   and down they recruited about 50 neighbors  to help transform an abandoned home   and three vacant lots into this peace campus  for mentorships restorative justice programs   arts urban farming and other offerings  by community members themselves why do you love the train why do what  i do too why do we love the train   uh you know i think it holds an appeal um  in some ways it's universal it's it's you   know it's big and it's it's a little noisy and  it just has sort of a character all of its own   um but you know i also love history  and they're a window into what life was   like in chicago in decades past but that  informs sort of how we got where we are you don't see yourself you're not in  there well we've given this old train   quite a workout so to travel  the rest of the green line   let's jump back to the garfield boulevard  station and pick up a modern day train   renowned chicago artist nick cave took cta  station art to a whole new level at garfield   surrounding passengers in nature inspired imagery  a nod to washington park just down the street   an optical trick makes images on the  supporting pillars transform as you walk past we get off the train at the very next  station for something you just have to see it's called box fill high shipping containers i  mean shipping containers are cool so yeah i feel   like there's a movement going around everywhere in  shipping containers but chicago is the last one to   get on board with it entrepreneurs need space  where it's not as expensive as bricking mortars   so this is a starting point for them so if you  can make it at box build then you know that you   can make it in the brick and mortar space karon  johnson manages boxville it's a venture of urban   juncture a group that's incubating entrepreneurs  in what was once the black metropolis the   epicenter of african american business in chicago  so this is the makers box and we do custom apparel   graphic design decals business cards so  one stop shop for all your custom needs   so we service a lot of creatives entrepreneurs  and businesses in there and then all in this   all in the box half is production half is  graphics at first did you think how can we   do all this in this shipping container oh no not  really we're really big on utilizing what we have   the resources and making it happen thinking  outside the box outside the box except in it bronzeville's heyday in the early 20th  century grew out of the great migration   that brought more than half a million  african americans to chicago from the south   that difficult journey is  symbolized in bronzeville's   monument to the great northern migration  by a figure clothed in worn shoe soles one of the few areas where african americans could  find housing in chicago was a narrow strip of the   south side known as the black belt because african  americans weren't welcome to shop in the loop   they built their own downtown here at night  bronzeville was alive with clubs where folks   dressed to the nines to see some of the biggest  names in blues and jazz it was said that if you   held a horn at the corner of 35th and state it  would play itself this monument of a doughboy   honors the african-american 8th illinois regiment  blacks eagerly signed up to serve the country that   marginalized them in world war one the fighting  eighth sent more than two thousand men to france bronzeville's decline is sort of the flip side  of the story we've seen in other south and west   side neighborhoods when restrictive housing was  ruled illegal african americans began moving out   of this overcrowded neighborhood so it's called  build bronzeville yes why is bronzeville need   building so a lot of times when it was opened  up for us to go other areas we left the area   and so now it's time for us to come  back and rebuild because it has culture   history all of that is embedded in bronzeville  so our goal is to get people back to bronzeville   stay in the community stay in the  community and recycle a dollar in the community   urban juncture hopes this bronzeville  landmark will be the jewel in their   crown as they renew the neighborhood it's the  forum built in 1897 it hosted performances   social events union meetings and political  gatherings until it fell into disrepair in   the 1970s and then sat vacant for nearly 30  years facing city order demolition in 2011   urban juncture bought and stabilized it and  they've developed a plan for revitalization the green line takes a  mysterious zigzag at 40th street   so going around the bend here this is  actually the ghost of a long lost l line once upon a time the kenwood branch ran from here  almost all the way to the lakefront the line was   abandoned in 1957 but the concrete embankment was  never torn down today the top of it is an urban   forest and the sealed up station entrances and  walls have become canvases for community mural   artists well we've passed a lot of colleges and  universities along the l some of them are famous   for their academic programs or their sports  teams this next one is famous for a lot less   because at the illinois institute of technology  less is more that was the motto of the legendary   minimalist modern architect ludwig miss van  der rohe who not only founded the renowned   architecture program here he designed the whole  campus he became one of the most influential   architects of the 20th century his designs  stripped away the ornamentation leaving only   steel and glass many people consider crown  hall the purest expression of this work   architecture students from around the  world make pilgrimages here to study it   which is ironic because the building demolished to  make room for it was called mecca flats it housed   a vibrant african-american community future poet  laureate gwendolyn brooks got a job there in 1936   working as a secretary for a spiritual advisor  who sold charms and potions by mail in recent   years other big name architects have pushed  illinois tech beyond austere mesian modernism   like chicago's helmut yan and another chicago  architect john ronan whose kaplan institute has   a second story skin made of pillow-like cushions  that inflate and deflate for energy efficiency internationally acclaimed architect rem  kulhas made the l itself a part of his design for the mccormick tribune campus center opened in  2003 quinn chapel ame church is home to chicago's   oldest black congregation founded in 1844  many early congregants were formally enslaved   and the church became a stop on the underground  railroad later it hosted speakers like   frederick douglass booker t washington susan  b anthony w.e.b du bois and martin luther king   at the dawn of the automobile age south michigan  avenue was motor row home to some of america's   first car dealerships they literally invented  how to showcase cars in ornate buildings with   huge windows and strong floors in those days  things like headlights and speedometers were   options sold by other suppliers on the strip  after the car dealerships moved on the buildings   were converted to industry today many are  being restored as the south loop gentrifies   okay if you google chicago's oldest house the  top results all point to this one clark house   built on the wild prairie in 1836 but wait  a minute earlier we saw a house from 1833 in   norwood park so what gives well that neighborhood  wasn't part of chicago until 60 years later   so you be the judge editors note chicago  wasn't a city at all when clark house was built   clark house has a bizarre history with the l  starting in 1872 before the l was even built   when new owners moved the house about 20 blocks  south flash forward to a century later the city   of chicago bought the historic home and on a  cold december day in 1977 they tried to move   it back to near its original site the trouble was  that since they moved the house to the south side   the l had been built so to move it back  they had to get it up and over the l tracks   it almost worked until it was time  to lower the house back down again   the jacks froze and the house was stranded in  midair for weeks until the weather warmed up this fortress-like mansion on prairie avenue by  boston architect h.h richardson dates from the   time when this was chicago's first gold coast  farm machine maker john j glessner and his wife   francis built it in 1887 on what was called the  sunny street of the sifted few by the early 1900s   a seedy vice district called the levy had taken  hold just a few blocks to the west and motorow   customers were whizzing by on test drives a mass  exodus of millionaires decamped to the north side   by the time i worked as a glessner house tour  guide in the late 1980s this area felt all   but forgotten how times have changed it'd be  really hard to think of another neighborhood   in chicago that's had more development  in the last 20 years than the south loop today the few surviving historic homes are  surrounded by condo towers loft developments   empty nesters and millennials the south  loop is also an urban canvas for muralists   columbia college which specializes in creative  arts and media dreamed up the wabash arts corridor   and claims it's one of america's  largest public art programs   colombia has plenty of wall space to offer  because it gobbled up property around its   south loop campus back before the area  was hot priority c is intended riding   the l is the ultimate communal experience with  people from all walks of life crammed together but in this digital age it's more and  more something we do alone together still there's one voice we all recognize  transferred to orange trains at atoms in   wabash he's the most familiar person on the l that  almost no one has ever seen this is merchandise   this is merchandise smart meet the man behind the  voice lee crooks how old are these announcements   we started doing these in 1998 so trying to have  my voice sound the same i'm a little older now i   was 38 when i started i'm 60 now and so trying  to doors closing is it doesn't come quite as   naturally as it used to why what would it sound  like now doors closing you know it'd be a little   bit lower a little lower a little lower a little  more epic in a world where doors are closing   in a world where doors are closing you said  they gave you some direction like this is   the kind of interpretation we want they wanted  friendly faceless and benign not making that up thanks again for all the reminders every day  thanks and for helping me wake up in the morning   i think someone is recognizing your voice right  here i hear him every day every day i'm sorry   don't you feel like you're just a part  of the city people keep telling me that i   because i live in milwaukee i don't see  it i don't hear it on a day-to-day basis   but it crosses my mind once in a while oh yeah  a little bit if the l is is the iconic element   of chicago you're the iconic voice of the l  it's one part of what i do as a voice over   but it's clearly the most visible part and  i'm proud of what we've done red line run 9 21 doors in the west loop the green line crosses over the  kennedy expressway right where it obliterated the   site of one of the most controversial chapters in  chicago history the riot in haymarket square it   happened on may 4th 1886 when someone threw a bomb  as police tried to break up a peaceful labor rally   seven policemen and an unknown  number of demonstrators were killed   even though the bomber has never been identified  seven anarchists were convicted of murder and   four hanged this monument in the west loop  honors both the workers and the police not so long ago this was chicago's bustling  wholesale produce grocery and meat packing   district today it's home to some of the city's top  restaurants and corporate offices and tech firms   fill old warehouses and new buildings the influx  of well-paid young office workers has ignited   a red-hot residential market here too google  earned some chicago cred in their new offices   with a retired l car repurposed  as a rooftop employee lounge   workers in another building get the genuine  article right outside their office windows here's the green line's greenest stop garfield  park conservatory which opened in 1906 it's one of the world's largest greenhouses  pioneering landscape architect jens jensen   designed it in the shape of a midwestern haystack  at a time when most greenhouses just displayed a   bunch of potted plants jensen composed elaborate  naturalistic scenes that looked like real outdoor   landscapes welcome to the vanilla vine so  what's unique about this vine is it can only   be pollinated by one bee and that's mexican bee  so this right here is my favorite plant this right   here is called the sensitive plant when you touch  it like this it closes up and here's also a these   teenage tour guides come from the high school  directly across the street in east garfield park   what's your favorite part about working  here give it tours i like giving tours   yeah i'm very good at it yeah thank you they're  part of the urban roots program that offers   career and academic support in a neighborhood  where many have lived in poverty for decades   the long-abandoned guy on hotel on washington  street in west garfield park recalls a different   era when it opened as a residential hotel in 1928  it offered private motor coach and maid service   the hotel's french canadian proprietor louis  gion was a prudish former dance instructor who   called the popular jazzy steps of the day indecent  gaian and others built a thriving mini downtown   clustered around madison and crawford now pulaski  my grandfather's family owned one of those shops   it was a men's clothing store called bear  brothers and prodi no the green line does   not go all the way to philadelphia but that  sure does look like independence hall out there   despite what the inscription says it's a park  district field house but austin was once a suburb   of gracious homes on tree-lined streets and  it was the seat of cicero township government   chicago annexed austin in 1899. this is  one of my favorite buildings in chicago the   former laramie state bank from 1929. like many  buildings in austin it's long been vacant this   is another neighborhood where disinvestment and  population loss came in the wake of white flight so day one what are you doing  to this house gut rehabs taking it to the bones of the foundation to  the property to the wood everything starting   completely over why not just tear it down we  try to save the neighborhood rosie dawson is a   property manager working with a group called west  side health authority that hires people from the   neighborhood to rebuild the neighborhood  it's a program called 100 men 100 homes   we were really hit hard here in austin a lot  of abandoned properties as a result of the   foreclosures and people leaving austin we first  went to the banks and said what are you doing with   those properties you need to do something with  them and bank said if you want them take them   so they did and they're not only fixing them up  they're teaching job skills in a neighborhood with   high unemployment what's the big goal of your  organization our big goal is to really figure   out how do we rebuild our neighborhoods  and not let other people dictate how   our neighborhoods should change but let us be  the change agents within our own neighborhood   have you seen the impact of that  on the community oh yes absolutely   i can imagine when you first come in you  just can't get a feeling you get a feeling   you save one house you save a block you  save two houses you save a community how much more work do you still have to do  when we first started doing these projects   you couldn't give away a house in austin now  we're seeing home values climb above 200 000   we're selling those homes within months where in  the past it took us over a year to sell a house   so i think the work is getting to a  point where we feel very satisfied one of the realities we've seen in  neighborhoods on the green line is segregation   but oak park at the end of the  line is known for diversity in the 1960s and 70s while austin right next  door was transitioning from virtually all   white to nearly all black oak park officials  and clergy worked closely with residents to   encourage integration throughout the community  for sale signs were banned and fair housing codes   strictly enforced of course here is elsewhere  true equity is still more a dream than a reality   oak park wasn't always so broad-minded when  ernest hemingway was born in this house in 1899   it was a staunchly conservative  town of stately victorian homes   where it was said the saloons  stopped and the steeples began   hemingway left at 18 to find places better suited  to his taste for adventure and alcohol architect   frank lloyd wright didn't think much of oak park's  victorian vibe either so he set about to change it   oak park has 25 right designed structures more  than anywhere else and people come from all   over the world to see them their low profiles and  open floor plans were inspired by the midwestern   prairie just beyond oak park's borders and by  wright's own ideas about democracy and freedom wright worked out many of his revolutionary  ideas here in his oak park home and studio he lived here with his wife and six children  for 20 years until he scandalized the   community by abandoning his family and  running off with the wife of a client   of all rights buildings in oak park this one  unity temple might be the most celebrated   never one for false modesty wright himself said  that modern architecture began when he designed   it in 1905 protected from the noisy street outside  by thick concrete walls the sublime sanctuary is a   space of quiet contemplation bathed in light from  clear story windows and skylights like so many   right buildings the design was too cutting edge  for the construction technologies of the day after   years of cracking concrete and water damage a 25  million dollar restoration was completed in 2017 unity temple was one of eight  right buildings collectively named   a unesco world heritage site in 2018  okay that's enough peace and quiet if you've taken the orange line to midway airport  or landed here on a plane you've likely noticed   it sits on a remarkably small parcel of land  just a square mile and it's hemmed in on all   sides by neighborhoods when it opened in 1927  as chicago municipal airport it was plenty big   enough for propeller driven airmail planes charles  lindbergh used the cinder runway on a promotional   tour promoting passenger air travel within  five years it was the world's busiest airport   a title it held until 1959 when jet age airlines  started moving to the much bigger and newer o'hare   so when and why was the name changed to  midway there's a big clue inside the terminal   this sbd dauntless dive bomber is the kind of  plane that fought in the world war ii battle of   midway in the pacific for which the airport was  renamed in 1959 sbd stands for slow but deadly travel tip in my humble opinion the best way to  get to and from both our airports is on the l i love taking the orange line from midway  you go through this industrial landscape   that you don't see in too many other places  in chicago and certainly not from the owl the concentration of industry in orange line  neighborhoods like archer heights garfield   ridge and brighton park is a legacy of canals  railroads and highways serving this area in fact   much of the orange line was built on freight  train right-of-way to save construction costs   the line opened in 1993 yes our skyscrapers  and diverse neighborhoods get more attention   but chicago is still very  much a city of big shoulders twelve percent of the city's land is  industrial much of it in this area   and chicago has policies in place to protect  industrial corridors and the jobs they provide trivia question what chicago street does  the orange line cross three different times the l crosses western avenue three times in  12 blocks in this area western is part of the   boulevard system school's out at back of the yards  college prep it opened in 2013. the student body   is majority latinx that mirrors the population in  the surrounding back of the yard's neighborhood   which has seen successive waves of immigrants  earlier irish germans and slavs came to do the   dirtiest of dirty work in the union stockyards  the stockyards opened on christmas day 1865.   some 50 000 workers slaughtered butchered and  packed as many as 18 million animals a year   it was a macabre marvel attracting half a  million tourists annually henry ford is said   to have perfected his assembly line after visiting  the disassembly line at chicago's hog operation   horrendous working and living conditions in the  stockyards and the surrounding neighborhoods   inspired important movements in community  organizing and unionization stockyards had its own   branch of the l which extended from what is now  the green line this was chicago's other loop the   line closed in 1957 as the meatpacking industry  decentralized and stockyard's business dwindled   odd butcher to the world now closed forever  the union stockyards closed for good in 1971. mckinley park opened in 1901 as an experiment the  city's other parks were beautiful pleasure grounds   but they were far away from crowded working-class  immigrant neighborhoods a park superintendent   suggested bringing the parks to the people and  using them to offer social services like bathing   facilities immunizations language classes  vocational training and more in a new kind   of building invented in chicago called a field  house mckinley park was such a hit that it became   a national model and the city built 10 more parks  embedded in neighborhoods that needed the most   quote my new friend lee crooks next stop holsteb  it's the gateway to the bridgeport neighborhood   of course bridgeport has that reputation  you know the birthplace of chicago mayors   rough and tough irish immigrants working  class but today bridgeport might surprise you the irish haven't been a majority in bridgeport  for decades as other european immigrants settled   there and more recently mexicans and chinese and  bridgeport is also now part of an international   arts scene old industrial buildings have  been converted into art centers for studios   and exhibitions broadcasting from the community  of the future this is lumpin radio radio free   bridgeport is a hyper local service that captures  the unique fusion of trendy and tough guy   dna in this community but you know they  were protesting that and protesting the   use of tiff districts to fund that that tiff  in particular you know both sides have gone   back and forth about the amount of it one of the  questions it broadcasts from the co-prosperity   part of the alt empire of bridgeport's leading  impresario ed marzewski it's been called a diy   event space for geniuses freaks and weirdos just  when you think you've got bridgeport figured out   you stumble on this palmisano park is a remarkable  repurposing of a former quarry and landfill for   construction debris landscape architects site  design capped the debris with soil to create a   prairie hillside and wetland that descends into  a limestone canyon with a lake at the bottom the l is america's second biggest rapid  transit rail system after new york   so next time you're grumbling  because your train is a minute late   think about these folks in the cta control  center keeping tabs on 1500 rail cars   serving three-quarters of a million riders every  day 145 stations and more than 200 miles of track   they're in constant communication with  train operators and field supervisors   trying to stay ahead of anything that might cause  delays and dispatch assistance where it's needed   oh and smile because you're likely on one of the  system's 32 thousand security cameras they've seen   it all or almost all 47.63 pursuit has left the  interstate now we're on the l fortunately they've   never encountered some of the things hollywood  has dreamed up for the l try not to scrape the   third rail okay there's about 600 volts in there  it's not the voltage that gets you it's the amps it's awesome walmart this is richard how do you  know it's an elevated train you know   i think he's right i lived under an  l for 20 years no well then you can   explain the difference in the sound of  an elevated train as opposed to a train   that's running along the ground you  must have ears like an eagle this you okay okay all right all right  you know what happens after this   anyway if you're a director shooting a feature  in chicago the l is just too good to resist   you can visit the united nations without going  to new york just go to the end of the brown line   in the albany park neighborhood  you'll find persians koreans mexicans along with arabs and orthodox jews swedes and  more at some point they said 606 60625 was the   most diverse zip code in the united states i  still believe it is where were you born and   how did you end up coming here i was born in  pakistan and we migrated to america in 1973. well i did ask my dad that and he  said that's where the plane landed   but this is where i grew up asan akbar   has devoted 30 years to working with recent  immigrants at the albany park community center the center provides daycare and after school  programs and gives parents and other adults a   helping hand learning english and understanding  an unfamiliar society it's a different culture   different language everything is different so it  was very difficult at the beginning so you had   people in your class from all over the world  did you kind of form a bond we all came to learn   one language and we all are looking for  the opportunity for ourselves and our kids   the community centre itself mirrors the  remarkable history of this neighborhood   the jewish community was here the muslim community  was here the christian community was here so we've   had that fortunate of seeing that the building  has fulfilled its purpose you see it as you go   up and down the streets of albany park really the  common language is care as a community we do care we have one l line left to explore the brown  line opened in 1907 as another branch of the   northwestern elevated railroad so remember i told  you the green line was called the alley l because   it ran above the alleys well here on the brown  line we actually run through the alleys at ground   level so imagine opening your garage door and  looking in your rear view mirror and seeing this the grade level stations have a quaint  neighborhood-y feeling like this one in   francisco which fits the charming character  of ravenswood manor and ravenswood gardens   these neighborhoods border the  chicago river's north branch   there's the river where some  homeowners have private docks   thanks to a special arrangement with the  public agency that owns the river's edge okay what is a piece of the berlin wall doing in  an l station the western avenue stop was chosen   for this gift from the german government in  2008 because it serves historically german   lincoln square lincoln square is a model  urban neighborhood diverse and walkable   with a well-used public plaza the main drag is  lined with local businesses cafes and restaurants   but i'm biased i lived here for 10 years  with my wife and two young daughters you don't see many buildings  in this style in chicago   the beautifully restored and landmarked all saints  episcopal church in the ravenswood neighborhood   is a wooden stick style building  dating from 1884. chicago limited   wood construction after the great fire but  ravenswood wasn't part of chicago until 1889.   now it might look like we're passing a bunch of  old abandoned warehouses but whether you know   it or not when you're riding this stretch  on the brown line you're on a pub crawl   whoa look at that this is about 90   alcohol so i would not want to be drinking no  this would this would hurt your face a little bit   this is chicago's malt row this has  been aging for three to four years here this stretch of old industrial  buildings along the tracks is   perfect for the city's burgeoning  micro breweries and distilleries   what does having all this concentrated in one  place mean to the community oh it's great it   brings people in from other parts of the city  they can try beers at all the different breweries you know if you don't like one beer you can  always try another beer at a different brewery   where is chicago in the universe of microbreweries   chicago right now has more breweries of any large  metropolitan area in the whole country so we are   now the city with the most breweries in the whole  country that's where chicago is at the moment the streets are always alive around the  belmont l station in the lakeview neighborhood   long ago it was a suburb settled  largely by german immigrants   today a large majority of residents are  young singles and couples without kids   the liveliest part of this lively neighborhood  is boys town the chicago tourism bureau claims   it's the oldest officially designated  gay neighborhood in the country   the annual pride parade along halsted street  attracts as many as a million spectators but   there's another story here in the 1980s and 90s  this neighborhood was ravaged by the aids epidemic just a few blocks away at  illinois masonic hospital   two doctors established a remarkable  aids clinic it was called unit 371   where families partners and friends could spend  unlimited time with terminally ill patients   thankfully treatment improved aids was no longer  a death sentence and the unit closed in 2000   you might think the fullerton l station at depaul  university has its own patron saint this mural of   saint vincent de paul by university art professor  brother mark elder personifies the student body   literally if you look very closely you discover  that the saints likeness is made up entirely of   images of people in the depaul community depaul  is the largest catholic university in the country   and a third of the undergrads are the  first in their families to attend college depaul is in lincoln park one of  chicago's wealthiest neighborhoods   but it wasn't always so affluent especially  in the western part of the neighborhood small   cottages were once home to immigrant workers who  labored in nearby plants along the chicago river   by the 1960s many were puerto rican and they  fought in vain against the tide of gentrification   today property here can sell for millions and of course the neighborhood has great access  to transportation how often does a train go by   so often you won't even  notice it the blues brothers   perfectly captured a lifestyle that comes  with the territory for many chicagoans so is this where you come  to relax for peace and quiet   and we do a little bit of everything from  mechanical maintenance to emission testing   one second now you have to stop talking  right yeah i think it's just a city it's fun   i like cities i like the the motion and the noise  and the activity and this is like super activity it's kind of cool too in the morning  like when you wake up and you're tired   and like in the shower you have a  train go by and wake you up more but what if it stops i just keep  on showering i just keep on going   it's good it's convenient it's fulfilling the  purpose it's really good maybe a little too   convenient not too convenient yeah i got it  right out the door that's very good you know   well we seem to be zigzagging here  through empty land for no reason   but actually we're making our way around  buildings that were torn down decades ago st michael's church in old town has something in  common with the water tower on michigan avenue   both survived the great fire of 1871 or at  least the exterior walls of st michael's survive   the roof bell tower and interior were rebuilt   the church was established in 1852 to serve  german settlers it was named saint michaels   in part to honor michael diversi a german-born  chicago brewer who donated the land   old town is indeed an old neighborhood  but it wasn't officially branded   old town until the late 1940s as a gimmick to draw  suburban shoppers and visitors back into the city   the main drag wells street was lined with  old-fashioned lamp posts there was a wax museum   and ripley's believe it or not cheap rent in  old town later attracted artists and hippies   head shops folk clubs and peep shows what we have  here are four pairs of actors each one is going to   be playing a scene inspired by a suggestion from  you all and begin the legendary second city improv   comedy club was and still is a neighborhood anchor  second city grew out of a troupe that invented the   art of improvisational theater in chicago it's  incubated some of america's greatest comedy stars   the marshall marshallfield garden apartments  were built in 1929 as an idealistic effort   at affordable housing funded by the estate of  marshall field in the years before public housing   the neighborhood south of old  town certainly needed the help   it had earned the nickname little hell a reference  to the smoke and flame from the local steel mills   and the miserable living conditions  there for immigrant workers   the chicago housing authority bulldozed little  hell in the 1950s and 60s to build the massive   cabrini green project with federal money  cabrini was itself bulldozed a generation later   as the area surrounded by wealthy  neighborhoods rapidly gentrified all right we're going around church curve  it's a little bit of divine intervention   literally the l swerves here around saint joseph's  church built for a german-american parish in 1878   the church refused to sell its  building to make way for the l   rather than suing to condemn the church and maybe  to avoid bad karma the l just routed its tracks   around it the river north district is trendy  today but it was once an industrial area so grimy   it was nicknamed smokey hollow in the 1970s  artists moved into some of the dilapidated old   warehouses and before long river north  was chicago's hottest gallery district   many old buildings were demolished for huge  condo towers perched atop multi-story parking   garages that killed street life and led then mayor  richard m daly to declare no more ugly buildings the merchandise mart which is now just called  the mart is big enough to have its own l station   marshall field built the 4.2 million square  foot art deco style behemoth in 1930 as a   wholesale operation joseph kennedy bought it  in 1945 after the wholesale business failed today under new owners the mart is home to  manufacturer's showrooms for high-end home decor   add the phone numbers on there and then  we'll reset and tech innovation companies   like the incubator 1871. there may be nothing more  chicago than circling the downtown loop on the l   to do that we have to cross the busiest railroad  junction in the world at laken wells that's what   this was called in the 1920s when more than 200  trains an hour passed through here at peak times   switched to their various tracks by a controller  looking down on the interchange from tower 18.   some of the oldest surviving buildings in  the loop are tucked right up against the l sort of accidental historic preservation  the property along the noisy l structure   just wasn't as valuable as other property  and so the buildings were never torn down   they were built before the l was even here in  the italianate style of the buildings destroyed   just a few years earlier in the chicago fire  once upon a time the various private l lines   stopped just short of downtown the man who  connected them together with the union loop   has been described as a ruthless robber baron  a philanderer and an all-around scoundrel   transit magnate charles tyson yerkes built the  loop l one stretch at a time to win franchises   from property owners he promised the last holdout  van buren street a mile-long line to halsted   but once he completed the circuit at wells in  1897 he never built the rest after yorkies died   mayor carter harrison called  him a gallant though perverted   soul to see what some original loop l stations  looked like just hop off at quincy street   the ornate neil classical style station dates  from 1897 and was fully restored in 1988   after rounding the bend onto van buren street the  world famous l passes something else chicago is   world famous for this stretch of south dearborn  street architecture fans from all over the world   make pilgrimages to come here because these  are some of the first skyscrapers ever built   chicago claims to be the  birthplace of the skyscraper   revolutionary buildings supported by interior  metal skeletons instead of thick masonry walls   architects made these buildings look revolutionary  too with lots of glass and soaring vertical lines   the style came to be known as the first chicago  school of architecture we're so crazy about   skyscrapers in chicago that even inmates get  their own high rise it's the metropolitan   correctional center a massive concrete jail from  1975. a century after building the world's first   skyscrapers chicago got a modern building designed  to look ancient harold washington library by   architect thomas beebe is a takeoff on a grand  neo-classical pavilion rooftop owls symbolize   wisdom other whimsical features include a puffy  cheeked windy city man and images of midwestern grain the library is named for chicago's first  african-american mayor who was a voracious reader   turning onto wabash we get a great view  of the auditorium theater from 1889   today home to roosevelt university this pioneering  combination theater hotel and office building   catapulted architect louis sullivan and  his partner deng mar adler to stardom   a young frank lloyd wright worked on the building  as a draftsman the developer had promised that the   auditorium would be ready in time for the 1888  republican national convention it wasn't but a   temporary roof was installed and future president  benjamin harrison was nominated in the midst of   a construction site on this side of the loop some  of those early italianate style facades have been   preserved but sleek new towers like the legacy and  heritage have been built behind and above them why to pick up views of millennium park just a  block away it opened in 2004 luring a whole   new generation of residents to the loop now  i don't know about you but i'm old enough to   remember when there were these covered walkways  that led directly out of these stations into   carson's marshall fields and other department  stores downtown rounding the curve from wabash   to lake streets is that a parking garage for a  giant old-fashioned touring car it's from the   mischievous mind of the anfon tarib of chicago  architecture the late much-loved stanley tigerman the whit hotel with its dramatic chartreuse  slash up the front is a sign of the vibrancy   of the loop today in the lobby architect jackie  coo created tall windows that frame views of the l   going by almost like a kinetic sculpture to quote  chicago tribune architecture critic blair kamen   it's hard to believe that half a century  ago our downtown was nearly dead at night   as people fled to the suburbs there were even  plans to tear down the aging loop l itself and   replace it with new modern subways but chicagoans  rose up to defend their beloved l comparing it to   san francisco's cable cars and even the eiffel  tower anyway the plan proved just too expensive   and so the l still noisily circles the loop  today a sound only a true chicagoan could love we've come full circle to the merchandise mart   and we disembarked just in time to take a  seat on the riverwalk for our grand finale as night falls the mart's  two and a half acre facade explodes art on the mart is the self-proclaimed  world's largest video art installation   we're getting a traffic jam in the river the  tour boats are probably not happy about that   34 digital projectors connect to controls  inside the mart by wires running beneath the   river the building's windows are digitally  masked so tenants aren't disturbed curators   commissioned works from a wide array of  artists and rotate the artwork regularly   what do you think is it cool the l really does  mean more to chicago than just a way to get from   place to place it is itself a place where we  encounter others we might otherwise never see   and discover great things happening in  every neighborhood we love the concept of   turning that idea into reality that's the  best feeling ever you know i hope for you it's been part of our landscape  for well over a century   it's the background sound that says we're home whether you love it as i do or love to complain  about it chicago just wouldn't be chicago   without the l leadership support for chicago by l with  jeffrey baer is provided by [ __ ] harris bank   with major funding from people's gas proud  supporter of arts and culture in chicago   joyce and matt walsh and patty and dan walsh in  memory of richard gray and in honor of mary l gray   additional support is provided by anne and rich  carr the joseph and bessie feinberg foundation   itw and jim and kay maybe  and by the following donors you

Channel: WTTW

Views: 861,963

Keywords: chicago el, chicago documentary, chicago trains, train documentary, chicago architecture, chicago history, cta, chicago transit, chicago neighborhoods, purple line, red line, orange line, brown line, pink line, green line, blue line, chicago by l, chicago by el, geoffrey baer, union stockyards, train history, boystown, pride parade, cta announcements, chicago transit authority, public transit, white sox, chicago cubs, chicago l, chicago l train, geoffrey baer chicago

Id: 4wXB8htl3Zo

Length: 130min 30sec (7830 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 05 2021