How To Save The "L" And Other Tidbits From the March Chicago Magazine

I read this month's issue of Chicago Magazine recently, and it had several interesting articles in it. One was about an elderly man who lived very modestly in a house in Chicago's Gage Park neighborhood. He was a former electrician who lived there with his two sisters, and after they passed away, alone. After not collecting his mail or seeing him for a number of days, the mailman and the neighbors grew concerned and broke in, finding him dead in the bathtub, fully dressed with a jacket on in an unheated house. He had no heirs, and everyone was truly surprised when they discovered his estate was worth 11 million dollars. Being frugal in the extreme was the reason for this, but for what purpose? We will never know. Sad.

Another interesting article was titled "How to Save the L," which I was surprised to learn needed saving. After reading the article, it appears that the "L," which I used frequently when I lived in Chicago, is having the same troubles as the RTD light rail here in Denver - difficulty finding workers, an increase in crime, declining ridership after the pandemic, litter everywhere, etc. I frequently use the light rail here in Denver, and to me many of those problems are not as severe as portrayed in the media, and those that are are being addressed. I assume that is the same back in Chicago. In 1977, when I was living in west suburban Forest Park, there was an accident that sent an "L" train plunging to the street from the elevated track, killing 12 people, as seen in the photograph on the right from the Chicago Tribune. If ridership on the "L" can survive something like that, I think it can survive anything.