CTA BUS ROUTE #3 - KING DRIVE

A friend and I did this on Sunday, September 7. A day kissed by the gods, made you glad to be walking this earth. A leisurely day, not having to catch any rush hour bus, or make any particular connections. I took forty great pictures, mostly from inside the bus, which tells you how clean the windows are, and having to triage them was hard.

We arrived at Fairbanks and Huron, the starting point for #3, and looking at maybe a two to three hour ride, we stopped in the handy Panera right there. I love Panera, never had a bad thing there. (and no, I don't own Panera stock)
I don't know if you can see, but this is a picture of the honorary street name, Siskel and Ebert Way. Peculiarly wonderful, since I am an avid film goer.

We left on the #3 at 1:10 pm, and arrived at 95th and Martin Luther King Drive at 2:25. Not bad especially since the bus was always full of passengers, getting on or off. And we didn't wait five minutes for the northbound bus.

THE ROUTE - north on Huron to Chicago - West on Chicago, past the Museum of Contemporary Art - south on Michigan Avenue, past The Hard Rock Hotel, the Cultural Center, Millenium Park, The Art Institute, all the neat stuff. (And I should note here that the driver was drinking something from a carry-out cup while driving.) The bus turns east on Roosevelt past the Agora torsos, south on Indiana, west on 16th, and south on Michigan again. I cannot explain this odd one-block detour, as the bus followed the exact same pattern going north. What was the point? Is there some obstruction on that one block of Michigan that I can't see from the bus? So, south on Michigan, east on Cermak (22nd Street), then rounding McCormick Place and heading south on Martin Luther King Drive. What a huge complex McCormick place is! And rather ugly if you ask me, which you didn't.

We go past Dunbar Vocational High School and a raft of gorgeous old turn-of-the century homes. Past Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church, Corpus Christi Church, fabulous buildings. It being Sunday, lots of cute children boarded the bus in their Sunday finery.

Isn't this building wall fun?

But sadly, many vacant lots too, and littered sidewalks and yards. Please, people, pick up the litter, even if it isn't yours. I do, because I live on a park that is very frequented, and sometimes it looks like a third world country out there. It doesn't cost anything to pick up trash, and you might even get in some stretching and bending.
Around 70th the street turns definitely residential and lovely. Tree-lined, with nice brick bungalows. And all along MLK Drive, lots and lots and lots of churches, all kinds and creeds, but Christian for the most part. Around 85th it takes on the appearance of a suburb, and my friend said it was called Chatham. Lovely. We passed a big park where people were hanging out, playing games, barbequeing, (how do you spell that word?) Sunday afternoon stuff.
End of the line - at Chicago State University

And I remember one guy, sitting on the bus stop bench, but not getting on when we arrived, which was odd, because there was no other bus coming, but I so remember him because of his beautiful light filled eyes. Coming back, on the other side a little ways up, there he was again, sitting in the opposite side bench. Odd.
Same route returning, but now we're on the east side of the bus, and can see just how enormous Washington Park is, stretching from 60th all the way up to 52nd. And now starts the boulevard again and the wonderful brick and stone houses. I noticed only one Jewel on the whole length of this ride, at 33rd Street. We also passed Michael Reese Hospital. Back at Huron and Fairbanks at 3:45 pm.

Another fun wall painted ever so bright!

It was rather uneventful, but delightful. On the north-bound bus, when we reached Chicago, the bus about to turn right, the driver leaned over and said to us (although I didn't know there was nobody behind us, and did not at first realize she was talking to us), "Do you know where you're going?" Because we had gotten on all the way down at 95th and MLK Drive, and stood out like the proverbial sore thumb there. How nice of her. My friend thought she must have noticed that I had been snapping away out the window, and thought maybe we were hopelessly lost tourists. But I told her "Yes, to the end of the line."

Going north - from right across the bus - who is that man on a horse? Later, I found out it's George Washington
Across from MLK Cultural Center, this fabulous sculpture of a sax player.

And on the north and south sides, in an area that I unfortunately didn't mark, there were all these neat benches, quite a few on either side. Funky, huh?

Perceptions - you know, when white suburbanites like myself think about venturing south of 22nd street, we get trepidatious. And how utterly wrong that turned out to be. What wonderful sights I saw, how all the preconceived notions just were plain wrong. We get brain-washed, I think, in all kinds of areas, and must just go and see for ourselves. For there is nothing like first-hand, directly experienced knowledge. Period. Sure, some areas definitely need a helping hand, and local business could go a long way toward that, and new businesses taking a chance, but people are people everywhere, all the same, and how easily we forget that. My soapbox again. Sorry.



My apologies to the mime, for not being able to get off the bus and drop something in the hat.

Third one down.

Addendum - January 26,2009

According to the CTA's web site, as of December 28, this route and the express do not do that odd one-block detour anymore.