CTA – Kedzie

The best way to describe this station is cute. It’s tightly sandwiched in between buildings with narrow alleys on either side. The central platform is long and narrow and has very little shelter from the hot summer sun and cold winter wind. The redeeming part is that the entry building has ample room to wait indoors and away from the elements.

This station has a quaint old fashioned charm. It reminds me of the tiny model trains and stations I used to see at high end doll house stores (I didn’t have that but did have the streets w working street lights and old timey light poles… lol). The charm might be due to the fact this L station is not elevated or below ground but street level. Also there’s a small wooden cabin to swip your fare card or put money on one ran by two delightful ladies. This is the only place in a few blocks radius that has Red Eye, Hoy, AND the Chicago Reader… if you can imagine THAT. It’s conviently located near a number of rad businesses and restaurants. ***~However~*** it only services the Brown Line and that does not run 24 hrs a day– which is pretty old fashioned getting back to my original point. I guess the best quality is also their worst.

5 Stars for a CTA stop? Yes! Every single morning, the employees at this stop are extraordinarilly friendly and helpful. Above and Beyond! I have often witnessed the employees kindly helping newcomers and being helpful to anyone who has questions. Seriously, hit this platform at 8am and you will know what I mean.

I love this train stop! I have been catching the train at Kedzie for about 2 years now. It is annoying when you get stuck by the train since the trains run at street level. I have sprinted to the station house before the train guards come down. Good thing I have been working on my running!
This station is located near Starbucks, Salaam, Noon O Kebab and Semiramis! There is heat inside and there is a long platform outdoors. It does get beastly hot in the summer and there is little shade. The thing I love most about this station is the station attendant. She is a big ray of sunshine in the morning and she says hello to everyone! She makes me smile as I endure my long commute to the loop. I hope she never leaves!

Whenever I have to go somewhere by train, I walk through the hail of bullets and mobs of skanks to the Kedzie Brown Line station.
I never fear for my life or safety because I have superpowers. I am surrounded by a perpetual forcefield which keeps the shrapnel and riffraff away (it also keeps me from feeling the touch of another living soul, but that’s another story).
I could easily teleport into the heart of the Loop, but doing so would blow my supersecret identity, so I pay my fare and wait for the train like a specimen of the garden variety homo sapiens that seem to rule this planet.
As I wait for the train, I enjoy staring at my fellow commuters. None of them notice me because I am invisible when I choose to be. I notice more and more nice, genteel folks nursing Starbucks and zoning out to their iPods as they wait for the train. Despite being garden variety homo sapiens without superpowers, they have survived the flurry of switchblades and gunfire. Why have they come here, I wonder? Do they not know how treacherous it is in Albany Park? That, for every afforable apartment and amazing amenity they enjoy here, they could pay the ultimate price of being accosted by an alien? I admire them for venturing into this vile corner of Chicago, frail and vulnerable as they are.
I am momentarily annoyed that the CTA attendants do not offer to powder my ass or peel me a grape. Oh wait, I’m thinking of public transit on Uranus. They do not offer such services here on Earth.
40 minutes later, my fellow commuters and I step off the train and into the Loop.

This gets two stars from me because it truly is two times better than the Kimball stop which is kind of a hole.
The Kedzie stop is infinitely cleaner than Kimball. Nice that you can enter from either side which makes it more convenient for me.