CTA – Lawrence

I’m surprised nobody has pointed this out but if you’re leaving the Aragon Ballroom and want to catch a train, please leave 10 minutes before the event ends because once the show ends, you’ll spend 30 minutes trying to get through people and leave and another 20 minutes pushing and shoving people to get on a train because believe me, this whole station platform will be crowded. Trains usually run a bit slow at night as well.

staff actually does try to help — but the machines tend to be finicky and reject the paper CTA passes. the stairs are often stained with bird poop (so disgusting) and it’s a dicy neighborhood that has a lot of vagrants hanging around. the plus is the view of Lawrence Avenue, as you look towards the east — something that those with smartphones and cameras can appreciate.

The staffs here are pretty helpful, place looks clean and taken care of.

I’m never going to give a train station less than 3 stars simply because the CTA does exactly what I need it to do… move me around the city. That being said, over the past few weeks with the Argyle stop being closed, I have had the choice between walking an equal distance South to Lawrence or North to Berwyn. 9 out of 10 times, I’ll walk to Berwyn because I find Lawrence to be cramped and sketchy. Certainly not my favorite stop on the Red line.

Well it’s a step up from the other Uptown CTA El station, Wilson. We can all agree with that statement. Yet, it remains a bit «under the weather» and creepy, no matter what hour of the day you board (especially at night with guys suspiciously standing on the already narrow stairs and the bumping Kinetic Playground). I always have to cover my nose and mouth while waiting for the 81 Lawrence bus under the El tracks in fear that I may get Pigeon Lung Disease (yes, it really exists and is a respiratory condition caused by inhaling pigeon poop and feathers). The nice thing about this station is it’s location a block from the old Uptown Theater District (with the Aragon, Uptown, Riviera, Annoyance and Imagination Theaters) which Mayor Emmanuel will hopefully bring back to its heyday condition.

Ew is all I can think of when I think of CTA and this stop gets a double ew. Its narrow platform and two turnstiles make this one of the worst stations on the Red Line.

There’s better stations and worse stations. I kinda like the spaceman-​looking graffiti on the steps about halfway up. Sucks that there’s only one exit/​entrance, and that it’s narrow. Also sucks that the pigeons are big fans of doing business out front, because I like the open, welcoming appearance. Nice view of the Aragon and the Broadway/​Lawrence intersection from the platform.

This is my stop. I give it four stars because I remember how it was before they updated the lighting and gave it a paint job. As for the narrow platform. Well, it was constructed before the Titanic sank. It’s not so easy to update a station that sits on the berm as opposed to elevated tracks. You cant just tear up the tracks and build wider platforms without tearing up the berm which is concrete and earth. Same reason the station has one point of access, not so easy to tunnel through the berm. The berm the berm the berm. Sure it could be done, but the Red Line is a political bastard child. It gets a bum rap.

This is my favorite train station right now. It’s where I get ON the Red Line, and where I get OFF, to go home. I like it when the street is busy with Aragon people and Riviera people… just standing there, taking it all in fills me with a feeling that I’m SO LUCKY because Chicago is my home and it’s so amazeballs. :-P

Are you guys kidding me with this? 5 stars? Have you ever been on this el platform in a snow/​sleet storm? And the wind is super-​crazy wicked up Lawrence. The wind almost blew me off of the platform last winter. And it is insanely narrow around the stairway. What the hell was the CTA thinking with that? And there is a constant array of pidgeon crap just west of the exit on the south side of the street. They do seem to hose it down every day, but still. I marvel at the fact that I, nor anyone I know, have been crapped on.
And. There is ONE exit. About 2.5 car lengths from the south end of the platform. Which makes for quite a dash for the poor soul who is on the far north end of the train and is trying to make the mad dash to catch the Lawrence bus.
I have no complaint with the neighborhood, but the actual el stop… is dreadful.

Ho ho ho — I like this one too!

The drunk and destitute mingling with the drunk and affluent on one very narrow platform? What’s not to love? Okay, fine, maybe there is a sober person up there sometime during the day, but after 10pm its like a friendly game of Russian roulette. All in good fun.