Chicagoisms

Most of the stuff I'm gonna talk about could be said for any city. But since I'm living in Chicago, I'm calling them Chicagoisms. Not anything exciting, but they all happened today.

Cab Drivers
I was trying to pull out of a parking lot and noticed a tow truck somewhat in the middle of the road. I mostly noticed it because it was keeping from pulling out of the lot in a timely fashion. Since I had to wait a bit before pulling out, I checked out what the commotion was about. A cab had rear ended another cab. That brought a definite (guilty) smile to my face. My opinion of cabbies is situationally biased. While I'm in them, I kinda like them: they get me to where I want to go probably faster than I could. On the flip side, there are a LOT of cabs in Chicago, and usually I'm usually driving amongst, not in, them. And (stereotypically) they all think they own the road - pulling right turns out of middle lanes, riding shoulders, and whatnot. So why the smile? Because (in my mind) the accident was due to both cabbies pulling stupid shit on each other. End result: crunch.

Intersections
Any big city is going to have it's fair share of busy intersections. And at most busy intersections, there are traffic lights. If you've got enough of them close to each other, then you start to run into the problem of nonmoving green lights. Downtown around rush hour, they've got traffic cops at all the intersections. Unfortunately they're neither throughout the city nor around all the time. What do these guys do? Cut off traffic to avoid gridlock. And by gridlock I mean dumbasses who think they can pull through a yellow light into an intersection. Sooo, what's the problem? The cars they just zoomed up to aren't going anywhere and/or are sitting at a red light...and now Speed Racer is stuck in the middle of the intersection. Sooo, when the other lights turn green, everyone else is shit out of luck. Oh, and most likely pissed. Bottom line? Don't block the damn intersection. I've seen some intersections with hefty blocking fines posted and are video enforced (I think). I rather like the idea.

Homeless
Homeless and cities kinda go hand in hand. Hell, even Champaign had a few. By the very definition, homeless don't have anywhere to go when things get shitty weather-wise. I see some huddle up in nooks against skyscrapers, others in parks, some on bus shelters benches. Those are all good and fine (?) when it's warmer.
Today was not the definition of warm. I've never bundled up more than I did today (including thermal pants, scarf, puffy jacket) only to still feel somewhat cold (mostly my face). Walking back last night in a sweater and peacoat was literally painful. It didn't feel like I even had anything on. Stupid alcohol didn't even keep me warm (it actually makes things worse - vasodilation). Damn wind. Anyway, one of the places the homeless go when it's cold is the L. The Red Line is 22 miles long, the Blue Line is 27 miles long - and they both run 24/7. That's well over an hour of warmth and sleep for them. If you pay your fare, I figure you should get a ride. However, that does not entitle you to stink up half the car.

Coming back on the Blue Line tonight, most of my car's riders were homeless. I figured that would probably happen, given the weather and time. The dude who situated himself next to me literally smelled like shit though. I've sat around other homeless before and they've never smelled that bad. On top of that, as I walked into the car, he was retucking in his shirts and pulling up his pants. I didn't really wanna put too much imaginative thought into what preceded those actions.