Chicago Flash Mobs/Mob Attacks/Wildings Derailed This Summer?

South Side youths intent on carrying out a flash mob/mob attack/wilding in downtown Chicago may find themselves unable to get to their destination this summer.

From the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) website this morning:

Coming: May 19, 2013

Faster. Smoother. Better.

Beginning May 19, 2013, the CTA will rebuild the tracks along the south Red Line, from Cermak-Chinatown to 95th/Dan Ryan—a project that will provide faster, more comfortable and more reliable service for Red Line riders.

From just north of the Cermak-Chinatown station to the 95th Street station, crews will replace everything in the track bed: ties, rail, third rail, ballast (the stone material that holds the ties in place) and drainage systems. Some stations will also receive improvements ranging from new canopies, paint and lighting upgrades to new benches and bike racks. Additionally, the stations at Garfield, 63rd and 87th will get new elevators, making all stations on the South Side Red Line accessible.

The south Red Line, called the Dan Ryan branch, is more than 40 years old and needs a full replacement…

The work is part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Building a New Chicago program, which is updating infrastructure that’s critical to the city—and includes improvements that will help ensure that CTA continues to serve customers as effectively as possible.

The project is made possible by $1 billion in state and local funding announced in late 2011 by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Governor Pat Quinn for the Red and Purple Lines.

The Red Line will completely close from Cermak-Chinatown through 95th/Dan Ryan. The closure is expected to last 5 months, until late October 2013.

Knowing all this, I won’t be surprised if it’s a “quiet” summer along the “Magnificent Mile” and in other tourist hotspots downtown. Still, if I were an urban dweller/visitor in that part of the city, I wouldn’t let my guard down for an instant. They shouldn’t be doing that anyway, especially as the more-established criminal element in the city is probably well-aware of the ongoing manpower shortage in the Chicago Police Department.

You can read more about that CTA project beginning this weekend here.

By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)

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