And the award for worst tagline for a major public works project goes to the Chicago Transit Authority for “countdown to a new brown.” The scatalogical-sounding slogan seems about right to a number of businesses and residents along the Brown Line, which runs from downtown to Kimball and Lawrence avenues in Albany Park. Residents near the Armitage stop fear that the slogan describes the CTA’s process of changing designs for their historic station. The latest design includes galvanized steel, plastic and new lighting, and the RANCH Triangle Association is none too happy about it.
Farther north on the Brown Line, businesses on Rockwell — a charming little street between Wilson and Lawrence avenues — fear that “countdown to a new brown” might mean six months of constipation from Feb. 20, when the CTA closed the station for renovation. A number of new businesses resurrected the-commercial-strip-that-could on Rockwell after years of abandonment, but will it be left looking like (fill in the blank) once again after six months of no commuters and diminished street traffic?