franklinfamily.org

On a whim Sarah and I decided to take the girls to a mexican resturaunt in downtown Chicago. Evelyn 3 and Ruby 1. It was late at night, but the girls have a late bed time so that they can see more of me when I’m not working. They’re both at that small age where long walks are not possible unless a stroller is involved. Besides having two children, you’d think we were doing all the right things. We wanted to take public transportation into the city and support a locally owned and operated restaurant. Taking the specially designed super yuppie double stroller made by Maclaren down the ramp to wait for the east bound blue line train into the city was a joy. No problems and hardly any wait. When we got on a nice gentlemen in a pristine white ball cap reading an old Sun-Times motioned towards the area in the back designated for wheelchairs and suggested, “There’s more space back there.” There was. It was swift ride to the Clark/Lake station where we could switch to the brown line so that we could make our way to Lincoln Park. The Clark/Lake station has a series of elevators which makes transfering strollers from the ground level blue line to the elevated brown line almost as effecient as walking up stairs and escalators. We rode the brown line around until we reached the Sedgwick stop on the Brown Line. From there it would have been a short walk down North Ave 3 blocks towards Uncle Julio’s. But it wasn’t that simple. In order to get the stroller off of the train, I had to literally run and ramp the stroller into the air in order to avoid the wheels falling into the huge gap between the train and the platform. Once off and safely onto the wooden platform, we vainly searched for an elevator down to the ground level below. After walking back and forth the entire length of the platform and seeing neither sign nor elevator, we resigned to carry the stroller down the two flights to the bottom. This has to be done at just the right time, as you don’t want to block people who are walking up the platform while you clumbsily carry the stroller down. It’s a two person effort, for sure. When we reached the bottom we couldn’t even get out. The girls had to be removed from the stroller entirely as it wouldn’t fit through the doorway that led to the exiting turnstyles. I turned the stroller sideways so as not to have to collapse the entire thing down. Mind you, this stroller was specifically designed to make it through the normal width of a normal doorway. If I were in a wheelchair and had somehow made it downstairs from the platform, I would have had to have been carried through while my wheelchair was collapsed through the doorway. I then navigated the stroller through the handicapped turnstyle exit where I had to then turn it sideways again to get out of the station and on to the street. To me it seems insanely idiotic that the the sedgwick station would even have a handicapped turnsyle! What’s the point of having a handicapped turnstyle if you can’t eveb make it to the platform?! We then walked to the resturaunt and had a wonderful meal surrounded by families who paid four dollars for someone to valet park their S.U.Vs. They looked happy and content. We didn’t look forward to the expedition.

On our way back home, we decided to try to take the red line to the blue line, hoping that it would be easier to take the stroller. As we were literally carrying the stroller down three flights of stairs and back up again, we passed a poor black mother carrying her child. I watched as she left her stroller at the bottom of the stairs, carried her child to the top, left her child at the top, and began to walk back down again to get her stroller. As Sarah and I passed her carrying our children like they were young queens, I said, “Real family friendly, eh?”. She didn’t respond as she struggled up the stairs. The sweat on her brow was answer enough.

I believe that global warming is real. I’m not entirely convinced that its human induced. But even if we’re not convinced we’re doing it, we should act proactively as if we are. If I’m not sure who or what is behind that door, I’m not going to shoot into it. That’s just common sense. But how can a family be expected to navigate through public transportation and live in an urban environment when suvs and urban sprawl is so much more effecient and comfortable?

We still enjoy taking the train into the city.