Color Coded

I remember when, in 2006, the Chicago Transit Authority conducted a survey of sorts to pick a name for a new branch of the L they were putting into service.  Chicago school kids were solicited to submit recommendations for the new branch, and of the top three they submitted (silver, gold and pink), Pink was chosen by the CTA powers-that-be as the moniker for the new line.

Looking around Chicago at this time of year is overwhelmingly dismal, at least from a color perspective.  We’re surrounded by every possible shade of gray and black and white. People are bundled up beyond recognition in their black North Face puffers, gray wool peacoats, and brown fur coats. Boots and bags, hats and gloves and scarves, all marvelously monochromatic…it’s enough to insight temporary hypnosis.

I wonder what the significance is behind the color code system for the trains.  Do these colors represent our collective opinion of certain neighborhoods the trains bisect? Given the rainbow array currently used to represent the L network, are we subliminally (or intentionally, take your pick) giving a solidarity shout-out to the LGBT community at large? Naming a train the Black Line or the White Line is obviously potentially controversial, though, interestingly, the Brown Line seemed to be race-neutral or just ambiguous enough not to overtly offend anyone…

If I were the President of the CTA, I think I’d prefer to give the school kids several options to vote on.  I’d make it a learning experience by making a list of colors they’d never heard of so they’d have to look them up.  A-some-a-thing-a-like-dís: chartreuse, ochre, periwinkle, topaz, phlox, heliotrope, onyx, amaranth, lapis and even khaki!

I don’t know about you, but none of those colors were in MY Crayola box growing up.  We can hardly fault our youngins for not picking something with a bit more panache.  But I can guarantee you I’d walk a little taller if I were the kid responsible for naming a train line chartreuse!