Straight Streets and Curving Streets
Why do some communities have straight streets and others have curving streets, and even different kinds of curving streets? It depends...
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Towns Along the Q
Towns Along the Q - the Book
Fourteen communities line the present day Metra BNSF suburban train route forty miles west between Chicago and Aurora, Illinois. Each community has its own distinct geographic and socio-economic characteristics. Why is that? Towns Along the Q, the soon-to-be-published book, will answer that question by examining historical developments ranging from geologic formations to internet and pandemic. In the course of doing so, it will incorporate fun and sometimes whimsical anecdotes.
In anticipation of publication of Town Along the Q, the blog, will share informative and sometimes fun and whimsical anecdotes and perspectives.
What is the Q and what are the towns?
The Q was the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, later Burlington Northern and then BNSF Railway. Today suburbanites know it as the Metra BNSF line between Chicago and Aurora.
Metra has stations in 14 individual municipalities along the 40 mile route. The story of the towns along the Q involves many more past and present communities in that corridor, each with colorful and interesting facts and anecdotes surrounding how they came to be.
Who am I?
I explore and examine the world around me. In doing so I continually ask the question "why do things look the way they do?, and "how did things get to be the way they are?". I examine, photograph, document and share what I find. That is what Towns Along the Q, the blog and the forthcoming book, are all about.
Stories from the Towns Along the Q
Historical Resources Along the Q
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My other publications and presentations
In the course of studying transportation history and pursuing my Masters of Urban Planning and Policy degree I have created other publications and presentations
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