A pair of homemade wooden benches painted bright yellow and blue appeared last week at CTA bus stops in Ukrainian Village.
The benches were built and installed by a neighborhood group tired of seeing bus stops without them.
Several people posting online praised the Northwest Neighborhood Alliance for building the benches.
The group wants to build more, but is waiting to see what the city does.
Technically, the benches are illegal.
They were placed without seeking permission from the city, said Sam Kovnar, 25, founder of the Northwest Neighborhood Alliance.
“A lot of public transit agencies fall short on quality-of-life issues,” Kovnar said. “If there’s no bench at the bus stop, that makes a difference whenever an older person chooses to use the stop. It makes the 5-, 10- or 15-minute wait possible or not.”
One bench is at Damen Avenue and Thomas Street, the other at Division Street and Oakley Boulevard.
People roundly praised the benches in posts on Reddit.
One commenter said, “As a person who needs to be able to sit while waiting I thank you for the work you are doing.”
Kovnar, reflecting on the positive feedback, said, “It was also distressing to read how much difference a bench could make.”
The Chicago Transit Authority has nearly 11,000 bus stops in Chicago. Many of them don’t have benches. Over last decade, the city has removed benches from bus stops to deter loitering, according to news reports.
It’s unclear whether the city will allow the new benches to stay. The CTA and city Transportation Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the benches.
“We’re waiting to see what happens,” said Kovnar, who works in software. “Obviously if the city sends us an angry letter, we will stop. … But I think it’s hard to argue that the benches are not wanted.”
Kovnar said he was inspired to build the benches from his time living in Milwaukee, where he helped other advocates build and place homemade benches at bus stops.
Eddie Lehwald, a member of the Northwest Neighborhood Alliance, said he built one of the two benches a couple of years ago but hesitated to place it at a bus stop.
“It stayed in my yard,” said Lehwald, 43, of Logan Square.
It took a critical mass of support, and the several dozen members of the Northwest Neighborhood Alliance, to inspire Lehwald to finally place it in public.
“I was glad to make this bench useful,” he said.
It’s a matter of dignity to have a place to sit while waiting for the bus, Lehwald said.
“Anyone who’s waited for a bus has experienced the inconvenience of not having a place to sit down,” Lehwald said. “If you’re a parent and have little kids, or you have a body that’s not functioning at 100%, a place to sit is a basic amenity for human dignity.”
So what’s next?
“What I’d love is for the city to say, ‘A-ha! We do need to do this and we hear you. This isn’t hurting anybody. It’s helping people. We tacitly agree not to remove these,'” Lehwald said.
The city could even go a step further and bolt down the benches, he said.
“The worst thing the city could do is remove them. I think they would be missing an opportunity to positively engage their communities,” he said.