Questions/comments about the Orange Line

I still can't get over it. I'll never forget my 1 ride on the orange line, about 1 year ago. Sure, I've ridden the blue, red, and brown lines, and have encountered a highly dense urban environment along the way. But the orange line? Sure, it's not bad through downtown and up till Chinatown, but then.....something changes. I suddenly feel like I'm on a train through Kentucky. Trucking docks, old factories, abandoned praries, and empty, closed-down big box stores with weeded-over parking lots abound as far as the eye can see. Now I'm not trying to attack Chicago. It's a very large, dense, urban city with great things going on for it. But it always disturbs me to see the south/southwest sides. Okay, I know, we've already discussed the south side many times and how it is making a comeback, and how it's racist/not racist, rich/poor, Dampyre gets pissed, and etc. etc. I realize all of that... But, this one seems so simple. First of all, correct me if I'm wrong, but the orange line was a completely new line built in 1993-ish, right? Was it built with existing tracks or built from scratch? Either way, we've got a relatively new rail line connecting downtown and Midway airport, and once you get past Chinatown you're in the middle of nowhere. Why not build some TOD's, or mini-villages along those stops? Yeah, I know, it's hard to get developers to invest in those communities. Oh really? Then how did we get developers to take interest in building 50 three-flats or 100 condos or a 1,700 person mixed-income community in the near west or near south sides, in some of the most poverty-stricken parts of town? And what about the new development going on in Lawndale and other hoods? Certainly the city has given developers TIF subsidies, but I have observed that many of these new developments are, except for bus service and an occasional Metra stop, in relatively transit-poor areas. And therein lies the Orange line stops. Hell, the train is already there--so it's not like you have to build it, or spend more money on it. Why not subsidize some neighborhood development around the friggin thing? Besides, previous real estate patterns have clearly shown that areas near transit are highly attractive places for buyers--already an advantage over those Lawndale, Englewood, Woodlawn developments that somehow get so much press. It seems so easy--am I missing something? Because to me, it appears that the city has essentially very little work to do except to lay down a few standards regarding the layout of development (ie mixed-use, pedestrian oriented) which it is already doing abundantly elsewhere. What am I missing here? Hell, does anybody in this forum work for the City? If so, we need more of those people to pass along our ideas, because some of this stuff is just plain common sense...>