It also has a place in my heart. The first time I visited Chicago, I stayed with friends on Belmont and took the Red Line from Belmont to North/Clybourn for my internship interview at Steppenwolf. And when I later moved in with those friends after accepting that internship, I made that exact same trip every day. I don’t get off at North/Clybourn very often any more, but despite it’s decrepit state, it still reminds me of when I first moved here 13 years ago.

Today, I read that Apple is planning to spend $4,000,000 to renovate the stop. This is great news. While my nostalgia for those creaking, oddly narrow escalators will never go away, my detest for the station’s appearance compared to the recent upgraded Brown Line stops will finally be erased.

But I’m not writing because I feel wistful. I’m writing because of one tiny part of Apple’s agreement with the city—Apple may get naming rights:

In the agreement approved at an August 19th Chicago Transit Board meeting, in exchange for the improvements the CTA will lease the bus turnaround [behind the stop] to Apple at no cost for 10 years, with options on four, five-year extensions. The CTA will also give Apple “first rights of refusal” for naming the station [my emphasis] and placing advertising within the station, if the CTA later decides to offer those rights.

I know the CTA needs the money. I know that it’s a good investment for Apple to have a shiny new CTA stop adjacent to a shiny new store. (It’s also generous of them to invest in a public project like this.) But naming rights gives me the willies. If the stop becomes something like “Apple Store/North Avenue”, then it will set a precedent. A new Target store is under construction on Broadway not too far from the Wilson Red Line stop. If Target renovates that stop (not a bad idea, really), should it then become the “Target/Wilson” stop? Will all of our stops soon become sponsored by a corporation?

There’s no indication that this is actually going to happen, but the potential is there. It’s a slippery slope:

“Excuse me, sir, how do I get to Chicago and Franklin?”
“Get on the McDonald’s Line at the AT&T stop and take it around the Sony loop. In about four stops, you’ll get off at Procter & Gamble.”

The only potentially untrue thing in that exchange: no one says “Excuse me, sir” anymore.

I’m willing to accept the good with the bad: corporate sponsorship of public works would inject cash in places we need it, like public transportation. But the effect I believe it would have on our already corporate-saturated culture is painful. Too often we express ourselves solely as our advertisers teach us to express ourselves. Sometimes, I’m not sure if I’m seeing a product placement in a movie; it’s more believable to hear an actor order a Heineken or a Pabst Blue Ribbon* than it is to see him belly up to the bar and ask for a “beer.” Such is our culture already. Corporate names for public works crosses the line, I believe.

I would certainly like to think that renaming the North/Clybourn stop “The Apple Store Stop” or, as TUAW put it, “iStop“, would cause an uproar. I, too, would email all my friends to oppose it.

I’d probably email them from my iPhone.

*Apologies to David Lynch.

Updated 10/28/09, 9:37 AM because I realized I used the expression “slippery slope” twice.