A Red Line train rumbles overhead every few minutes, casting flickers of shadow and light onto the garden below, where Jack Meyer sits sipping a cup of coffee alongside Sarah, his golden retriever. Meyer lives in the house next door, but he leases this grassy hangout from the Chicago Transit Authority.
There’s a definite drawback to having a yard on CTA property: sometimes the agency comes in and tears it up. Several years ago, the garden became a construction site for two years during track renovations. “I always cross my fingers that they don’t need to come in, but it’s theirs and they have a right to,” Meyer says. “They had to come in after the yard was put back together, and they were very considerate. They appreciate me taking care of it.”
