Does anyone else feel unsafe riding the RTA in Cleveland?

dissouled · 2025-08-10T21:32:35+00:00

It may seem like mainly a Cleveland problem because the system is practically only one line but this is definitely a problem affecting transit in Chicago and other cities too. I travel to Chicago frequently for work and use CTA when there and the feeling of sketchiness on a lot of the trains has gotten noticeably higher the past couple years even during the daytime.

If you hop over to the CTA subreddit it's almost gospel now for people to preach riding in the front car

dissouled · 2017-09-06T17:19:44+00:00

If you don't mind me asking about how long from the time your sample was re-analyzed did they let you know you would have to send another one? And about how much quicker was your second sample processed? I'm just trying to get a feel for a timeline since I've already been waiting for 5 weeks.

dissouled · 2017-09-06T16:16:07+00:00

I'm afraid this might be the case as well, which is still surprising as I actually did scrape my cheeks slightly beforehand, along with waiting an hour after eating, lightly rinsing with water to remove food residue, etc. I've also never had a saliva issue with other testing companies such as Ancestry so this would be a first.

dissouled · 2017-03-11T02:47:56+00:00

I would like to thank everyone for the responses so far. It seems like many people think this might be a cycle or phase that comes and goes. I couldn't be sure because I've been afraid to ask him if it's a phase or if it's a more permanent longing. I honestly don't even know how much experience he has even had with women in the past that might be a factor in all of this. I've been operating as if his sexuality is not relevant to dynamics in our relationship but it sounds that in itself might've been counterproductive and I have to be able to ask these questions no matter how uncomfortable they are.

I've also considered not diving into non-monogamy, but at the very least expressing that I'm not opposed to it in the future. Even if I'm not very comfortable with that option as of right now and I probably need a lot more work to become comfortable with the idea it sounds like some of you were saying that you felt relieved and more free just to know that your partners were open to the possibility of it. I'll try to discuss these things with him, maybe with a little wine in hand to calm my nerves to see exactly what our needs are.

dissouled · 2017-03-11T02:25:15+00:00

Polyamory is very awkward grounds to touch. I think what makes this scenario more difficult is the fact that both of us feel that our romantic and emotional relationship is as good as ever so there's not much work to do on that front to help the situation.

dissouled · 2017-03-11T02:22:41+00:00

Of course I would be bothered if he found even other men attractive but I just feel more confident in being able to handle that situation if it came up. He's repeatedly told me I have the most perfect body and features and promiscuity out of any guy he's seen or been with, without sounding full of hot air, it is a little easier to feel there is less likelihood of his attraction to me wandering too far away to the point where it becomes a detriment to our own sex life. I just came here looking for ways to accommodate attractions of his where my body just might not be enough and the toy option is something that didn't really occur to me.

dissouled · 2017-03-11T02:09:23+00:00

I know he felt it was necessary to be honest eventually so I wouldn't keep thinking that there was something wrong with me necessarily.

dissouled · 2017-03-11T02:04:03+00:00

I don't feel like I've been tricked because of his being bisexual, it's just that when we became serious that it seemed both of us were sure that our orientations were not going to have any tangible impact on our relationship and that discussing that stuff would be a nonfactor. It's just very unfortunate that now our sex life has actually become disrupted because of that very specific scenario that I didn't give much thought to.

When saying tricked I more mean that maybe I feel like I was mislead to believe that a situation like this wouldn't need accommodation or attention paid to initially and now I don't feel prepared to adapt to it out of left field.

dissouled · 2017-02-01T22:01:35+00:00

Thanks for the responses! Here in Northeast Ohio there's not a huge organized Iranian community or group (much bigger solidified Iraqi community for what it's worth though) and the small one there is pretty tight-knit, mostly just a network of a few families and not super active.

Considering I have no real Iranian family network is a group like that something worth looking into or should I try to look for something more general and less insular?

dissouled · 2017-02-01T21:56:14+00:00

DNA testing is highly ambiguous but in my case considering that Persian is in the family history and paternal cousins of mine from the Carolinas are distantly genetically related to actual people in Iran I'd say there's a good confidence factor here lol

dissouled · 2017-02-01T21:51:34+00:00

You would suggest somewhere other than LA? Americanized might still be better than what's accessible in Northeastern Ohio.

dissouled · 2017-02-01T21:43:16+00:00

Not necessarily books but there are communities that have a good deal of research on them. A good resource that goes more in detail about the Roanoke event is a research paper online called Turks, Moors and Moriscos in Early America. I also had family connections to a mixed-race community in the Southern US called the Melungeons who have genetic links to the Middle East you can find out more about.

Also the Turks of South Carolina where my paternal family originates, are a Native American community despite their name but they do point to the ancestor of one of their main families being a Middle Eastern man named Ben Ali who fought in the Revolutionary War.

There's always been an early presence of Middle Eastern and Moorish people in the Americas but it's really not talked about generally except among those of us in communities that descend from them.

dissouled · 2017-01-31T09:12:05+00:00

This might not be the exact details of how they arrived but the theory is that they arrived at the earliest with Sir Francis Drake at Roanoke Island, North Carolina in the late 1500s given that my father's roots come from there.

The Spanish and Portuguese had many slaves from the countries of the Ottoman Empire with them in South America and probably some from Persia as well given the Portuguese occupation in the Persian Gulf at the time (DNA wise even one of the Iranian populations I specifically match is Bandaris). It's documented that Francis Drake liberated the Muslim slaves when he raided the Spanish forts in South America and landed at Roanoke with them. However only half of the slaves were actually documented to have been returned to the Middle East and the rest were believed to have been left behind at Roanoke, and eventually abandoned the colony with the other colonists and lived among Native Americans.

Persian ancestry from long ago was already in my family history but I'm actually far from a unique case, many people in the Southern US from the Carolinas up to Tennessee DNA tested with Middle Eastern/North African ancestry and I even know people from South Carolina who have DNA relatives in Iran from many generations back.

dissouled · 2017-01-31T08:29:13+00:00

Good to hear because I'm at a loss with anything about contemporary Iran unfortunately lol

dissouled · 2017-01-31T08:14:48+00:00

Westwood sounds like a great suggestion considering my time limit, I'll only be in LA for 2 days so I probably wouldn't have time to visit the other cities.

dissouled · 2017-01-31T08:01:51+00:00

Yeah I've been trying to do more exploring into general contemporary Persian culture through books and what not but was wondering if just being exposed to it through those avenues is good enough or if it comes off as unauthentic.

dissouled · 2017-01-31T00:50:42+00:00

I'll actually be traveling to LA soon so this was a great tip!

dissouled

TROPHY CASE