Streetsblog Chicago readers are familiar with how last month sustainable transportation and environmental advocates joined forces with 14 forward-thinking alders. They called on the Chicago and Illinois transportation departments to halt plans to simply rebuild North DuSable Lake Shore Drive as an eight-lane highway, and instead make the lakefront more walk/bike/transit-friendly.
Here's a quick rundown of recent North DLSD-related events, which I'll frame by how they affected my mental state. Please dig my ever-changing moods.
Inspiration
There was another glimmer of hope on Monday when the Active Transportation Alliance repeated the call for a more human-scaled shoreline corridor with the blog post, "Coalition calls for halting NDLSD redesign project". It shared a new statement from 22 groups (no alders were mentioned):
Access Living
Active Transportation Alliance
Better Streets Chicago
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Chicago Bike Grid Now!
Clean Power Lake County
Commuters Take Action
Environmental Law and Policy Center
Equiticity
Illinois Green New Deal Coalition
Metropolitan Planning Council
North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council
Promontory Point Conservancy
Sierra Club Chicago
Urban Environmentalists
"We are in danger of missing the chance to seize this moment and chart a course towards a more sustainable future," the coalition stated. "We envision a lakefront that is universally accessible and provides everyone with improved mobility options that will reduce transportation related climate impacts and pollution while also easing congestion and enhancing quality of life." One of their key demands was dedicated, car-free transit lanes (probably bus lanes) without highway expansion. Here are the actions they called for, in brief:
- Pause the current planning process.
- Restart the process with a broader vision for our entire lakefront and new leadership.
- Ensure the project supports existing city and regional climate and transportation goals.
- Commit to an accelerated timeline.
"We know changing course is hard, but it is imperative we have visionary leadership in this moment," the statement concluded. "We in the advocacy community are ready to support a new vision for our lakefront and the NDLSD project. We hope you will work with us towards that end."
This raised my spirits.
Annoyance
However, yesterday it was irritating to come across an NBC Chicago article about an earlier, clueless Architectural Digest piece rating DLSD as one of "The 71 Most Beautiful Streets in the World." First of all, the drive isn't a "street", it's an eight-lane monstrosity, with even more lanes if you count "Inner" North Lake Shore Drive.
"With the towering skyline on one side and the shore of Lake Michigan on the other, DuSable Lake Shore Drive is the perfect way to take in the Windy City," Architectural Digest gushes. "Grant Park, Museum Campus, and Soldier Field are set along the expressway."
OK, at least they used an appropriate word at the end of that sentence. But a more accurate summary would be, "This often-deadly, polluting, noisy, traffic jam-creating de-facto Interstate is a significant barrier to acessing one of the world's most beautiful urban shorelines."
Infuriation
Then I saw the road rage-inducing bad news last night, in a tweet from Michelle Stenzel, a member of IDOT’s Redefine the Drive Geographic Stakeholder Task Force.
"Today [the Illinois Department of Transportation] announced that they have eliminated all four remaining roadway design options that provide a dedicated lane for public transit for #northDLSD," she wrote.
"If you want to get angry, review the full Meeting Presentation here," Stenzel added. As if my blood pressure wasn't already through the roof!
Here's what CTA board member Roberto Requejo has to say about this depressing situation.
Meanwhile Jim Merrell, managing director of advocacy with the Active Transportation Alliance, tried to offer some words of comfort to the severely aggravated.
Streetsblog Chicago will take a deeper dive into the new IDOT project updates document in the near future and share some more voices on this issue, after I've cooled down a bit. We'll talk about possible next steps for sustainable transportation advocates to fight back against this horrible decision.
In the meantime, feel free to talk about your current stages of motorhead-inflicted DLSD grief in the comments section.
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