By John Hohenadel
John Hohenadel is a schoolteacher and bike advocate who lives on Chicago's Northwest Side in the 39th Ward.
Last Thursday night, neighbor after neighbor got up to speak during he Hollywood-North Park Community Association quarterly meeting at Peterson Elementary School, 5510 N Christiana Ave. in the North Park community. As part of a planned discussion of ideas for making walking and biking safer and more comfortable, they shared their visions for ways to improve conditions in the 39th ward, represented by Ald. Samantha Nugent, who participated.
Many meeting attendees pointed to the safe streets planners and engineers at Chicago Department of Transportation's Complete Streets section, led by director David Smith, as local experts. During the “name your vision” portion of the meeting, North Park residents Mary Lou Jelachich and Warren Silver expressed the need for data in the decision making process.
Nugent mentioned that CDOT will install fully protected bike lanes on a 1.5-mile stretch of Bryn Mawr Avenue, connecting the Sauganash Trail and the North Shore Channel Trail. The project is in the design phase and should be completed within the next few years. Nugent said a study is required, as well as various neighborhood input meetings.
The alder said another project on the horizon is the Weber Spur Trail. The project will turn the old Union Pacific rail line between Devon and Elston avenues into a multi-use trail. That project is in the land acquisition phase and will hopefully be completed in the next five years.
Most attendees seemed to agree that these projects will be good for the ward. However, there are other more pressing pedestrian and bike issues in the ward that need attention.
One neighbor mentioned that, fortunately, there have been no traffic deaths in the 39th ward this year. However, traffic violence has been a problem in the district in the past. "We have had a few (fatalities) since I’ve been in office," acknowledged Ald. Nugent.
2022 was a particularly bad year for traffic violence in the 39th Ward. That August, a hit-and-run drver killed Taha Khan, 6, on the 6300 block of North Cicero Avenue in Sauganash. Then in September, another driver killed 18-month-old Hermes Cardona-Rivas on the 4500 block of North Pulaski Road in Albany Park. That October a driver critically injured a man walking his two dogs.
Some of Ald. Nugent's City Council could give her advice how to make crash-prone corridors safer, including major streets that are controlled by the historically car-centric Illinois Department of Transportation.
In June 2022, a distracted driver fatally struck retired CPA and 47th Ward volunteer Peter Paquette, 75, who was trying to cross the street at Irving Park Road and Hoyne Avenue in Chicago's North Center neighborhood. Since then local Alderperson Matt Martin has worked with IDOT and CDOT to improve pedestrian safety on Irving Park. Upgrades include speed feedback signs, rapid rectangular flashing beacons, pedestrian islands and curb extensions.
According to a city official who requested anonymity, if an alderperson wants a refuge island and flashing beacons, they can easily make that happen. These decisions ultimately lie on each individual alder. But if an alderman isn’t particularly interested in traffic calming, it can be difficult for CDOT to implement it.
Last February, a driver hit a Sauganash Elementary School eighth grader on Peterson Avenue as the student tried to cross at Kilpatrick Avenue in Forest Glen, in the 39th Ward. Many constituents requested a pedestrian island there. Seven months later, there has been no change at that location.
Since the 39th Ward has seen multiple serious and fatal pedestrian crashes in recent years, preventing more tragedies should be a top priority. "I’m open to all of it," Nugent said at the meeting. "But patience is a virtue in these matters."
However, when so much time passes and nothing seems to get done, constituents get impatient. At the hearing, neighbor Lisa Ziems argued that urgently needed fixes shouldn't be put on hold during a long wait for an overall traffic plan.
"I did get the impression that making more bike lanes and creating safety around schools is something [Ald. Nugent] would work on if she had the funds," said local resident Cathy King.
A pedestrian island costs between $60-80K to build, a small fraction of a ward's annual discretionary "menu money" infrastructure budget. But it remains to be seen if Peterson in the 39th Ward will ever look anything like Irving Park in the 47th Ward.
“I just wish she would do something [Ald. Nugent] can put her name on in the name of safety,” King said. “She could use her City Hall power and influence to work towards policy change to get more money overall for this cause.”
"My vision for the 39th is for all kids to be able to ride their bikes to school safely," said neighbor Kyla Klein at the meeting.
Hopefully that day will come sooner, rather than later.
Update 9/26/24, 4:00 PM: Apologies, I made an error in editing this piece that I have since corrected. After this meeting, contributor John Hohenadel, a sustainable transportation advocate who had not previously reported for Streetsblog Chicago, sent me a list of questions about how he should write up his notes.
One question was whether he could include something Ald. Nugent said to him in a conversation after the hearing with one of her staff members present. Hohenadel mentioned in his questions for me that he that did not disclose to the alder that he was planning to include anything from their conversation in an article.
Busy with another project at the time Hohenadel sent his questions, I did not review them closely enough and simply replied, "Yes, you can use all that." Hours later, while editing his draft, I failed to make the connection that it included a quote from a conversation in which the reporter had not disclosed that comments would be quoted, and I published the quote.
After being contacted today by the 39th Ward about the matter, I determined that the quote was not obtained in keeping with Streetsblog's strict rules of sourcing. As such, I have deleted the quote, which was not essential to the article.
Again, sorry for this oversight on my part. In the future I will be sure to review questions from freelancers more carefully to help ensure this sort of thing doesn't happen again. - John Greenfield, editor
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