Michael Burton has a decades-long track record of using fun, not-quite-legal, happenings and pranks to advocate for creating more people-friendly streets. He's the cofounder of the monthly Chicago Critical Mass bike ride and co-organizer of the Campaign for a Free and Clear Lakefront, which pushed to "Depave [DuSable] Lake Shore Drive."
Burton took that approach to the extreme on Saturday afternoon. He led his band Urban Spaceman in a Logan Square pop-up concert literally inside the weeks-long road crater created by the Chicago Department of Transportation in the process of building a traffic circle. The tongue-in-cheek motto for this guerrilla show at the intersection of Belden (2300 N.) and St. Louis (3500 W.) avenues? "Save the Hole."
As recently detailed by former Streetsblog contributor Ariel Parella in a Block Club Chicago article, Burton's philosophy is that the street orifice is already slowing down drivers, so if it ain't broke, why fix it? He argued that the City could use the $14,000-plus budgeted for the roundabout's construction for more pressing needs.
While neighbors told Parella they were amused by Burton's #SaveTheHole social media campaign, some said they're eager for CDOT to get drivers off of this American roundabout. Fortunately for them, local Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa's (35th) office said the traffic circle is slated for completion by October 15.
So maybe we should think of Saturday's hole-apalooza as a last hurrah for the incomplete infrastructure. A good-sized audience, including families with small children, stopped by to check out the festivities.
And it was clear that the avenue's excavation, surrounded by orange traffic barrels, was doing its job to encourage slower car speeds. That became even more obvious as the celebration started, and motorists hit their brakes to check out the tunes.
Burton opened the show with a speech. "Hey Logan Square, welcome to the Hole," he said. "Thanks for coming out to save our hole. This hole appeared here a couple of weeks ago, and we're very proud of it now. We're hoping this could be an example for the rest of City as a very cost-efficient measure to calm traffic."
"There are 4,000 miles of roads in Chicago, and how many intersections, Randy?" Burton asked longtime Chicago walk/bike/transit Randy Neufeld, who cycled to the concert. "A lot," Burton added. "And there's two intersections that have had treatments of roundabouts that cost about $15,000 each, but the traffic keeps moving..."
"Are you guys going to cover 'Roundabout' by Yes?" I interrupted.
"No," Burton responded.
The band then launched into a set of largely Logan Square- and/or sustainable transportation-related original songs including:
• "1,000 Rioters," which honors Lucy Gonzalez Parsons, a labor organizer, radical socialist, and founder of the Industrial Workers of the World union. She's the namesake of the all-affordable transit-oriented development next to the Logan Square Blue Line station.
• "Bloomhenge" is about Stonehenge-like phenomena at the western terminus of the nearby Bloomingdale Trail, aka The 606, elevated greenway, as well as the effort to prevent the beloved path from contributing to housing displacement.
• "Magic Eagle" discusses the bird-topped Illinois Centennial Monument, located inside the Logan Square traffic circle, which is currently being made more people-friendly, including a new plaza adjacent to the Blue Line stop.
• "Glory (W)hole" is self-explanatory.
"Thanks for... working with us to save The Hole," Burton said at one point during the show. "We can remake our cities around people and not cars. And it's simple... Sometimes we don't need to have real expensive things to make things better... We don't have to over-improve. We can do scheduled non-maintenance, and just enjoy the city and enjoy each other."
"Thanks for coming out everybody," Burton said at the end of the concert. "Together we can Save the Hole, we can move mountains. Talk your neighbors, talk to your alderman, talk to your dogs and cats... whatever it takes."
Note: I'm a previous member of Urban Spaceman, and I sat in with them at this appearance on one song, about Civil War hero, U.S. Senator, and Logan Square namesake General John Logan. If you're interested in that topic, you can view that clip here.
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