Read the Block Club Chicago article, "Plan To Revive Sleepy Stretch Of Lincoln Avenue Could Put Existing Shops Out Of Business, Owners Say".
Let me start out by saying I think Block Club Chicago is a fine independent news publication. Its sustainable transportation coverage is generally very strong nowadays. For example, reporter Manny Ramos recently brilliantly skewered CTA President Dorval Carter for his globe-trotting workcations, supposedly to check out public transportation in cities around the world, while his own system falters.
And former Streetblog Chicago contributor Ariel Parella-Aurelli has been doing great walk/bike/transit coverage there as well. She even did a very nice profile of me for them.
Likewise Alex V. Hernandez, who covers Lincoln Square and other nearby neighborhoods, is generally skilled at the reporting game. As I know from personal experience, he's a blackbelt at publishing write-ups swiftly after community meetings. (Me, not so much.) And, having met him in person before, he seems like a nice fellow.
That said, part of the reason Streetsblog Chicago exists is to set the story straight about sustainable transportation projects when we feel other publications get it wrong. Once in a while that includes Block Club.
For example, in April 2022, one of their writers quoted Austin residents complaining that new protected bike lanes were "causing traffic jams through Columbus Park," according to the headline. SBC's Freedom of Information Act request response from the Chicago Department of Transportation revealed that CDOT had shared data with the Block Club writer indicating that wasn't the case. "Feels almost in vain for us to give [Block Club] a comment with headlines like these, which position opinion as reality and bury the facts," said CDOT Deputy Commissioner Vig Krishnamurthy in a FOIA-ed email.
There was also that time in March 2022 when Block Club extensively interviewed Alan Gillman, owner of Gillman‘s Ace hardware on Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square. He claimed that the conversion of curbside car-parking spaces to protected bike lanes was responsible for the closing of his business.
The article was written in an even-handed manner, but it begged the question, did the merchant really deserve all that airtime? After all, another possible reason why his business wasn't thriving was that he reportedly loudly played anti-immigration talk show radio in his shop in an immigrant-rich community.
Last week I again had to debunk the spurious claim that protected bike lanes kill small businesses, when the Not In My Back Yard community newspaper News-Booster attacked the proposal for the Granville Avenue Greenway. Editor Ronald Roenigk also included a lengthy diatribe against the Clark Street PBLs in Edgewater, which – not coincidentally – pass right past his office. I don't feel like spending any more brain power on that guy right now, so just check out this excerpt from my SBC response if you haven't already.
I thought I was done dismantling arguments from protected bikeway skeptics (here's another recent example on Augusta Boulevard in West Town) for a while. But then this popped up in my inbox Saturday.
Now, Ald. La Spata (1st) is probably one of the mellowest politicians in the City Council. He didn't even raise much of a fuss during the last election after a supporter of his opponent threw a cup of cider at him during a ward bike tour. So you know that if he felt the need to scold Block Club about its article, he must have felt there was something seriously wrong with it.
"Crews are removing parking to make the Lincoln Square stretch more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians," the new Block Club subheading states. "Though the plan has neighbor support, some business owners say they’re in trouble — and one has already decided to close."
I think reporter Alex V. Hernandez did an OK job of researching his piece about this streetscape project between Western and Foster Avenues in Lincoln Square, which includes wider sidewalks and protected bike lanes. He contacted CDOT and local Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) for their perspectives, as well as the unhappy merchants.
Sure, if Hernandez had checked in with sustainable transportation advocates like Better Streets Chicago's Executive Director Kyle Lucas before publishing, that would have been smart.
But did this article really need to be written in the first place? After I tweaked Block Club a bit over this through the Streetsblog Chicago Twitter account, Hernandez responded politely to offer more info on his decision process.
Read a bit more from Hernandez on this subject here.
I stopped by the location this afternoon around 4:30 p.m. today. Yes, Lincoln Avenue is a mess from all the construction, and it must be frustrating for the three merchants on the 4900 north block of Lincoln quoted in the story, having to deal with having no nearby parking on their block at the moment. If CDOT isn't doing its job to make the streetscape construction as painless as possible, the department needs to step up and address that.
But the claim that business are going to go broke due to a few car parking spots in front of their storefront being converted to protected lanes does not hold up. Despite the fact that the block is currently relatively dangerous for vulnerable road user right now due to the streetscape work, within about 20 minutes I spotted ten bike and scooter riders on that block, shown at the top of this post. Imagine how many sustainable transportation device users there would have been if the street had safe protected lanes. Many of these people do get haircuts, and eat cookies and ice cream.
I think this tweet sums up the situation nicely.
So Block Club Chicago really should think twice before running more articles giving airtime to the claim I've had to debunk so many times, that protected bike lanes are harmful. Again, I like their publication, but if they do it again, my job responsibilities dictate that I continue to spank them.
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