Last Thursday, the grassroots sustainable advocacy organization Better Streets Chicago held its third annual gathering to celebrate recent accomplishments, and raise funds for future campaigns. The nonprofit was launched at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by Kyle Lucas, Brittney Lane, Jim Hodapp, and former Streetsblog Co-Editor Courtney Cobbs. Recent efforts included a rally to protest plans to rebuild North DuSable Lake Shore Drive as an eight-lane highway with no bus lanes, lobbying the City to lower the speed limit to 25 mph, and pushing for funding of the #PlowTheSidewalks pilot.
The event was once again held at the Revolution Brewing Logan Square brewpub, 2323 N. Milwaukee Ave. The venue, owner by early Chicago Critical Mass rider and Handlebar founder Josh Deth, hosted the launch party for this website more than a decade ago, as well as many other walk/bike/transit advocacy celebrations since then. While this location is closing on December 14 as the company focuses on retail sales, RevBrew's Avondale taproom, 3340 N. Kedzie Ave in Avondale, also a hotspot for sustainable transportation shindigs, is staying open. It will host the Active Transportation Alliance's annual member party on Tuesday, December 3, from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
The Logan brewpub is located in the 1st Ward, so who better to kick off the Better Streets event than local Ald. Daniel La Spata, who chairs the City Council's Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety? He noted that it was great to have so many mobility justice advocates in a room together.
Ald. La Spata told a story about when he tried to get bus-only lanes installed on Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street by the future Bally's Casino site, but was told it was impossible. "And the worst thing for your enemies ever to do is to prove that what they tell you is impossible is actually possible," he said.
Next up was Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th Ward), whose district includes parts of Brighton Park and McKinley Park on the Southwest Side.
After that, Better Streets' Kyle Lucas, currently serving as executive director, announced that the organization now has a board, several of whom also spoke that night.
BSC Policy Director Micheál Podgers shared the result of their recent DLSD Community Visioning Survey. "The main thing that we keep hearing in all of the outreach that we do is people want to drive less," he said. "People want opportunities to give up their car. People want opportunities to save time and money in the transportation system. And this is backed up by other surveys we're seeing from [the Illinois Department of Transportation], from our partners at the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, and more. So we know this is possible. And then the final thing is we are done with the report on our noise pollution study."
Board members Tasnim Tanveer said she first became aware of Better Streets Chicago after watching a YouTube video about how Lakeshore Drive is cutting the city off from the lakefront. That got her thinking about her hopes and fears for her son. She wanted him to be able to walk to the park with his grandparents, as she did, and she wanted to protect him from climate change.
"When the video got to the point where they just put a little concept up of what it might look like if we changed Lakeshore Drive to something sustainable, something that allows for access to the park, it was dazzling," Tanveer said. "I was thinking about how right now, we've taken him to the Lakefront with his grandparents, and they have to go down this set of stairs to get to the tunnel to go across. And it turns out that's not easy to do in different places. And if we change that, how easy would it be as they got older, and as he goes older and is able to walk, how great it would be just to be able to the cross the street."
The next topic was the Plow the Sidewalks pilot to test municipal snow removal on public walkways. Campaign Manager Alex Nelson talked about how Better Streets' focus is ensuring that Mayor Brandon Johnson, who endorsed the initiative in his transition report, sticks to his promise and includes the program in the City budget.
"So please keep an eye out on your emails and on our social because we'll be directing people to email their alders, call their alders, basically saying, yes, is this something we want to see," Nelson said. "It's a million-dollar pilot we're asking for. In terms of the City budget... it's pretty negligible... We maintain that it's something that the city should provide because it creates equitable sidewalk access for all residents and constituent."
"Over 20% of Chicago identifies as having a disability," said Board Secretary Atta Zahedi, who uses a wheelchair. "Imagine those people that feel trapped in their homes, that feel, 'Oh, okay, I can make it out there,' and then they go halfway there, and then the rest of the way is not accessible at all, and they have to backtrack. [That's] incredibly unacceptable in a world-class city. And so, I am extremely proud of Better Streets Chicago, because we have shown up day after day. We have spent countless hours of advocacy. I have seen people show up at City Hall in extremely cold weather to say we need accessible transit year-round, and that's what will happen."
Toward the end of the presentation, Better Streets handed out its new Activist of the Year Award to three different people. Samantha "Sammy" Schneider, was honored for her contributions to the Chicago and Halsted campaign. Michael Thomas got a shout-out for his contributions to the group's DLSD noise study. Ashley Asmus was honored for her contributions to the Plow the Sidewalks campaign.
One revelation at the event was that Better Streets Chicago plans to revamp its campaign on DuSable Lake Shore Drive rebuild. They'll take advantage of the current lull in highway planning work to make preparations for the next phase of their effort to create a more people-friendly shoreline. An announcement is likely in early January – stay tuned.
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