Yesterday, Rogers Park resident Bradford Roberts shared a Facebook post stating the "Glenwood Alfresco" pedestrianized block north of Morse Avenue, opened in spring 2022, would be given back to cars on New Year's Eve. This part of Glenwood is on the west side of a Red Line embankment.
"The alder in Rogers Park [Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) is apparently taking away one of Chicago's few pedestrian streets because of Boomers complaining," Roberts told me. "Its one of the few places like it, and it likely will never come back."
I asked if that was due to a couple of bars on that stretch closing recently. "Yes, due to mismanagement and failure to renew liquor licenses," Roberts responded. "Lots of drama from the owners etc. Its a shame that its ruining one of the only car free spaces on the Far North Side."
Roberts acknowledged that the car-free space on Glenwood north of Morse got limited use. "The space was very underutilized, especially compared to Rogers Park Social a block south also on Glenwood [which has converted curbside parking spots to outdoor seating], or Jarvis Square [a dining and drinking strip on Jarvis Avenue west of Glenwood] a bit farther north," he said. "A more savvy business would definitely put it to better use."
I promised to call the ward office to get the skinny. Here's my conversation with Zach Joseph, Hadden's infrastructure and communications coordinator, edited for clarity and brevity.
John Greenfield: So I heard on the street that there's discussion of getting rid of the pedestrian area on Glenwood north of Morse. Can you tell me what's going on with that?
Zach Joseph: Sure. So what I can tell you is that the Glenwood Alfresco, as with all the other Alfresco projects, is on a renewal timeline where basically at the end of a certain amount of time, the alder or the area gets a choice to renew the permit or decline to do so
Based on the feedback we've gotten back from neighbors and from the community over the course of this past summer, but just general, since the Glenwood Alfresco have been in effect, we decided we were not going to be renewing the permit for the Glenwood Alfresco.
However, what we will be doing is that it will be open to traffic Monday through Friday. As of right now, there'll be no parking on the street still. But on the weekends, we're looking at Saturday evening to all of Sunday, the street will be [pedestrianized] for the Glenwood Sunday farmers market that occurs every Sunday in the farmers market season, from roughly June to October.
We're looking to introduce an ordinance that would make it so specifically, on those days during Farmers Market season, so the street would be closed down, vendors can come set up shop, as they've been doing for the past 15 odd years, and they can continue to sell their goods. People can come out, they can walk around. They can enjoy the benefits of the Glenwood Sunday market without having to worry about pedestrian safety or people driving through. But the other days of the week when the farmers market is not in effect it'll be back open for car traffic.
[He explained that the outdoor seating in the parking lane next to Rogers Park Social, which motorists can currently drive by, would not be affected by the change, since it's not technically part of the Alfresco zone to the north.]
JG: OK, so the change is going to be north of Morse. And there were some establishments that closed north of there, correct?
ZJ: There were originally three establishments that were part of the Glenwood, Alfresco, Le Piano, The Glenwood, and then another bar that unfortunately predates my time in this office, so I can't remember the exact name of it. But the Glenwood unfortunately closed due to issues that happened this summer regarding their liquor license. And the other bar that I can remember the name of, that was at the corner, that closed a while ago as well for different reasons. But Le Piano is there is still open and still operating, but they were the only bar remaining of the original three that was hosting the Alfresco.
JG: So it seemed like, in my experience, the car-free section of Glenwood north of Morris wasn't getting a lot of use. The Jarvis pedestrianized area does seem like a relatively vibrant outdoor seating area. Is that staying intact?
ZJ: "Jarvis Alfresco" is staying intact. We got the option to renew that one as well. We had gotten a lot of positive community feedback about Jarvis. And additionally, the businesses that were participating in Jarvis Alfresco have been having a lot of events, a lot of community engagement. And so they were using the Alfresco in the way that it was intended. The Alder was very happy with that and the community wass very happy with that, so that's staying as it is.
Glenwood Alfresco unfortunately wasn't doing the same and we've gotten some negative feedback about that and just some concerns, and that was what led us to make a decision to not renew the Alfresco for next year.
JG: What kind of concerns that people have about Glenwood north of Morse?
ZJ: I remember off the top of my head, because there are a lot of varying ones. I know that sometimes there were some public safety concerns. People were concerned with what it was being used for. The community had some opinions. Some people were just worried that, because there was not a lot of programming going on, that it didn't necessarily fulfill the original intentions of the Alfresco. Whereas at Jarvis Square, there were plenty of events that the community would put on and it would be more of a hub for walking. Glenwood Alfresco did not have that same programming.
JG: Well, thanks for thanks for the information. It's definitely good news to hear Jarvis is going to stay intact.
ZJ: Yes, we're happy about it too. We're excited to see what the future of Glenwood Avenue becomes when we adjust to this new hybrid format.
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