Still more television silence from NBC Chicago
The last time I didn't show up for one of the dueling Monday night rallies against and for the Archer Avenue traffic safety project, I regretted it.
After that December 29 event, NBC Chicago aired an extremely one-sided segment on the "Not In My Backyard" opposition the initiative, with zero mention of the fact supporters have also been showing up, and lately they've outnumbered the naysayers. The station also reported, "The project reduces this part of Archer from four lanes down to two" for protected bike lanes, when it's actually a " a "four-to-three conversion," a type of street redesign endorsed by AARP.
Emails show that these omissions were particularly problematic, because local Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th) mentioned those points to NBC Chicago Assignment Desk Editor LiLi Jarvenpa, but the network didn't include them in the clip. An NBC staffer briefly responded to an email I sent asking why the network left out this key info, But they still haven't answered my question or responded to follow-up emails, let alone run a correction. That's inexcusable for a station that's supposed to be a reliable news source.
So I'm planning to show up for as many of any future Archer gatherings as possible, to help ensure that other mainstream outlets don't pull a similar stunt. With that in mind, I stopped by the January 12 event. When I showed up at 4:45 p.m., there were good turnouts on both sides of the aisle, I mean block, but the crowd of supporters was somewhat larger. I didn't notice any other local newshounds on these scene this time.
A closer look at other parts of Archer and Kedzie in the project area
I started my visit by checking out the current state of the 1.9 mile stretch of Kedzie Avenue (3200 W.) between Archer (about 4330 S. here) and 28th Street, which is getting a similar treatment as Archer. Kedzie is a lot further along, with green paint and flexible posts added to better define the protected bike lanes.
The Kedzie bike lanes were generally pretty rideable. The main issue that evening was that, following last weekend's heavy downpour, a couple of viaducts were heavily flooded. And as you can see from the video below, during my trip, I had to detour to the (largely empty) sidewalk a couple of times to avoid becoming a U-boat commander.
When I got back to Archer, I took a lap on the portion of the project area west of Kedzie. The Archer traffic safety initiative covers1.9 miles between 47th Street (Archer is about 3600 W. there) and Western Avenue (2400 W., Archer is about 3730 S. there).
One thing I noticed on this visit to Brighton Park, which I hadn't heard about before, is that a couple blocks southwest of the rally location, a wide swath of the street is blocked with Jersey walls for a utility project. Presumably that has nothing directly to do with the Safe Streets initiative. But it surely it's a factor in the current rush hour traffic congestion that the NIMBYs are blaming on Archer's semi-completed protected bike lanes.
After that I returned to the dueling rallies. Here are some images of what is was like around 5:45 p.m. I took all of the following photos.
Opponents
Prerecorded messages were played loudly in rotation on a megaphone placed on top of a car, "Blues Brothers"-style, and were audible inside the adjacent restaurant. The recording says: "How many lanes do you want? Two lanes! What's the lane for? Emergencies! Who should decide? The residents!", repeating each question twice. In reality, Chicago's lane conversions for Safe Streets projects haven't been delaying first responders, and over 500 local residents provided input on this project.
Supporters
Brighton Park residents Lee Campos and her husband Gil lead a dance session. Also shown: Dixon Galvez-Searle, who helps run the Southwest Collective community organization.
Urban Center CEO Juan Rangel chimes in on a Streetsblog post
When talking about these rallies it's always important to discuss the political intrigue behind the opposition. (So far I've only spoken to one supporter who said they had campaigned in the past for Ald. Ramirez.)
As previously discussed here, recent anti-Archer project gatherings were co-organized by Eva Villalobos, an unsuccessful 2024 school board candidate. Her campaign got more than $50,000 from Urban Center, the "centrist" pro-charter school lobbying organization founded by ex-Chicago Public Schools chief and perennial candidate Paul Vallas. Urban Center is currently led by former UNO charter school CEO Juan Rangel, who left that job in disgrace in the wake of securities fraud charges that resulted in him paying a $10,000 fine.
Urban Center has promoted at least one of the Archer opposition rallies with mass texts and news releases that attracted TV coverage. And the "Archer Guardians" website ThrivingChicago.com not only featured anti-traffic safety project material, but also featured a video of a rally with "More Charter Schools" signs.
Things got even more interesting yesterday when someone commented on a Streetsblog Facebook post about the dueling rallies, labeling the conflict "Gentrif[iers] vs [Brighton Park] residents." That claim doesn't hold water, since out of 20 project supporters I recently interviewed at a rally, 18 or them live in the neighborhood or next-door communities, and many of them grew up in the area. And that's not counting the hundreds of other locals who gave feedback on the initiative.
That's when I noticed that Urban Center's Rangel "liked" that Facebook comment. That's still more evidence that the political lobbying group has skin in the Archer game.
To wrap up this post, here's one more video of what the scene looked like when I left around 6:15 p.m. Most of the opponents had left by then, but there were still plenty of project supporters there, plus a snack vendor.
Watch the NBC Chicago report here.
Read Streetsblog's initial response to the NBC segment here.
Read CDOT's FAQ about the Archer / Kedzie traffic safety projects here.
Materials about Archer Avenue can be found here.
Materials about Kedzie Avenue can be found here.
Read Streetsblog Chicago's writeup of Round 1 here.
Check out our article about Round 2 here.
Read SBC's coverage of Round 3 here.
Check our post about Round 5 here.
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