Do you remember what I said last week about the recent competing weekly rallies of opponents and supporters of the Archer Avenue traffic safety project in Brighton Park?
You may recall that after the Monday, December 29, showdown, NBC Chicago aired an absurdly one-sided report on the "Not In My Back Yard" backlash against the project. There was no reference to the fact boosters have also been turning up every week, often outnumbered the anti- folks. The NBC newscaster also said, "The project reduces this part of Archer from four lanes down to two" to make room for protected bicycle lanes.
But it's really a "four-to-three conversion." That's a style of street remix promoted by the AARP because it calms traffic and makes room for turn lanes plus pedestrian, transit, and bike infrastructure, creating a safer, more efficient roadway for all road users, especially seniors.
Emails prove that local Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th) basically made these to points to NBC Assignment Desk Editor LiLi Jarvenpa, but the network left all that stuff out. The station never answered multiple messages from Streetsblog asking for an explanation of the omission.
The email exchange between NBC's Jarvenpa and Ald. Ramirez.
Annoyed by NBC's shenanigans, last week I wrote, "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."
Well, call it a case of "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Because yesterday I opted not to schlep 10-plus miles from Uptown to Brighton Park to attend the evening rush hour demonstration, and instead walked a friend's dog. And, of course, nearly identical TV network tomfoolery happened again!
My reasoning for skipping this week's festivities was that many workplaces, including Streetsblog Chicago, were closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Moreover, there was going to be a low of 3F that night.
Around lunchtime yesterday, Dixon Galvez-Searle, who helps run the Southwest Collective community organization and has showed up to support the project at many of the rallies, confirmed that there would be another dueling rally. Unsurprisingly, the windshield-POV opponents were planning to mostly hang out in their cars. "But there are at least a few supporters going," he said. "I'll be there, but probably only a short while."
I contacted Galvez-Searle this morning and asked how things went. "Pretty well," he replied. "I wasn't there long, maybe 45 minutes or so. There were only four of us when I left, but a few more people trickled in after I left."
"The opponents were in cars driving around the block and honking," he added. "Four cars total."
"LOL!" I texted back. "Well, I guess that's one way to make a statement that traffic congestion [allegedly caused by a Safe Streets project, and not the massive utility project just west of the rally location] is a problem – by contributing to it!"
Later this afternoon Galvez-Searle shared the bad news that another lopsided news report was aired about yesterday's rally, this time by ABC Chicago. Here's a transcript of that short segment.
"[A protest was held against a] bike lane on the Southwest Side," the ABC anchor said. "That bike lane runs along Archer Avenue from Western Avenue to 47th Street street. Protesters say it causes two lanes of traffic to squeeze into one lane, which creates congestion and impedes first responders. [That's a common claim about protected lanes that SBC has debunked many times.]
"What they're doing here is crazy," protestor Maria Martinez, whom I've nicknamed The Megaphone Lady, told the ABC TV camera. "There's not enough space."
The ABC newcaster completed the short clip by saying, "12th Ward Alderman Julie Ramirez tells us that the bike lane is part of [the Chicago Department of Transportation's] Complete Streets initiative, and is designed to improve safety for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians."
So, just like the previous NBC report, the ABC segment made no mention of of the project supporters. Presumably, the NIMBYs sent both of these stations news releases to get their attention.
The opposition has been co-organized by Eva Villalobos, who unsuccessfully ran for the Chicago School Board in 2024, with over $50,000 in contributions from Urban Center, a "centrist" pro-charter school lobbying group. The organization was founded by ex-CPS head and perennial candidate Paul Vallas, and is currently led by disgraced ex-UNO Charters CEO Juan Rangel. The latter recently chimed in on a Streetsblog Facebook post about the rallies. Urban Center has promoted at least one of the anti-Archer project protests with mass texts and press releases that drew (reasonably balanced) coverage from WGN and Fox Chicago.
Galvez-Searle confirmed that the project supporters were present when ABC was filming yesterday. "I wasn't there at the time but [proponent] Gil Campos said he urged [TV station staff] to talk to both sides, and they declined."
I reached out to Ald. Ramirez this afternoon for her take on the ABC report on yesterday's dueling rallies, and she passed along screenshots of her emails with another yet another new outlet's assignment editor, ABC's Eric Siegel. Here's their exchange that she shared, which backs up the project supporters' claims that Campos interacted with someone from the station, but they wouldn't talk with project boosters.
That raises the question if the cameraperson interacted with a supporter, did he shoot any footage of the proponents? If not, why not? If so, why did ABC not to run it?
Ald. Ramirez said Siegel asked her to respond to claims from the opponents that they had collected thousands of signatures from residents who disapprove of the project. Here's her response.
I emailed ABC's Siegel with my questions this afternoon, but he didn't respond by press time. Since his behavior so far has been so similar to that of his NBC counterpart, fellow assignment editor Jarvenpa, I won't hold my breath.
Siegel and Jarvenpa behavior seems to indicate that their networks are looking for good "residents fight City Hall" story. When other residents show up to support a CDOT initiative, that undermines the David-versus-Goliath narrative. It may be the case that NBC and ABC simply chose to omit that inconvenient truth.
Whatever these TV stations' reasoning is, obviously this is very disappointing conduct by outlets that claim to be reliable news sources.
Watch the NBC Chicago report here.
Read Streetsblog's initial response to the NBC segment here.
Watch the ABC Chicago report 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.
Take a look at our assessment of Round 6 here.
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– John Greenfield, editor
