This article includes reporting by a contributor, who also took the all the uncredited photos.
As Streetsblog readers know, ever since early December there have been dueling weekly rallies between opponents and supporters of the Archer Avenue traffic safety project in the 12th Ward in the Brighton Park neighborhood. To get up to speed on the issue, go to the bottom of this post for links to our writeups of previous demonstrations, which generally drew more fans of the initiative than "Not In My Back Yard" folks.
In a nutshell, the in-progress "four-to-three conversion" on Archer is an example of an AARP-endorsed street remix strategy. It's providing right-of-way for sidewalk bump-outs to shorten crossing distances, pedestrian islands, bus boarding islands, and protected bike lanes. The initiative also includes more marked crosswalks and walk signals. As a result it will make the crash-prone avenue safer and more efficient for people on foot, bikes, and buses, and in motor vehicles. The Chicago Department of Transportation project was approved by local Ald. Julia Ramirez.
The politics behind the protests
On December 11, 2025, Streetsblog Chicago was sent a copy of a press release put out by pro-charter schools lobbying group Urban Center. That organization was founded by perennial political candidate Paul Vallas.
It's currently run by Juan Rangel, a former CEO of UNO charter schools, who resigned in the wake of federal allegations of financial wrongdoing that led to a $10,000 fine. Urban Center describes itself as "centrist," but in the wake of the 2024 presidential election, Rangel wrote a GOP-friendly op-ed for the Tribune titled, "How Latinos found their voice in Donald Trump."
Urban Center's December 2025 press release promoted an anti-Archer project rally, and quoted photography studio owner Claudia Zuno, listing her as a contact. "Alderman Julia Ramirez, remove these concrete bike lanes, now," she demanded in a statement. A reliable source, who requested anonymity, told us at the time that Urban Center was backing Zuno in an upcoming campaign for alder against Ramirez.
Signs held by Archer project opponents at various rallies indicated that the demonstrations had at least as much to do with defeating Ald. Ramirez in the next election as differences in opinion about street design.
On Saturday, we found out the rumors were true. Streetsblog was sent a digital flyer for Claudio Zuno's official 12th Ward aldermanic campaign announcement event. But we didn’t have many details to go on, since her ClaudiaFor12thWard.com website listed wasn't live yet. See the invite at the top of this post.
But Zuno's site is active now, and it's clear that she's making Archer project NIMBY-ism the centerpiece of her campaign. "Every Monday evening – rain or shine – Claudia Zuno stands on Archer Avenue in solidarity with neighbors and small businesses, opposing the bike lanes and concrete barriers she believes are hurting 12th Ward commerce," reads the first line of the "About" page. "This isn’t a campaign stunt," she writes, unconvincingly. The page later states, "Claudia’s priorities are clear: Remove obstructive bike lanes and concrete barriers on Kedzie and Archer."
Urban Center's Juan Rangel also made it clear that Zuno is using her anti-Safe Streets stance as her main political hook. Here's a recent tweet.
Our attempt to cover Zuno's campaign launch party
The location for yesterday's launch event, Tio Luis Tacos, 3856 S. Archer Ave., is adjacent to the site of the weekly rallies, and a few storefronts from the 12th Ward office. Streetsblog sent a contributing reporter to cover the event. Unfortunately, Zuno’s team barred that person from attending.
Yesterday the auxiliary dining area at Tio Luis Tacos was covered with Zuno's campaign signs.
The reporter identified themself as such to the door greeter, and asked where they could hang out in the room to take pictures without causing any disruption. The greeter then invited the reporter to partake in the catered food, asked if they would like to speak to Zuno, and told them to sit anywhere.
However, after our reporter revealed they were working for Streetsblog, another team member quickly shuffled the reporter towards the door and told them a formal press conference would happen later. However, the team member didn't respond to the reporter's request for the date, time, location, or means of getting this info in the future.
Update 2/20, 9:00 AM: Despite Zuno's team forcing a Streetsblog Chicago reporter to leave the event, a reporter from Block Club Chicago was allowed to stay. Block Club's previous coverage of the rallies on December 16 hadn't mentioned the opponents' Urban Center backing, even though SBC first reported on that link on December 10.
The new BCC article does mention the connection, including UC CEO Rangel's checkered past. It also includes a quote from Ald. Ramirez that references the group's ties to Trumpism. "While a campaign ensues to quickly demolish infrastructure that promotes safety, I would ask the 12th Ward residents to research the Urban Center, any candidate backed by this PAC and look into how this agency has close alignment to the federal government that is causing so much harm in our communities,” Ramirez told Block Club.
Yesterday's dueling rallies
With a high of 61F and a school holiday for President’s Day, it was a great day to be outside. When our reporter stopped by before 5 p.m., there were five opponents, including Zuno, protesting, and four people voicing support for the project.
However, and you can see from the video below, the number of proponents got much larger after 9-to-5-ers got off work.
Along the north side of Archer, our reporter saw ten business windows displaying signs matching the "2 Lanes Not 1" sign Zuno was holding, including auto insurance dealers, apparel shops, a restaurant, and a hair salon. But far outnumbering these were businesses displaying the City-provided and/or local neighborhood variants of signs prohibiting entry by ICE officers.
It's worth noting that the Chicago alder who has been the loudest opponent of the Archer project has been Ald. Ray Lopez (15th), who is also one of the most ICE-friendly City Council members. Last week, he dropped into a Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee meeting to rail against the Archer initiative, and Complete Streets projects in general. But before the 12th Ward's Ald. Ramirez could respond, Lopez childishly stormed out of the meeting.
Recently someone (contrary to what has been said on social media, not Streetsblog Chicago) posted fliers on Archer with a photo of Lopez, Trump's border czar Tom Homan, and far-right activist Terry Newsome. According to the Southern Law and Poverty Center, the photo was taken at a private meeting about immigration in Chicago on Dec. 11, 2024, not long after Trump's reelection, and Newsome is a "Proud Boys associate."
Lopez tweeted out basically the same photo, without Newsome.
Lopez's ICE-friendly attitude is extremely ironic. Not only was his great-grandfather an undocumented immigrant, but so was Lopez's husband.
So to summarize, a vote for Claudia Zuno isn't just about dismantling a project to reduce the number of serious and fatal traffic crashes. It also means you are supporting an aldermanic candidate who is on the same page with Trump sympathizers.
Taking a stroll through the project area
While the Archer NIMBY are putting all the blame for traffic jams on the Safe Streets project construction, there's a lot more to the story. The Chicago Department of Water Management recently began traffic diversions around a water and sewer main project under the avenue. Between Rockwell and California avenues, just southwest of the rally zone, this work has reduced the corridor to one travel lane in each direction, with no car parking or bike lanes. Some signs noted there will be restrictions through April.
When the contributing reporter took a mile-long walk on Archer between Pershing Road and Kedzie Avenue, they spotted at least 14 people on bikes. Some were using the sidewalk or turning onto side streets to get around the utility construction and/or cars parked in the bike lane zone, which already has some concrete protection, but isn't painted yet.
The reporter also saw plenty of adults walking with young kids in the nice weather, and a handful of people trying to cross Archer at locations where there isn’t a marked crosswalk yet.
At the northeast corner of Archer and California, near Thomas Kelly College Prep school, the reporter spotted a metal bollard that had been nearly flattened by a motorist. It was a reminder of the unsafe driving that the Archer Traffic Safety project is intended to address.
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, 12/8/25, here.
Check out our article about Round 2, 12/15/25, here.
Read SBC's coverage of Round 3, 12/22/25, here.
Read our article about Round 4, 12/29/25 here.
Check our post about Round 5, 1/5/26 here.
Take a look at our assessment of Round 6, 1/12/26, here.
Read SBC's post about Round 7, 1/19/26, here.
Take a gander at our article about Round 8, 1/26/26, here.
Check out our article that mentions Round 10, 2/9/26, here.
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