As you might expect thanks to yesterday's gorgeous weather, the vibe was good at the 13th round of weekly dueling rallies for and against the Archer Avenue traffic safety project rallies in Brighton Park in the 12th Ward. Or at least that was the case according to proponent Alfredo Villadares Jr., who's lived just south of the project area in Gage Park for 37 years.
"Yesterday's Safety Rally was a blast!" Villadares wrote me. "There were approximately 12-15 people on the Safe Streets supporter side and only five people protesting the project. Of those people, only two weren't part of the Archer Avengers [his nickname for the Archer Guardians opposition group]."
"The ride we held afterward was awesome as well," Villadares added. "The temperature was ideal for a bike ride! We rode down Archer to Chinatown Square and hung out for a bit. Next week, if weather permits, we will be hosting another group ride."
The weather was gloomier today, and so was the mood at today's monthly Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety at City Hall. The hearing consisted of almost nothing but grievances about the Archer initiative from residents, business owners, and/or political foes of 12th Ward representative Ald. Julia Ramirez, some of whom were at Monday's protest.
While the project supporters usually outnumber the anti-folks at the rallies, the opponents were well represented today, with about a dozen of them showing up as a group to make public comments at the committee meeting. I was told that pro-Safe Streets folks only heard about opponents' plans yesterday afternoon, I asked too late in the game to take off from work and provide positive testimony at the daytime hearing.
Here it's it's important to point out the political background of the organized opposition to the Archer initiative. Ald. Ramirez, a progressive, signed off the Chicago Department of Transportation's proposal for an AARP-endorsed "four-to-three conversion" street redesign. The half-completed project will eventually include turn lanes, pedestrian safety infrastructure, bus boarding islands, and protected bike lanes, make the street safer and more efficient for all road users.
But some neighbors and merchants are understandably upset about the ongoing construction, and other are opposed to the "road diet" and conversion of some curbside car parking spaces. Some right-leaning organizations and people have been taking advantage of the situation to try to win votes, so I can them the "Make Archer Great Again" (MAGA) posse. You can read the details here.
Last month, Immigration crackdown supporter Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) showed up to the Traffic Safety Committee to rail against the Archer project (located outside of his district) and CDOT's Complete Streets initiatives in general. I'll discuss the conservative backing of the anti-Archer folks some more in a bit.
That's not to say that the all the complaints voiced during today's public comment period were unreasonable. For example, some Brighton Park merchants said they've loss business because of more traffic congestion and fewer curbside parking spaces.
However, research indicates that converting on-street parking to protected lanes can correlate with higher sales for small businesses, since the new facilities attract non-big box store shoppers. It's also to remember that the Archer remix is still a work in progress, as is a massive utility project just southwest of the rally area, which deserves at least some of the blame for traffic jams.
Other commenters express concern that the project is slowing down first responders. While that's a common worry from neighbors when protected bike lanes are installed, video evidence and statements from the Chicago Fire Department indicate there aren't major problems. That's not surprising, because PBLs don't take up any more road space than parked cars.
One voiced said they were worried about a more walk/bike/transit-friendly Archer becoming a magnet for gentrification. Agains most of the supporters who show up to the weekly rally have said they're from the area, and some of them are lifelong residents, not gentrifiers. And Chicago's goal should be to have safe street designs in all neighborhoods, so that a road makeover won't particularly attract newcomers.
But the comments of anti-Archer rally co-organizer Eva Villobos at the Traffic Safety meeting deserve special attention. In 2024 she ran for the CPS board on a pro-charter school platform, which helps explain why her impassioned public speaking at today's hearing sounded powerful. Her campaign received over $25,000 from the pro-charter lobbying group Urban Center, founded by perennial candidate Paul Vallas and run by disgraced ex-UNO Charters CEO Juan Rangel.
Rangel wrote a flattering Tribune op-ed about Trump after the last election. Last month, he gave full-throated support when frequent Archer demonstration attendee Claudia Zuno announced she's running against Ramirez for alder on an anti-Archer Safe Streets platform.
Villalobos, also a Zuno supporter aimed her speech comments directly at zuno's opponent. Early in her speech she said to Ramirez, "You live half a block away from the office and yet you still drive there," implying that it was hypocritical for the alder to support a sustainable transportation project.
"I'm very proud to be born half a block from where my office is," Ramirez, who recently returned from maternity leave, later told me. She said that while she often walks to the 12th Ward headquarters, "There have been moments where, as an alderman, I have to make different events or I have to rush to City Hall, I do have my car with me in certain instances." Yesterday, she said, she had her new baby with her at work, and had to go to an event immediately afterwards with the infant and gear.
"You have the audacity to claim that you do this with transparency when you have always put us to the back," Villalobos continued at the Traffic Safety meeting. "You went ahead and listened to a nonprofit." This might refer the the community group Southwest Collective, which helped spread the word about public input opportunities for the Archer plan.
"You went ahead and listened to CDOT, incompetent CDOT that could not even answer questions last month," Villalobos continued. "You have a responsibility to listen to your residents. You're not here for your own person accord. We put you here!... You need to realize that you're going to be out of here. Nobody wants you here."
Nothing political at all there, huh?
After a tangent in which Villalobos accused Mayor Johnson of not caring about police, she went on to claim, "There's a whole bunch of us, Archer Guardians, who are being threatened." Again, I'm not sure what she was talking about here
"We have businesses who are being harassed." This probably refers to Archer project supporters who reportedly politely asked merchants to take down the "2 Lanes Not One" signs the opponents gave them. "And yet who is advocating for them. Not our alderwoman. She's just there to say yes to what the mayor wants. And we're tired and done with it. We want to stop this. And it starts with you."
The large number of her political allies cheered and applauded.
After the meeting, Ramirez sold me she recently met with six business owners to hear their concerns. Their most establishments are mostly located between Kedzie and Sacramento on the section of the north side of Archer, where parking has been converted. "They feel like it's because of a lack of parking that their businesses have lost sales," she said. "I did share with them that I have a meeting with the heads of [CDOT] and Mayor Johnson, and I wanted to follow up with them on Tuesday to let them know how that meeting went. I'm trying to figure out timeline and everything that's on the table, and I want to be able to present to them all the options we have."
I asked the alder for her response to all the negative feedback she received today. "There is a stark difference of certain people who want to direct their attacks about me on a personal level, and I think politically," she replied. "And I noticed today that there are businesses that want to feel heard. So I made sure that I provided time there after the meeting to the folks that I'm mostly concerned about, and not the folks who are politically trying to run a campaign against me."
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 of the dueling Archer rallies, 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.
Peruse out writeup of Round 11, 2/16/26, here.
Read our article about Round 12, 2/23/26, here.
Take a look at our post about Round 13, 3/2/26, here.
On November 12, SBC launched our 2026 fund drive to raise $50K through ad sales and donations. That will complete next year's budget, at a time when it's tough to find grant money. Big thanks to all the readers who have chipped in so far to help keep this site rolling all next year! Currently, we're at $23,377 with $26,623 to go, ideally by the end of March.
If you value our livable streets reporting and advocacy, please consider making a tax-exempt gift here. If you can afford a contribution of $100 or more, think of that as a subscription. That will help keep the site paywall-free for people on tighter budgets, as well as decision-makers. Thanks for your support!
– John Greenfield, editor
