A brief dispatch from the Archer Safe Streets advocates on Round 19 – count ’em – of their competing rallies with the Archer Guardians NIMBYs
lf you read Streetsblog Chicago on a regular basis, I’m sure you know the basics of what’s going on with the ridiculously long, drama-filled conflict over the traffic safety project on Brighton Park’s diagonal main street, aka The Aggression on Archer Avenue.
As you’re probably aware, the Chicago Department of Transportation is in the process of adding pedestrian, bike, and transit upgrades to the corridor, with the support of progressive local Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th). Some residents and merchants are understandably upset about the initiative, because construction was put on hold during the winter; it involves swapping some car space for people space; and it coincides with a massive utility project on Archer.
It’s harder to sympathize with Trump-friendly lobbyists and politicians like Urban Center CEO Juan Rangel and Ald. Ray Lopez (15th), who are trying to use Archer discontent as a wedge issue to win more conservative seats in the City Council and the CPS board. (Click on the links to see why it’s accurate to call them “Trump-friendly.)
Their allies, former UC-funded Chicago Board of Education candidate Eva Villalobos, and 12th Ward aldermanic challenger Claudia Zuno, are regulars at the weekly Monday evening protests against the Archer project in front of Ramirez’s office. (In fairness, they’ve made negative statements about Trump.) Urban Center has promoted the demonstrations and endorsed Zuno. Lopez ranted against the Archer initiative and Complete Streets in general at the February meeting of the City Council’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee and checked in with Zuno right before childishly leaving the room when Ramirez responded. Days later Zuno announced her candidacy with a “remove obstructive bike lanes” platform. You can’t make this stuff up.
If that wasn’t enough absurdity for you, earlier this week, Urban Center, a “moderate to conservative” lobbying group that promotes charter schools (Rangel is the disgraced ex-CEO of UNO Charters) sent our the following flyer and mass text (excerpted here.)
This event presumably features 12th Ward hopeful Zuno and the 15th Ward’s Lopez. And I’ll bet you dollars to Huck Finn Doughnuts that Villabos will announce her second UC-bankrolled school board candidacy at this session.
It’s worth noting that nothing says this is a good-fsith, straightforward community gathering like the fact that they won’t tell you where it’s taking place until you RSVP online and they make sure you’re “nobody nobody sent.” (I’m kidding here.) While I encourage pro-Archer folks to register and show up for this event, if you attend, please be a polite guest, and you probably shouldn’t mention that you heard about it through Streetsblog.
Here I should mention that, as a sustainable transportation and traffic safety news and advocacy website, SBC doesn’t really have a dog in the race when it comes to education policy. And we do not endorse political candidates. But anytime local politicos try to win elections by blocking potentially lifesaving infrastructure, it’s our responsibility to loudly point that out.
All right, that’s enough of my yappin’ about the politics behind the anti-Archer demonstrations. Let’s check in with pro-sustainable transportation rally co-organizer Alfredo Valladares Jr. for a report on what happened during this week’s Safe Streets showdown.
“[Last] Monday Safe Streets Rally was a blast,” Valladares wrote me. “We hung out until 6:30 p.m. like we do every Monday on Archer and Rockwell [Avenue]. Claudia Zuno was nowhere to be seen.”
“As always they did their best to [promote] their narrative that the Archer Safe Streets improvements are a nuisance because of the congestion they [supposedly] create,” Valladares said.
“In reality most of that congestion is being caused by the sewer [and water] main project that is taking place between Pershing Road and Archer to just past California which truly does have traffic in one lane,” Valladares added. “Once completed, [that stretch] will feature a shared left-turn lane so that every travel direction has a left turning lane, making traffic flow better and more predictably.”
Here’s some more news about organized protests against Complete Streets initiatives taking place every Mondays from 4-6 p.m. Yesterday I wrote that “The effort to block the Grand Avenue traffic safety project, between Damen and Ogden Avenues in West Town, appears to have come to the end of the road.” But I may have spoken too soon. Today someone shared this new flyer, which I’m guessing was created by Grand Avenue Committee ringleader Roger Romanelli, a longtime anti-sustainable transportation activist who lives in suburban Hillside. Probably not coincidentally, Archer opponent Villalobos has attended at least one of the Grand opponents meetings.
As the old saying goes, “You can’t dance at two weddings with one behind.” But don’t worry, one way or another, Streetsblog Chicago will keep you abreast of what the anti-Safe Streets NIMBYs are up to in two different parts of town at the same time.
Update 4/16/26. 1:00 PM: Today Brendan Iglehart commented on our Facebook post about this article, “I’m a Grand Avenue resident and am organizing protests in support of the Grand Avenue Safe Streets project. If you’d like to get involved, follow this IG account.“
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.
View a couple of images from Round 16, 3/23/26 on Bluesky and Twitter.
Take a look at our post about Round 17, 3/30/26, here.
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