Interview with the lone wolf: Discussing recent Safe Streets wins and bikelash shenanigans with a pro-Archer project rally organizer while he was outnumbered
This post is sponsored by The Bike Lane.
There’s one thing I can say as the unofficial chronicler of four-plus months of the weekly dueling rallies against and for the Chicago Department of Transportation’s Archer Avenue traffic safety project in Brighton Park. This long odyssey is never dull.
Facebook hijinks
For example, Streetsblog Chicago was long ago blocked from the Archer Guardians of Brighton Park Facebook discussion group, which is intended as a place for people to voice opposition to the Safe Streets project. But our readers often share screenshots of amusing posts from the forum, which still often mention SBC. We’re tagged in this one.
On this supposedly anti-Complete Streets discussion group, people came out of the woodwork to ridicule the post’s main assertion. That is, when drivers crash into concrete protected bike lane barriers, that’s proof that the infrastructure, rather than the motorist, is dangerous.
Amazingly, since this is supposed to be an anti-Complete Streets group, many dozens of group members “liked” theses responses. In the face of this hilarious humiliation for the “Protected bike lanes are dangerous!” crowd, it was no wonder a moderator turned off the comments for the post.
Meanwhile down in the trenches…
I’ve taken a few weeks off from showing up for the Archer rallies in person, but I got the sense that even the Archer Guardians were missing me, so I dropped by this afternoon. When I got there a little before 5 p.m., there were three protesters. As always, they were ironically demonstrating against safe streets infrastructure by standing on it.
But lifelong Brighton Park resident, project supporter, and rally co-organizer Gil Campos looked a little lonely he stood by himself a little down the block, with a “Safe Streets for Everyone” sign. I took the opportunity to get his take on recent pro- and anti-Safe Streets happenings. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
John Greenfield: Currently, you are outnumbered. It’s it’s a little before 5 p.m., so most of the nine-to-fivers haven’t gotten enough work yet, and there are three opponents right now. But it’ll be interesting to see what happens as the rush hour kicks in.
So I’ve got a couple of things to ask you about. First of all, there was a big bike ride in the 12th Ward in Brighton Park last weekend. [The 12th Ward is represented Ald. Julia Ramirez, who signed off on CDOT’s proposal for the Archer project.]
Gil Campos: That was my ride. I came to the 12th Ward, and I reached out to Divvy [bike-share, which provided loaner cycles] I reached out to CDOT, to get some SAFE Ambassadors. I reached out to Working Bikes, and it was a collaboration with everybody. And I told them my idea that I wanted to have a bicycle safety workshop where I can get the community to come out and show them how to use the lanes. You know, be safe, watch out for people jaywalking sometimes, because they’re not used to the bike lanes or looking for bikes. Cars turning into parking lots or coming out of parking lots. Just because you have a bicycle lane doesn’t mean you’re automatically safe. You still have to keep an eye out for stuff like that.
And then Working Bikes raffled off five bicycles. I think over 100 people came out. It was a good turnout. It was a nice event. We had a DJ. We had folklore dancers, and that’s what I wanted for the community to come out. Summer’s coming around, and I want them to get used to being outside, walking, visiting businesses.
And I’m doing it again on May 2. This time it’s going to be on California. I’m looking forward to it.
JG: I saw some comments [on the Facebook video of the ride posted above], people saying, “Oh, these are all North Siders who came down to do the ride.” Do you have any idea what percentage of people on the ride were local?
GC: I would say, like, 75 percent of the people were local, and I mean neighboring neighborhoods also. People came out from McKinley Park. People came out because they use Archer too. I think there were people from Archer Heights. There was a gentleman who came out with his son who uses Archer for work, so he’s all for it. And then I met another bicyclist, Rebecca. She said she travels on Archer back and forth. So she’s all for it because she uses it.
So not everybody who is benefitting from the bicycle lanes is from Brighton Park. It’s also people from different areas, because just like these driver, I’m pretty sure 65, 75 percent of [people who bike on Archer] are just using Archer to cut through to other neighborhoods. I mean, everybody uses Archer. We just have to make it safe for everybody.
JG: Okay, one more question for you. So as you’re probably aware, there was supposed to be very similar dueling rallies on Grand Avenue in West Town [which is also getting Complete Streets project with pedestrian, bike, and bus improvements]. The opponents call themselves the Grand Avenue Committee instead of the Archer Guardians, and so they were going to do a protest against a similar project. There’s going to be a four-to-three conversion, pretty much, with pedestrian islands, bus boarding islands, and protected bike lanes.
Last month the Grand Avenue Committee held a news conference against the Grand project. Image: Fox Chicago
Eva Villalobos [a co-organizer of the anti-Archer project protests] attended at least one of the Grand Avenue Committee meetings. So she might have been somewhat of an influence on their plan to hold weekly protests, at the same time as these ones. Have you heard anything about that?
GC: I haven’t heard anything about that. I don’t really keep up too much with the things that [the Archer Guardians] are doing. But I was planning on probably skipping one day here, and I wanted to go support [the Grand Avenue project advocates], just to give them idea of what we went through, and what to expect.
For me, [the Archer project] is already being implemented and it’s going to be done. So I just want to show that there are neighbors out here that support it. And once it’s all done, let’s say the next alderman, whoever’s running, says they’re going to take it out, who’s going to want to spend money to take out safety infrastructure?
[Unfortunately, that did happen on a small scale last fall, when Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) used aldermanic prerogative to force CDOT to remove part of Chicago’s first protected intersection, already installed at 18th Street and Wabash Avenue in the South Loop.
Shortly after my conversation with Gil Campos, as usually happens, many more Archer project supporters showed up from their jobs etc. Soon there were more than twice as many Safe Streets advocates rallying than opponents.]
(I’m switching from interview format back to article format for a bit.)
Regular Streetsblog Chicago readers know all about 12th Ward aldermanic challenger Claudia Zuno, a common sight at the anti-Archer project protests She states on her website that one of her priorities is to “Remove obstructive bike lanes and concrete barriers.” Also on her to-do list is “restoring effective gunshot detection technology [the controversial ShotSpotter system] and fully supporting law enforcement.”
In an interview I did with Zuno at one the first dueling rallies last December 15, she referred to Trump as “a sleazebag.” However, her campaign against Ald. Ramirez, a progressive, is getting full-throated support from Trump-friendly and Archer project-hostile Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) and Urban Center CEO Juan Rangel, whose lobbying group helped promote the protests. I’ll spare regular SBC readers from my usual spiel about the complex spiderweb of right-leaning political ties behind the organized Archer opposition, but newcomers can read my latest discussion of that here.
On December 15, when I did a video interview with Zuno at a demonstration, I’d already heard rumors she was planning to run against Ramirez, using the driver discontent over the Archer project’s parking and lane conversions as a wedge issue. But when I asked her if she was running for office, she replied, “No I’m not.” Here’s that clip. You can watch another segment from that interview, and read transcripts here.
Two months after that, in February, Zuno announced that she actually was running against Ramirez on an anti-Complete Streets platform. Ever since I brought up that disconnect, and her backing from Trump-friendly politicos, she hasn’t been interested in talking with Streetsblog. In fact, during the last several rallies where I’ve seen her, she has hidden her face behind protest signs.
Yesterday, I took the opportunity to approach Zuno in person and ask, since she’s running for alder and is a public figure, why isn’t she being more transparent about her participation in the Archer demonstrations?
As it happened, protest co-organizer Eva Villalobos, whose 2024 pro-charter school campaign for the CPS board got $25K+ from Urban Center, was sitting in a car behind me as I bicycled up to Zuno. She posted a video of the incident, stating that I was guilty of “harassment.”
That video was shot from a distance, and all you can hear is protest regular Maria “The Megaphone Lady” Martinez addressing me. But if you watch my video of the incident you’ll hear my (unamplified) side of the conversation, which I’m pretty sure was reasonably civil, rather than “harassment.”
Here’s a transcript of the exchange.
[I pedal up to the concrete bike lane protection the Guardians are standing on.]
Maria Martinez (on megaphone): Personal space, John Greenfield.
John Greenfield: Pardon?
MM (on megaphone): You don’t gotta be in our space.
JG: I was just going to ask…
MM (on megaphone): Move on. Get in your bike lane.
JG: …Claudia, if you’re running for alder, why do you hide your face at these protests? Why don’t you want to be seen as one of the protesters?
[Zuno is silent, keeps her “Small Businesses says NO to Concrete Barriers. Honk!!” sign in front of her face, and waves it around a bit.]
MM (on megaphone): [She refuses] to talk to you. Leave her alone.
JG: Sure.
MM (on megaphone): OK, leave her alone, because at this point you’re harassing.
JG: I’m just confused about the situation…
MM (on megaphone): She’s refusing to talk to you. She has nothing to say to you. You’re not media. You’re not. You’re some [What did she say here? “Slacker”? Sure. “Slogger”? Yes, sometimes. Oh, I think she said “blogger”! OK, guilty as charged.]
You’re nothing.
JG: [Laughs.] I actually am media but…
MM: Leave her alone. Get away from her.
JG: OK, I’m done.
Claudia Zuno (still waving sign in front of her face): Bye.
JG: Thank you.
Martinez basically acted as Zuno’s hype person, kind of like the hip-hop group Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav to the aldermanic candidate’s Chuck D. And one of the Archer Guardians’ favorite strategies is proactively accusing project supporters of harassment. If any CPD officers are present, Martinez will literally call the police on her megaphone, even if her allegations are obviously false.
On the other hand, when Martinez ordered me to get lost, it probably would have been wise for me to immediately ride away, rather than stay a bit longer trying to explain my intentions.
So I wouldn’t classify this as my finest hour as a sustainable transportation reporter. But I’m fairly confident I didn’t bring shame upon the Streetsblog Network’s storied legacy here either.
Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments.
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.
Check out a quick report on Round 19, 4/13/28, from the Archer project advocates here.
On November 12, SBC launched our 2026 fund drive to raise $50K through ad sales and donations. That will complete this 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 to the end of 2026! Currently, we’re at $30,941 with $19,059 to go, ideally by the end of May.
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– John Greenfield, editor
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