Yo, bum rush the office! After griping to reporters about Archer parking, which was recently addressed, Zuno, Martinez & crew stormed the 12th Ward headquarters
On Monday, if you checked out NBC 5 Chicago and Fox 32 Chicago’s reports on the Archer Avenue controversy without prior knowledge of the issue you could be forgiven for assuming this was a David-versus-Goliath story of ordinary people fighting City Hall. But don’t believe the hype.
“Changes to a busy street in one Chicago neighborhood are sparking outrage with some community members,” NBC’s Regina Waldroup reported.
“In Brighton Park… some community members and small business owners are calling on City officials to reverse course,” Fox’s Kasey Chronis stated.
In fairness to the journalists, these aren’t totally one-sided news pieces, and they’re certainly better than what some of the mainstream outlets have previously put out. (Looking at you CBS, ABC, and a prior NBC segment.) Waldroup and Chronis at least gave some airtime to the Chicago Department of Transportation, which is in charge of the safety initiative, and local Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th), who is supporting it.
“The ‘Complete Streets Project’ is designed to support safer travel for all modes of transportation and deliver long-term improvements for the corridor,” Ramirez said in a statement. “We have released an updated improvement revision of the project focused on three priorities: improving traffic flow, enhancing pedestrian safety, and expanding parking availability. This is a safety-driven effort responding to longstanding concerns and community feedback.”
But the group of civilian opponents featured in yesterday’s reports largely consists of the self-described “Archer Guardians.” They’re anti-Complete Streets protesters who since December have held weekly demonstrations near the 12th Ward office. Waldroup and Chronis didn’t mention that, although they did note that proponent Claudia Zuno is running for alder against Ramirez.
I won’t bore regular Streetsblog readers by going into this subject in depth, but the Monday evening protests are chiefly a strategy to promote Zuno’s somewhat right-leaning candidacy against Ramirez, a progressive. Zuno’s campaign and the demonstrations have been promoted by Trump-friendly Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) and Urban Center CEO Juan Rangel. Newcomers to this website can go down that conservative, anti-Safe Streets rabbit hole here.
Another thing you definitely wouldn’t get out of the new NBC and Fox stories is that lots of Southwest Siders support CDOT’s and Ramirez’s effort to make walking, biking, catching buses, and, yes, driving on Archer safer and more pleasant. In fact, in recent months the Archer Guardians have consistently been far outnumbered by weekly counter-protesters, almost all of whom live in Brighton Park or next-door communities.
But you can’t blame Waldroup and Chronis for missing that detail, because Monday evening, the “Archer for Everyone!!” folks were weren’t holding court in front of Ramirez’s office as usual. “We’ve canceled our rally due to the possibility of severe storms,” co-organizer Alfredo Valladares Jr. told Streetsblog Monday morning.
The Archer Guardians (or “Archer Avengers”) as Valladares calls them were either very clever or very lucky to hold their press conference during a nasty downpour, because it created the impression that their opposition is unopposed. The event took place the (excellent) restaurant Tio Luis Tacos, 3856 S. Archer Ave., down the block from the ward office. The taqueria also also hosted Zuno’s campaign launch party.
“The 12th Ward is a blue-collar community,” Zuno said at the presser, according to Fox. “Our residents work long hours, many on their feet, many behind the wheel, many commuting across the city.” Speaking of cross-Chicago car commutes, Zuno’s photo studio is located on the Northwest Side. She added, “[12th Ward residents] rely on easy access to businesses, clear roads, and the ability to get home to their families without unnecessary obstacles.”
Yep, it’s literally one of Zuno’s campaign promises (along with bringing back the controversial ShotSpotter program) to “Remove obstructive bike lanes.”
“We do not want this in our streets,” said Zuno’s sidekick Martinez. Obviously “we” doesn’t include the Southwest Siders who regularly outnumber the Avengers, sorry, Guardians at the dueling rallies. Nor does it take into account the more than 500 people who provided input on the Archer plan, including at two community meetings before the project was finalized.
Granted, one local merchant who spoke at Monday’s press event had a grievance that wouldn’t seem unwarranted – to someone who hasn’t been closely following this issue. “People come and don’t know where to park,” said Juan Castro of Monterrey Bakery, 4328 S. Archer Ave. It’s located on the north side of Archer, halfway between Kedzie Avenue and 43rd Street, just west of the Brighton Park Library, which has several car spaces in back.
Sure, there’s currently still parking on the south side of the street on that stretch of Archer. And, yes, roughly a third of the land on that block is occupied by parking lots.
But it was reasonable for Castro to complain on Monday that Ald. Ramirez wasn’t doing anything to provide curbside parking closer to his shop, right? Wrong: As Streetsblog reported last Friday, that afternoon Ramirez announced she had approved CDOT’s proposed edits to the street layout to provide 17 more car spots, including four just east of his storefront.
However, “People come and don’t know where to park… but that will change soon!” doesn’t make a good soundbite for an anti-Complete Streets political rally, does it?
One other thing that didn’t wind up in the NBC and Fox reports was what happened when the mainstream news reporters stopped recording. According to a source, after the press event at Tio Luis, Zuno, Martinez, Villalobos, and several other Archer Guardians marched into the nearby 12th Ward office with petition that were filled out by people from all over the city, not just the Southwest Side. As they entered Ald. Ramirez’s workplace, they shot phone video and chanted their slogan, “Two Lanes Not One!” (The project is actually a “four-to-three conversion.”)
Streetsblog Chicago doesn’t endorse political candidates. But we’re obliged point out that, once the news cameras were off, that was some pretty unprofessional behavior by City Council hopeful and livable streets hater Claudia Zuno.
Peruse the NBC 5 Chicago report here.
Check out the Fox 32 Chicago coverage 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 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, 4/13/26, from the Archer project advocates here.
Read our report on Round 20, 4/20/26, here.
Read about Ald. Ramirez’s announcement of design changes on 4/24/26 here.
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– John Greenfield, editor
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