A quick update on the duelling Archer rallies: opponents move protest location, Maria “The Megaphone Lady” Martinez appears to officially be on Zuno’s payroll
I know it’s been a long time since I rapped at ya about the weekly dueling rallies against and for the Archer Avenue traffic safety project in Brighton Park, so let’s up to speed on recent developments. We’re now at [checks notes] the 23rd week since the Archer Guardians organized opposition, promoted by the Trump-friendly lobbying group Urban Center, held their first demonstration in front of the 12th Ward office. Fortunately, lots of Safe Streets boosters also showed up to counter-protest.
Progressive Ald. Julia Ramirez has endorsed of the initiative to make waking, biking, scooting, riding transit, and driving safer and more efficient on the Southwest Side diagonal street. Her opponent Claudia Zuno has attended the protests since they launched on December 8, two months before she announced her candidacy.
Last Monday, as usual in recent months, there were far more supporters that opponents at the dueling rallies, according to Alfredo Valladares Jr., who co-organizers the happenings in support of the Archer project. “Only Eva and Maria were at Archer and Kedzie [Avenue],” he reported. That’s more than a half a mile southwest of the NIMBYs’ usual spot near the incumbent alder’s office.
Zuno, on the right side of this image, and Eva Villlobos, in the red jacket, in front of the 12th Ward office with an anti-Ramirez sign at the first anti-Archer project demonstration on December 8. Photo: John Greenfield
He was referring to Eva Villalobos, who received $25K+ from Urban Center for her 2024 pro-charter school campaign for CPS board and co-organizes the protests, and Maria “The Megaphone Lady” Martinez, who was attended almost all of the rallies. Martinez has served as a hype person and sidekick for Zuno, sort of the Flavor Flav to the candidate’s Chuck D.
It’s common for Guardians like Villalobos and Martinez to literally call the police on project supporters and/or proactively allege “harassment,” when the accused person is actually being reasonably polite. You can see that in the video below that I filmed at the April 20 event – listen to it with the sound on to get a better sense of what went down. It’s puzzling why Martinez is so quick to assert that someone else is inciting a physical altercation…
There’s one new I have thing I have learned about Martinez. Judging from these new business cards someone shared with me recently, she’s officially on the payroll of Zuno’s campaign organization, which is presumably getting money from the Urban Center, since CEO Juan Rangel promised full support.
Oh well, after all the hours Martinez spent this winter (usually) standing out in the cold at protests, I suppose she deserves some payment from the anti-Ramirez crowd. That is, if The Megaphone Lady wasn’t already being compensated for her weekly, noisy demonstrating.
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.
Read about the opponent’s morning press conference on 4/27/26 here. (The supporters didn’t hold a rally that day due to the possibility of severe storms.)
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 $32,806 with $17,194 to go, ideally by the end of May.
If you value our livable streets reporting and advocacy, please consider making a tax-deductible 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
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