Here’s Better Streets’ heartfelt response to Ald. Lopez’s callous tweet about Riley O’Neil. And the alder made a broken-clock statement on another recent bike crash.

The Southwest Side’s Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) is obviously, a shrewd, witty guy, who deserves credit for working his way up Chicago’s ladder of political influence as a descendent of recent immigrants and a proud LGBTQ man. The latter is especially impressive when you know that in just about any other U.S. city, he’d be registered as a Republican.

But I probably don’t need to educate most Streetsblog Chicago readers about the more problematic aspects of Lopez’s decade-plus tenure at City Hall. Those range from his involvement in planning and defending the ICE crackdowns – despite the fact his own great-grandfather and husband were undocumented immigrants – to his proposal for “Ed Burke Day,” not long before the 14th Ward alder was convicted of corruption.

Lopez and I were actually on the same side of a Chicago transportation issue a few years ago, when I interviewed him about efforts to eradicate the antisocial Chicago “tradition” of privatizing public car parking spots with “dibs” junk.

But Lopez revealed himself to be one of the most blatant antagonists of our city’s Livable Streets movement last February 9. That’s when he railed against the Archer Avenue traffic safety project in the 12th Ward, and Complete Streets in general, for nearly 10 minutes at a Chicago Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee meeting.

Lopez rudely walked out of the meeting as the 12th Ward’s Ald. Julia Ramirez, a progressive, responded to his grievances, but not before he greeted frequent “Archer Guardians” protester Claudia Zuno. The political motive of his rant become more obvious a week later, when Zuno announced her candidacy as a more conservative, anti-“obstructive bike lanes” alternative to Ramirez. (Streetsblog Chicago does not endorse candidates.)

Lopez greets Zuno on his way out of the February 9 committee meeting. Image from a video of the proceedings.

But Lopez descended to a new low in his crusade against Complete Streets this week.

After Chicago Department of Transportation Planner Riley O’Neil, 35, was tragically killed in a dooring crash last Friday on Halsted Street in Bridgeport, City Council members and advocates honored him last Tuesday at the Traffic Safety meeting. “[O’Neil] was a committed and joyful servant of the city,” said Committee Chair Ald. Daniel LaSpata (1st), as reported by WBBM Newsradio. “Riley was doing everything that we could ask a cyclist to do to be safe, and still lost his life in our streets.”

Lopez had a particularly cynical response to these tributes on Twitter. He argued that officials like La Spata who are calling for curbside, physically protected bike lanes, which would have prevented O’Neil’s death, are demonstrating “privilege.”

On Thursday, there was an excellent WBEZ Radio discussion in the wake of the O’Neil tragedy, “How can Chicago build safer streets for cyclists and pedestrians?” hosted by Saha-Ann Simons. The guests were Charna Albert, an organizer with Chicago, Bike Grid Now!; Active Transportation Alliance Advocacy Director Jim Merrell, and Better Streets Chicago Executive Director Kyle Lucas.

While there has been tons of pushback to Lopez’s heartless social media post, I felt Lucas’ statement on WBEZ had particular weight. I’ve transcribed it, editing for brevity and clarity.

“[Complete Streets with protected bike lanes have] become a bit of a wedge issue, and I’ve been really disappointed in rhetoric from some… elected officials in Chicago who have utilized protected infrastructure seemingly as a wedge issue to divide us,” Lucas said. He was obviously referring to Lopez.

“There are even statements that were made… after this incident that took Riley’s life, where some alders were using it to make political statements about ShotSpotter and saying that the alders who cared about protected bike lanes didn’t care about the lives of others. And I think it’s really shameful that we would devalue anyone’s life over political issues, and really we should be concerned about protecting every single Chicagoan. And we need every tool in the toolbox. And this is public safety, keeping people safe while they’re getting from point A to point B is critical as well.”

But to acknowledge that the old saying “Even a broken clock is right twice a day” is often correct, I’ll discuss another Lopez tweet about a bike crash that luckily didn’t result in serious injuries. According to police, this collision happened yesterday, June 11, around 7:55 a.m.

This was at 52nd Street and California Avenue, which has all-way stop signs. The driver was heading west on 52nd, which is a one-way westbound street there.

“A 69-year-old male operating a bicycle, was traveling southbound in the northbound lane of California Avenue,” a Police News Affairs spokesperson told me last night. “A 72-year-old female operating a sedan, was traveling westbound on 52nd Street. [The driver] then attempted to turn… to go southbound on California Ave when [the bike rider] rode in front of her vehicle. [The victim] refused to provide information and declined medical attention. No other injuries were reported. No citations were issued. 

I don’t have any other details about this incident, but Lopez’s tweet indicates that the driver didn’t stop for her stop sign. If that was the case, the alder may have been correct that neither party was following the letter of the law. Of course, your responsibility to obey the rules of the road is exponentially greater when you’re piloting a 4,000-pound car, rather than a 40-pound bicycle.

At any rate, we know that Riley O’Neil was following the letter of the law when he was doored by a driver who was later cited for several violations, including exiting his vehicle without checking for oncoming traffic.

At Tuesday’s committee meeting, Claudia Zuno’s campaign staffer Maria Moctezuma, one of the regular Archer Guardians demonstrators, made a tone-deaf, victim-blaming public comment about O’Neil. Moctezuma implied that the bike rider was killed because he wasn’t “alert” and lacked “personal responsibility,” since he was unable to avoid the car door that the lawbreaking driver suddenly threw in his path. You can listen to her testimony in this video of the hearing, at 36:00.

Ald. La Spata had the perfect rebuttal to Moctezuma, according to WBBM. “Because it was named, I need to say this,” the alder said. “Riley was a completely responsible cyclist. I do dedicate my work to him.”

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