Michael Podgers
Recent Posts
The Boystown Parking Ban Raises Issues of Race and Class
| | 19 Comments
Banning cars from the LGBTQ nightlife strip is fine. Discouraging people of color and lower-income residents from hanging out in the neighborhood is not.
Far Northwest Siders Brainstorm Ideas to Improve Bike Access
| | 2 Comments
Residents met with Active Trans staff to discuss ideas to improve pedestrian, cycling, and transit conditions on the Far Northwest Side.
CTA Introduces Redevelopment Plan for Belmont Flyover Site
| | 5 Comments
More than three dozen residents showed up for the hearing at the Center on Halsted.
![The current eastern terminus of the Green Line in Woodlawn. [Editor's note: Daley's Restaurant, visible in the center of the photo, is highly recommended.] Photo: Michael Podgers](https://i2.wp.com/chi.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/07/Pic-4-Commercial-strip-at-Cottage-Grove-L-stop.jpg?resize=800%2C450px&ssl=1)
Petition to Extend Green Line to Obama Center Has Hundreds of Signatures. What’s Next?
| | 14 Comments
Now that they've got support from residents, the campaigners want to get the Obama Foundation, Mayor Emanuel, and the CTA onboard with the proposal.
Some Skepticism, Lots of Support for Funding Red Line Work With Transit TIF
| | 9 Comments
At a public meeting Tuesday night, Department of Planning and Development and Chicago Transit Authority officials outlined plans for a new transit TIF district along the North Side Mainline ‘L’, which carries the Red and Purple lines. The proposed TIF (tax-increment finance district) would generate funds to help pay for the Red-Purple Modernization project. At […]
Could Longer Rental Times Help Divvy Appeal to More Chicagoans?
| | 43 Comments
While visiting Vienna, Austria, I gave their CityBike Wien bike-share system a spin and found it has a couple of advantages over Chicago’s Divvy system. CityBike Wien is dirt cheap, with a one-time registration fee of only one euro, about a dollar, compared to $9.95 for a Divvy day pass. And the first hour of […]
How the New TOD Ordinance Could Save a Rejected Jeff Park Development
| | 10 Comments
Last Tuesday, the city’s Community Development Commission put the brakes on Mega Realty’s plan to build a housing and retail development on two vacant lots located a five-minute walk from the Jefferson Park Transit Center. One of the parcels is city-owned, and the commission voted against a proposal to give the land, valued at $530,000, to the developer […]
Sauganash Whole Foods Is Building Parking Where There Should Be Housing
| | 14 Comments
Sauganash Place, a mixed-use development near Peterson and Cicero avenues, is a strikingly urban element in the eponymous Chicago neighborhood, a quiet, mostly residential community on the Far Northwest Side. Featuring several stories of condominiums with balconies, plus a Whole Foods Market on the ground floor, the building wouldn’t look out of place in denser […]