Michael Podgers
Recent Posts
The case for municipal sidewalk snow clearance in Chicago
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Better Streets organizer and local planner, Michael Podgers, makes the case for municipal sidewalk clearance in Chicago.
It’s time for Chicago to rid itself of the parasitic parking meter contract
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While it's possible to cope with the horrible parking deal through design and policy, we really need to abolish it altogether.
Here’s why Chicago needs an office of parking management
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If we really want to see the rapid development of bus lanes, or a protected bike lane network, or wider sidewalks, or pedestrian plazas, then we must also understand parking needs and manage parking more intelligently.
Bus lanes aren’t enough: We must transform DuSable Drive into a multimodal boulevard
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We need to reclaim our lakefront and turn it into the truly spectacular green space we deserve. We need to remove the highway through our parks.
The Boystown Parking Ban Raises Issues of Race and Class
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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
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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
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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://chi.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/07/Pic-4-Commercial-strip-at-Cottage-Grove-L-stop.jpg?w=600)
Petition to Extend Green Line to Obama Center Has Hundreds of Signatures. What’s Next?
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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
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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?
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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
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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
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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 […]