Michael Podgers

Recent Posts

San Francisco's Embarcadero was formerly occupied by a double-decker highway, but converted to a boulevard after the highway was damaged by an earthquake. Author Michael Podgers argues that this example suggests eight-lane DuSable Drive could be converted to a surface boulevard with four travel lanes with no negative effects on mobility.

Bus lanes aren’t enough: We must transform DuSable Drive into a multimodal boulevard

By Michael Podgers | Jul 7, 2021 | No Comments

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.

Halted Street in Boystown. Image: Google Street View

The Boystown Parking Ban Raises Issues of Race and Class

By Michael Podgers | Feb 2, 2018 | 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

By Michael Podgers | Oct 31, 2017 | 2 Comments

Residents met with Active Trans staff to discuss ideas to improve pedestrian, cycling, and transit conditions on the Far Northwest Side.

Rendering of a theoretical post-flyover construction TOD building. Image: CTA

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CTA Introduces Redevelopment Plan for Belmont Flyover Site

By Michael Podgers | Oct 24, 2017 | 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

Petition to Extend Green Line to Obama Center Has Hundreds of Signatures. What’s Next?

By Michael Podgers | Jul 26, 2017 | 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

By Michael Podgers | Sep 15, 2016 | 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?

By Michael Podgers | Nov 23, 2015 | 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

By Michael Podgers and John Greenfield | Aug 19, 2015 | 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

By Michael Podgers | May 19, 2015 | 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 […]