Shaun Jacobsen
Recent Posts
Evanston’s Fountain Square Rehab and Road Diet Is Creating a Great Public Space
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The suburb converted a road median and excess travel lanes to an attractive new plaza, and more improvements are in the works.
In CTA’s First-Ever TOD Plan, Too Much Parking is Proposed Adjacent to ‘L’ Stations
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The CTA has embarked on a neighborhood development plan to recommend new mixed-use buildings next to its 'L' stations on the North Side.
Proposed Multi-Family is “On Hold” For Being Too Dense, Despite Denser Housing Already on the Block
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A proposed residential development that would have brought 50 mixed-bedroom apartments and 11 townhomes to an empty lot in Uptown has been stalled by 46th Ward Alderman James Cappleman and the Department of Planning and Development for being “too dense”. The proposal is less dense than neighboring buildings, and the number of new households it […]
New Skyscraper Will Add Over 1,000 Parking Spaces Above a Subway Station
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It is a shock to see city transit-friendly policies so greatly ignored.

Development Near Wilson Stop Goes Parking-Lite for Rentals, Parking-Heavy for Townhomes
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Overall the proposed development will bring new housing to a long-vacant lot without adding an excessive number of car spaces, so it represents a step in the right direction.
Wisconsin’s Highway Spending Mania Makes Less Sense Every Day
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Wisconsin isn’t known as a state that makes smart use of transportation dollars, whether it’s Scott Walker rejecting federal funds for high-speed rail service, denying funds for what would have been Milwaukee’s first suburban commuter rail service, or cutting millions in state aid for transit. Now a new report from the Wisconsin Public Interest Research […]
Kempf Plaza Has All the Right Ingredients for a Great Public Space
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Streetsblog will be on vacation on Monday, September 1. Enjoy your Labor Day! There are few pedestrian spaces in Chicago that evoke the feeling of an old European city as well as Kempf Plaza (perhaps better known as Giddings Plaza) in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. Now that city, advocacy groups, neighborhood organizations, and individuals call […]
Eyes on the Street: Parked Bikes, Meet Stationary Bikes
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If you’re looking for bike parking along trendy commercial streets in Chicago, it seems to be a lot easier to find around fitness centers than almost anywhere else. Surely this is no mistake: Either the gyms, or their neighbors, must be requesting many bike racks, and their patrons might be taking an active way to […]
“People Street” to Pop Up, Activate Andersonville’s North End on Friday
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Even though Chicago may not be getting any Open Streets this year, we don’t have to worry about any shortage of opportunities to enjoy car-free streets full of live music, local food, and beautiful summer weather. Chicagoans can instead turn to the city’s scores of summertime street festivals, including a new concept in Andersonville: two […]
Western & Belmont Viaduct To Vanish, 1.3 Miles of Wider Sidewalks Planned
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The Chicago Department of Transportation plans to tear down the structurally deficient 52-year-old viaduct that lifts traffic on Western Avenue over the intersection of Belmont and Clybourn. Instead of a gloomy concrete interchange walling off the edge of Roscoe Village, a more conventional surface-level intersection could be built as soon as 2016. The flyover was […]
CTA’s “Red Ahead” To Begin With Uptown, Edgewater Station Expansions
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The CTA has announced that the first phase of the Red-Purple Modernization project, which will increase the capacity of the north side’s Red and Purple lines, will expand and rehab four stations in Uptown and Edgewater: Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn, and Bryn Mawr. Phase One of the project also includes the Red-Purple Bypass project, which will […]
City Approves Car-Lite Belmont-Clark Development
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After several iterations since first being proposed last October, plans for a new building at Clark and Belmont in Lakeview were approved by the city’s Plan Commission on Thursday. Originally conceived as a ten-story building with 98 residential units, 56,000 square feet of retail, the building will now contain 90 residential units (a mix of […]