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Experts agree: Seattle-style park tactics can be a solution for safely reopening the lakefront
Everyone from Mayor Lightfoot to the Chicago Area Runners Association is on the same page: Social Distancing Ambassadors and other strategies can keep park users safe.
May 19, 2020
Alderman Martin is putting out feelers about doing open streets interventions in Lincoln Square
"We want to make sure that as people are spending more time outside, we are adjusting infrastructure accordingly."
May 18, 2020
How Montreal, Milan, and D.C. have made more space for walk/bike/transit during COVID
While Chicago has been shutting down trails, other cities have been using innovative strategies to make room for socially-distanced transportation and physical activity.
May 15, 2020
Unlike MTA, CTA won’t close ‘L’ during COVID, but homeless on transit need services
Back in 2006, the Chicago Tribune publication RedEye asked "Just how clean are CTA buses or trains?" The paper hired a private lab to test the cleanliness of four cars on the Red and Brown line, two buses, and some station surfaces. 14 years later during the COVID1-9 pandemic, the cleanliness of public transportation has literally become a matter of life or death.
May 15, 2020
Better Streets Chicago is a new advocacy group with a pro-open streets agenda
"We’ve been disappointed by the city's failure to take seriously the needs of Chicagoans get where they need to go while maintaining a safe distance from each other and from cars."
May 14, 2020
Map: What could a Slow Streets network look like in Chicago?
This map some potential Slow Streets routes in the central city, including side streets and park roads where through traffic could be prohibited during Stay at Home.
May 13, 2020
An architecture firm proposes guidelines for a Chicago open streets plan
Hammersley Architecture recently drafted a Chicago Promenade Plan for a network of streets where through traffic is prohibited to make room for pedestrians and cyclists.
May 12, 2020
Ahmaud Arbery’s death, mobility justice, and the open streets debate
For Black and Brown people to feel completely safe walking, biking, or just existing in public space, we need to make fundamental changes in the way our society is structured.
May 11, 2020
What do ATA’s peer organizations across the country think of open streets?
We talked to transportation advocacy organizations in Oakland, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Denver, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Madison, Wisconsin.
May 8, 2020
Friends of the Parks discusses the need for green space during COVID-19 and beyond
Executive director Juanita Irizarry says she would have preferred a more nuanced approach to park closures, and sees the pandemic as an opportunity to advance the discussion of park equity.
May 5, 2020
