Events

Proponents and opponents discussed the proposed Milwaukee safety overhaul Wednesday night at a Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association meeting in the basement of the Congregational Church. Although association president Judy Skotzko emphasized the meeting was not called specifically to talk about the road diet and protected bike lane project, many of the nearly 40 neighbors and advocates present seemed eager to debate its merits.

Streetsblog Chicago will not be publishing Monday. 

There are many things to like about McCaffery Interests’ proposal to build apartments, condos, senior housing, and retail on the former Children’s Memorial Hospital site, centered on a triangular lot at the southeast corner of Fullerton, Halsted and Lincoln in Lincoln Park. The site, which has sat vacant since the hospital relocated to Streeterville in 2012, would be occupied by three new apartment towers, and several historic buildings would be rehabbed and repurposed.

We’ve had a fantastic first year at Streetsblog Chicago, and we hope you'll come celebrate our anniversary with a reader meet-up on Thursday, February 6, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Simone’s Bar, 960 West 18th in Pilsen. Our meet-ups are a great opportunity to hang out with other folks who are passionate about improving conditions for walking, biking and transit. Check out the event on Facebook or our Google Calendar to add it to your own.

[This piece also runs in Checkerboard City, John's column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.]

At yesterday's Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Council, Chicago Bicycle Program project manager Mike Amsden revealed a new detail about the missing piece of the Clybourn Avenue buffered bike lane. The Chicago Department of Transportation is working with the Illinois Department of Transportation to install a protected bike lane on Clybourn that may be separated by a curb.

Proponents of effective public transportation made a strong showing at last night’s South Side hearing on the city’s plan for bus rapid transit on Ashland Avenue. Dozens of people showed up for an Active Transportation Alliance rally beforehand at the Punch House tavern, 1227 West 18th in Pilsen. Then they marched to the open house at Benito Juarez Community Academy, 1450 West Cermak, where supporters seemed to far outnumber opponents of the plan.

Traffic jams cost Chicagoland residents more than $7.3 billion every year in wasted time and fuel, according to the Metropolitan Planning Council’s 2008 report “Moving at the Speed of Congestion.” And we're not headed in the right direction: The share of drive-alone commuters in the region increased from 46 percent to 51 percent from 1990 to 2008.

Yesterday morning, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Governor Par Quinn announced that the O’Hare Branch of the Blue Line will receive $492 million in station and line upgrades. At the press conference at the Logan Square stop, CTA President Forrest Claypool called the project “the largest single comprehensive investment in the Blue Line since the Jefferson Park line extended to O’Hare 30 years ago.”