Local Businesses

Tomorrow’s Bike to Work Rally, 7 to 9 a.m. in Daley Plaza, will celebrate the act of using pedal power to get to your place of business. Mayor Rahm Emanuel may show up to give a speech touting Chicago’s strides towards becoming a more bike-friendly city. However, due to the city’s new pedicab ordinance, which bans the vehicles from the Loop during rush hours, many of those who bike for a living are prohibited from riding their work cycles to the rally.

Lisa Santos hopes that a new Lincoln Avenue Placemaking Plan will "slow down traffic – people, too – on Lincoln Avenue, so they can see our independent businesses." Santos owns Southport Grocery and also chairs the West Lakeview Special Service Area #27, one of Chicago's 44 business improvement districts. The SSA and the Lakeview Chamber of Commerce are working with Site Design Group to highlight Lincoln's street corners and "keep people walking" down the street.

Despite the dreary weather, two of the Chicago Loop Alliance’s new placemaking initiatives, the activation of Pritzker Park, located at Jackson and Van Buren, and the #CitySeats pop-up seating program, started off with a bang today. A lunchtime celebration of the park’s new café tables drew scores of people, who enjoyed free coffee, savory pies from Bridgeport Pasty’s mini electric food truck, and the sounds of March Forth, a raucous circus-punk marching band featuring dancing stilt walkers.

This morning, Steven Vance and I checked out upscale public transportation, catching a lift on the Blackline commuter shuttle during its first day of operations.

A new bus company called Blackline will offer upscale, express commuter service that will compete with the CTA. It remains to be seen whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing for local transit.

[This piece also runs in Checkerboard City, John's transportation column in Newcity magazine.]

At today’s City Council meeting, an ordinance regulating pedicabbers – and banning them from downtown streets – passed with almost no opposition. Operators say that the new rules will put them out of business, since they’ll be prohibited from operating in the Loop during rush hours, as well as Michigan and State, between Oak and Congress, at all times. The law, which Mayor Rahm Emanuel praised, goes into effect on June 7.

During a 2.5-hour committee hearing yesterday on a proposed ordinance to regulate Chicago’s growing pedicab fleet, aldermen heard passionate testimony from some 20 operators and advocates. They argued the legislation, which includes a ban on downtown operations, would hamstring the industry and kill jobs.

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