Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Bloomingdale Trail

A Blank Slate: Wells St. Extension Can Embody CDOT’s New Values

By Steven Vance | May 30, 2014 | 12 Comments

The Chicago Department of Transportation has a rare clean-slate opportunity to design a Street of Dreams — a street that incorporates many leading-edge safety features. That opportunity is phase three of their Wells-Wentworth Connector between Chinatown and the South Loop, a future southward extension of Wells Street that longtime South Loop resident Dennis McClendon calls “Riverside Boulevard.” […]

CDOT Forgets to Accommodate Cyclists During Bloomingdale Construction

By Steven Vance | Mar 14, 2014 | 22 Comments

Bloomingdale Trail construction charges ahead, with bridge work that involves closing Milwaukee at the viaduct, tonight at 8 p.m. through early Monday morning. Cars, trucks and buses will detour around the construction via North and Western, and pedestrians are advised to take a shorter detour via Oakley, Wilmot, and Leavitt Street to reach Wilmot. Winnebago, which […]

Let’s Measure What Happens With the Western Ave Shutdown This Weekend

By Steven Vance | Feb 4, 2014 | 19 Comments

Crews will be demolishing a viaduct over Western Avenue this weekend as part of Bloomingdale Trail construction, necessitating the closure of Western and diverting automobile traffic and CTA buses to Damen and California, each a half mile away. People walking or biking will be rerouted to the underpasses a block away on either side. The […]

The 2013 Chicago Streetsie Awards

By John Greenfield | Dec 30, 2013 | 6 Comments

Season’s Greetings Streetsblog Chicago readers. I hope you’ve had a joyful December and are gearing up for a fabulous New Year’s Eve. 2013 has been a banner year for walking, biking and transit in the Windy City, but there were so many landmarks and firsts, as well as a few discouraging developments, that it’s a […]

Educational Specialist Hired to Create Programming for the Bloomingdale

By John Greenfield | Dec 18, 2013 | 8 Comments

The Bloomingdale Trail, AKA The 606, is not just going to be a great transportation and recreation facility. It’s also going to be an important educational resource for students at the 25 schools located within a ten-minute walk of the 2.7-mile elevated greenway and linear park. Today the Trust for Public Land, which is managing […]

Mayor Emanuel Digs In to Kick Off Bloomingdale Trail Construction

By Steven Vance | Aug 27, 2013 | 3 Comments

At today’s groundbreaking of the Bloomingdale Trail component of The 606, Mayor Emanuel noted it’s been 100 years since the Bloomingdale Line, a freight railroad, was elevated onto the current viaduct. The trail will open in fall 2014, but Park 567 – located at one of the trail’s future access points – opened temporarily today. A different […]

Bloomingdale Trail’s New Name Revealed as Construction Begins at Park 567

By Steven Vance | Jun 21, 2013 | 14 Comments

At a community meeting Tuesday night at the McCormick-Tribune YMCA, planners discussed the final designs, construction schedule, and new name for the trail and “linear park” formerly known as the Bloomingdale. The newly coined appellation “The 606” is an umbrella term referring to the trail as well as five adjacent parks that will serve as […]

The Long, Hot Summer of Transportation Initiatives

By John Greenfield | May 28, 2013 | 21 Comments

[This piece also ran in Checkerboard City, John Greenfield’s transportation column in Newcity magazine, which hits the street in print on Wednesday evenings.] Trust me, my friends, this is the year sustainable transportation blows up in Chicago. Say what you want about Rahm Emanuel’s record on education, crime and privatization. But since he took office […]

The Bloomingdale Ain’t No High Line — It’s Going to Be So Much Better

By Steven Vance | Apr 3, 2013 | 17 Comments

The High Line in New York City has been lauded for transforming abandoned freight rail tracks into an elevated walking path and park on the west side of Manhattan, but The Bloomingdale (formerly known as Bloomingdale Trail) will be even better. This is simply because the High Line acts as a tourist attraction, while The Bloomingdale will serve […]

LaHood Suggests Chicago Riverwalk Financing Will Be Approved Soon

By John Greenfield | Feb 14, 2013 | 7 Comments

Things are looking promising for our city’s latest high-profile public space plan, the Chicago Riverwalk extension. In an interview Tuesday with Streetsblog Capitol Hill editor Tanya Snyder, outgoing U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood implied that a Transportation Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act loan will soon be approved that will help bankroll the $90-100 million project. “There’s […]

City of Chicago Finally Takes Possession of the Bloomingdale

By John Greenfield | Jan 24, 2013 | 8 Comments

After a few months of relative quiet since the last community meeting in September, there’s some news about the highly anticipated project to build a multi-use trail and “linear park” along the Bloomingdale Line. On Tuesday of last week, years after announcing its intention to open the trail, the city of Chicago finally purchased the […]