Chinatown

As Chinatown residents work to maintain the neighborhood's identity and keep it affordable for longtime residents, they also want to improve transportation access.

A 45-year-old woman was struck and killed by a van driver on the block where she lived in Chinatown on Saturday, March 11.

A south suburban man was struck and killed this weekend by a semi truck driver at a hazardous intersection in Chinatown that is slated to be reconfigured this year.

[Last year the Chicago Reader launched a weekly transportation column written by Streetsblog Chicago editor John Greenfield. This partnership allows Streetsblog to extend the reach of our livable streets advocacy. We syndicate a portion of the column after it comes out online; you can read the remainder on the Reader’s website or in print. The paper hits the streets on Thursdays.]

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."

For years, Chinatown has welcomed visitors with a red ceremonial gateway straddling Wentworth Street just south of Cermak Road. Yet for many visitors to Chinatown, accessing the historic Wentworth business strip involves confusedly jaywalking across the six lanes of Cermak, a not-so-welcoming experience.