Promoted

By Austin Busch

Yesterday, family members, friends, and supporters gathered to install a "ghost bike" memorial to fallen cyclist Yader "Yak" Casteneda, 18 at Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue in the Loop. In speeches during the vigil, his loved ones remembered him as an ambitious, hard-working person, and a supportive brother and friend, who lit up a room with his presence. 

"We're eager to hear constructive criticism [of HB 3438] and counter-proposals, and to-date we haven't heard many," Senate President Harmon said.

Yesterday there was an eventful meeting of City Council's Committee on Transportation and the Public Way. The committee passed a resolution by Ald. Bill Conway (34th) pushing the CTA to increase its enforcement of no smoking rules by coordinating with law enforcement and releasing ticketing numbers. The measure will go before the full Council for a final vote.

On a recent Friday, I stopped by the CTA's 95th/Dan Ryan terminal to check out a couple of things: the system’s only in-station DJ booth, and riders' viewpoints on the upcoming $5.7 billion Red Line Extension to 130th Street.The DJ booth project, called "An Extended Song of Our People (AESOP)" is a public art installation brainstormed by Chicago artist Theaster Gates. The CTA believes it’s the first-ever artist-designed and built DJ and broadcast facility in a transit stop – anywhere.

In October 2023, a sedan driver struck and killed Josh Anleu, 16, as he biked through the intersection of Waveland (3700 N.) and Long (5400 W.) avenues in the Portage Park community. At a ceremony that November to install a "ghost bike" memorial at the site, his mother Karen Buendia tearfully told the crowd, "If we, as human beings, don’t care about other people’s lives, we're going to keep killing each other."

About two months earlier, a turning trucker killed a 44-year-old man in a crosswalk at Cermak/Ashland, just two blocks south.

While some might argue it's risky for the senator and his colleagues to hold out for a full $1.5B to upgrade the system, he says that failure to do so would be a missed opportunity.

Livable streets advocates were well represented at yesterday's community meeting on "The Grant Park Framework Plan – Chicago’s Front Yard Reimagined" at the Maggie Daley Park fieldhouse, 337 E. Randolph St. And they walked away happy, because the proposal includes putting a deck over DuSable Lake Shore Drive downtown to help make the the Third Coast more accessible and attractive.