Promoted

It seems like the average SBC reader was amused by my nickname for "the mostly right-leaning folks using weekly anti-Archer [Avenue traffic safety] project protests as a political hook": "The Make Archer Great Again" (MAGA) posse.

This piece also runs on the website A City That Works, a newsletter about public policy in the Chicago region. Richard Day co-edits that publication, focusing on transportation issues. As a guest op-ed, this article does not necessarily reflect Streetsblog Chicago staffers' perspectives on this issue.

With apologies to The B-52s, turn your watch back about 34 years. That's when triathlon racer Jon Boub was badly injured on a training ride when his front wheel got stuck in a bridge gap on Saint Charles Road in west-suburban DuPage County. That was because a Wayne Township road crew had removed the asphalt filler from between the wooden planks, making it unsafe for cycling.

There was backlash when CDOT proposed parking conversions for protected lanes on Clark in Uptown. But the end product offers reason for optimism in Brighton Park.

It was perhaps fitting that much of the March 11 meeting of the CTA's board was held to the chanting  and shouts from a rally taking place right outside.

As you might expect thanks to yesterday's gorgeous weather, the vibe was good at the 13th round of weekly dueling rallies for and against the Archer Avenue traffic safety project rallies in Brighton Park in the 12th Ward. Or at least that was the case according to proponent Alfredo Villadares Jr., who's lived just south of the project area in Gage Park for 37 years.

By Noah Wright

When I rolled up solo to yesterday's Portage Park Senior Center for the community meeting on the Chicago Department of Transportation's neighborhood local bikeway network proposal, there was a long line of people snaking out the door. To be honest, due to the organized opposition we've seen recently to traffic safety projects on Archer Avenue in Brighton Park, and Grand Avenue in West Town, I was a little apprehensive.

Fulton Market Association Executive Director Roger Romanelli is well-known to longtime Streetsblog Chicago readers as a resident of suburban Hillside who often intervenes in urban sustainable transportation matters. He's usually on the wrong side of these issues, with a decidely car-centric point of view. Most notoriously, his tireless lobbying against the City's Ashland bus rapid transit proposal helped get that project shelved.