Sheridan Road

If we're going to convert lanes on Sheridan to make room for sustainable transportation, bus lanes are the most pressing need.

The state, which has jurisdiction over the five-lane highway, is refusing to lift a finger to improve pedestrian safety, or even let the village make its own changes.

An inviting new plaza complete with benches opened by the renovated CTA Loyola Red Line station house this Tuesday. The $20 million cost was covered by Loyola University -- whose classes started Monday -- and federal grants.

Residents of the 49th Ward, which includes Rogers Park and the Loyola University Campus, can now vote on how to spend their alderman's discretionary "menu" money. In 2010, Alderman Joe Moore became the first U.S. politician to implement this democratic budgeting process, called participatory budgeting. This year he's allocating $1 million of the ward's $1.3 million in menu funds for projects proposed and approved by his constituents. As in the other three wards participating in the participatory budgeting process, residents 16 and older can vote.