Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about South Loop

Eyes on the Street: Checking Out New Bikeways Across the City

By John Greenfield | Jun 23, 2014 | 8 Comments

[This piece also runs in Checkerboard City, John’s column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.] For a bike-infrastructure geek like myself, this is the most exciting time of the year, when the city is in the thick of rolling out the season’s new lanes. Most of the twenty miles of new bikeways […]

CDOT Will Add Bike Lanes to Harrison, Improve Jog at State

By Steven Vance | Jun 20, 2014 | 5 Comments

Harrison Street is often used by many bicyclists as a stealth route, particularly since it has one of the rare bridges without open metal grates, sees surprisingly light car traffic, and is the only east-west route that connects the South Loop and UIC. Harrison is marked as a “crosstown bike route” from Loomis Avenue (1400 […]

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.” […]

Wells-Wentworth Project Will Fix Intersection, Spark Riverfront Development

By Payton Chung | May 5, 2014 | 27 Comments

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. The Wells-Wentworth Connector project aims to make that tricky intersection safer and […]

Eyes on the Street: CDOT Adds Curb to Prevent Sidewalk Driving

By Steven Vance | Jan 23, 2014 | 3 Comments

Back in April we showed that people were driving, parking, and blocking the sidewalk next to the BP gas station on the newly redesigned Congress Parkway streetscape. After publishing, we found out that the post had drawn the attention of Chicago Department of Transportation staff. CDOT took quick action last summer to help dissuade future […]

Protected Bike Lanes Will Make State Street a Greater Street

By Kristen Maddox | Sep 27, 2013 | 12 Comments

If support from aldermen Patricia Dowell (3rd) and Will Burns (4th) expressed at a public meeting on Tuesday is any indication, it should be relatively easy for the Chicago Department of Transportation to install buffered and protected bike lanes along State Street from 18th to 26th streets. This eight-block stretch is .8 miles long, since […]

CDOT Reveals Plans for Chicago’s First Raised Bike Lane on Roosevelt Road

By Kristen Maddox and John Greenfield | Sep 27, 2013 | 22 Comments

At a community meeting Tuesday at Columbia College, Chicago Department of Transportation Project Director Janet Attarian outlined plans for the new Roosevelt Road streetscape from State Street to Columbus Drive. The project will include a groundbreaking new segment of sidewalk-level, two-way bicycle lane, part of a bike-friendly route to and from the lakefront. The info […]

Talking Transportation With Alderman Bob Fioretti

By John Greenfield | Jun 24, 2013 | 70 Comments

[This article also ran in Checkerboard City, John Greenfield’s column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets in print on Wednesday evenings.] Second Ward Alderman Robert “Bob” Fioretti reelection chances got tougher after last year’s ward remap. His district currently includes portions of several neighborhoods on the Near South and Near West sides, but in […]

Eyes on the Street: LEDs Brighten a Safer Congress. Now About That BP…

By Steven Vance | Apr 18, 2013 | 7 Comments

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein held an event last Thursday to flip on the new LED lights overlooking the beautified Congress Parkway streetscape that was completed last year. I visited on Sunday evening to take a look at the lights. Congress Parkway needed a lot of help to become a pedestrian-friendly street. […]