CHICAGO | General Developments

[Jstange059]

Originally Posted by ardecila

I can't stress this enough, that intersection of Racine/Van Buren is SUPER DANGEROUS for pedestrians.

I had suggested installing bumpouts on that intersection, but the planners didn’t seem to take note of my comment

[Jstange059]

Photos from JGMA (I did not take these photos)

[left of center]

I drive down Ogden frequently, and I have enjoyed watching that development go up. Ogden is such a crazy wide street along the west side (3 lanes per direction, plus a frontage road on each side) that it really demands tall buildings on each side in order to help enclose it and make it feel more urban. Hopefully more 5-6 story buildings will follow on the many empty lots that front Ogden.

Speaking of those frontage roads, I wish they would just replace them with a large boulevard style parkway or some sort of extra wide pedestrian promenade. Its just so awful and car centric the way it is now. I would settle for a light rail line or BRT as well. Anything other than the current use of overflow parking would be great, really.

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by Jstange059

I had suggested installing bumpouts on that intersection, but the planners didn’t seem to take note of my comment

I'd recommend reaching out to the 34th Ward via email - they're pretty receptive to infrastructure requests, though with limited menu money to work with. It might be an opportune time if they can nudge the developer to cover the changes as part of the project.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by left of center

Speaking of those frontage roads, I wish they would just replace them with a large boulevard style parkway or some sort of extra wide pedestrian promenade. Its just so awful and car centric the way it is now. I would settle for a light rail line or BRT as well. Anything other than the current use of overflow parking would be great, really.

This is in the works, actually. The city won a $21M grant last fall and there is already a planning process underway to convert it to a proper boulevard. They haven't decided whether to eliminate the service roads or not, but either way there would be a massive upgrade. The early designs are very promising, they hired Gehl who is very familiar with the latest Euro urban design trends. This is really an unusually wide right-of-way for an American inner-city, so there's really a huge potential here to create a world-class urban boulevard.

Presentation from the last meeting in January:
https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...ards+FINAL.pdf

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by ithakas

I'd recommend reaching out to the 34th Ward via email - they're pretty receptive to infrastructure requests, though with limited menu money to work with. It might be an opportune time if they can nudge the developer to cover the changes as part of the project.

I suspect IDOT is blocking any changes here since it involves an expressway onramp.

[left of center]

Originally Posted by ardecila

This is in the works, actually. The city won a $21M grant last fall and there is already a planning process underway to convert it to a proper boulevard. They haven't decided whether to eliminate the service roads or not, but either way there would be a massive upgrade. The early designs are very promising, they hired Gehl who is very familiar with the latest Euro urban design trends. This is really an unusually wide right-of-way for an American inner-city, so there's really a huge potential here to create a world-class urban boulevard.

Presentation from the last meeting in January:
https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...ards+FINAL.pdf

Wow, great news! Love both the designs they are proposing. I wonder if the city feels that there is no need for including a dedicated transit option. I only say this because the right of way for surface transit (BRT or light rail) already exists, which is a fairly rare situation in an already built up and dense environment like Chicago. That said, there is already duplicate service offered by the Pink Line nearby, so there would be potential ridership cannibalization. I remember this was a concern when the state was hunting for funds from the feds for an Ogden Ave streetcar line a decade or two ago.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by left of center

Wow, great news! Love both the designs they are proposing. I wonder if the city feels that there is no need for including a dedicated transit option. I only say this because the right of way for surface transit (BRT or light rail) already exists, which is a fairly rare situation in an already built up and dense environment like Chicago. That said, there is already duplicate service offered by the Pink Line nearby, so there would be potential ridership cannibalization. I remember this was a concern when the state was hunting for funds from the feds for an Ogden Ave streetcar line a decade or two ago.

Yes, I think it would cannibalize the Pink Line. Better to just offer a decent bus service along the corridor - the 157 is a great start but they need to expand the hours so it runs early morning/late night.

The Ogden streetcar is a weird one, I think it was Bill Lipinski's pet project. I never heard any support from transit planners or community groups, nobody thought it was a good idea except the congressman. Even his son stopped pushing the project after the old man died.