Quote:
Originally Posted by Baronvonellis
The boulevards always seem too suburban to me.
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There are basically three types of streets in the Boulevard system as far as I've seen.
1) A regular street that is just called a "Boulevard" because it connects with the system.
2) The wide, grassy median type, like Garfield is, like South Western is.
3) Real boulevards, with local lanes separated from the center lanes by a relatively narrow grassy parkway, like Randolph in the West Loop, or West Franklin Boulevard (one of the few streets names in Chicago where "Street" vs "Boulevard" and N/S vs E/W actually makes a difference), or Humbolt Blvd, Kedzie Blvd, MLK, Jr. Blvd and Logan Blvd. The most structured of these also have limited cross-streets.
4) Only center lanes, with extremely wide parkways on the side, like Marshal Blvd.
Type number 3) is, to me, the most interesting set of boulevards.
For type number 2), I've always thought it'd be a perfect place to run trolleys in the same manner as St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans. For that to work, though, there'd have to be a pretty sustained effort to increase development along the routes, otherwise there wouldn't be enough density and destination spots for ridership to rise past a point where bus service is adequate.
Regardless, I do think the city should actively encourage intensification of use along the boulevards. Sections of them are beautiful, and allowing more people to benefit from and appreciate them should be a real goal.