CHICAGO | General Developments

[lawfin]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Perhaps Nowhereman is making a little joke. Sheridan Road in Edgewater did have reversible lanes until March 1997..

Ridge Ave from the drive to ashland or so used to have reversibles as well

[Mr Downtown]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

not just the year, but the month too.

Hey, after you said I'd know, I couldn't disappoint. So I goggled it.

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Perhaps Nowhereman is making a little joke. Sheridan Road in Edgewater did have reversible lanes until March 1997.

Not really a joke per say. I'm well aware of the history of turn lanes on LSD, Sheridan, and Ridge, but am more trying to use them as an example of why reversible lanes don't really do anything to reduce traffic and usually only increase car use at the expense of transit. From what I've heard and read there really wasn't much in the way of a reduction in travel times on Sheridan from the reversibles and that was one of the reasons (along with safety and others) that they were removed. Essentially what I am saying is that "alleviating" traffic is not equivalent to "reducing" it, in fact it usually increases the raw amount of traffic.

I suspect a fair amount of the traffic is reverse commuters going to suburban jobs and Lincoln Parkers doing their shopping. Circle Line won't make a bit of difference for those.

If that is being caused by reverse commuters then the circle line would make a huge difference. The largest employment center outside of downtown is the O'Hare/Rosemont area. Right now one has to travel all the way to Jackson and then transfer and head back out or take an east-west bus, almost all of which are completely screwed during rush hour, in order to reach that area effectively by transit. Having a line that runs from North and Clyborn directly to the Blue line would massively cut down the length of such a commute via transit and probably reduce the travel time to below that of driving.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

I think the best solution is to do nothing and let the traffic choke itself off. Perhaps the construction of the Circle line (or some other line that makes this area more accessible from the West by train) would give people an alternative to driving in this area. I don't think alleviating traffic is necessary or advisable in areas of the city that are accessible in any significant way by transit.

I feel though alot of the development along North is NOT transit oriented. They have catered too much to the car. The place is literally a vertical strip mall. And congested lots and expensive decks haven't done much to keep people from continuing to circle the block. For someone like me who has sold their car long ago, I'd be more than happy to propose some non-autocentric approach, but I have none to fix the problems in that area. It's a shame there is no continuous parallel street to North. If there was you could route North Ave one way west bound and the other street one way Eastbound to Clyborn,. But you got a mess of railroad tracks, the river , and a bunch of recently built development blocking a plan like that.

[a chicago bearcat]

Originally Posted by Hayward

I feel though alot of the development along North is NOT transit oriented. They have catered too much to the car. The place is literally a vertical strip mall. And congested lots and expensive decks haven't done much to keep people from continuing to circle the block. For someone like me who has sold their car long ago, I'd be more than happy to propose some non-autocentric approach, but I have none to fix the problems in that area. It's a shame there is no continuous parallel street to North. If there was you could route North Ave one way west bound and the other street one way Eastbound to Clyborn,. But you got a mess of railroad tracks, the river , and a bunch of recently built development blocking a plan like that.

a great non-auto-centric approach would be to embrace the limitations of east west traffic, and to increase transit capacity through dedicated bus lanes between the Ashland and Lasalle.

St. Louis has reduced lanes from 2 in each direction to 1 in each, without a reduction in travel times. This does reduce overall car capacity, but I think we can all agree the current car domination is not desired.
This wouldn't alter access from the north or the south to these businesses, but might change the use of North from a traffic sewer.

Anyway, it's incremental, and I've seen only improvement for North/Clybourn in the past decade.

[Mr Downtown]

continued in transit thread . . .

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by a chicago bearcat

a great non-auto-centric approach would be to embrace the limitations of east west traffic, and to increase transit capacity through dedicated bus lanes between the Ashland and Lasalle.

St. Louis has reduced lanes from 2 in each direction to 1 in each, without a reduction in travel times. This does reduce overall car capacity, but I think we can all agree the current car domination is not desired.
This wouldn't alter access from the north or the south to these businesses, but might change the use of North from a traffic sewer.

Anyway, it's incremental, and I've seen only improvement for North/Clybourn in the past decade.

But the first solution is to cut the parking additons (or requirments if they exist)

This area should have been designed with a real neighborhood feel instead of a compromise with motorists. But I think it's gone too far in that direction, and it would be difficult to salvage a plan geared towards pedestrians.

[harryc]

[EarlyBuyer]

^
Nice shots harry.

Is this a rooftop ballroom/event space?

[harryc]

Working on the railing - stronger than I would have thought.

[Rizzo]

Sheesh, looks exactly like it did BEFORE I moved to Chicago. I had forgotten all about this.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by harryc

Working on the railing - stronger than I would have thought.

Sorry for the ignorance but are they simply replacing the same old railings or is this something new?

[harryc]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Sorry for the ignorance but are they simply replacing the same old railings or is this something new?

Replacing the old

[BWChicago]

If anyone's curious, Roundy's Chicago market stores will be called Mariano's Fresh Market. http://www.biztimes.com/daily/2010/3...r-chairman-bob

[J_M_Tungsten]

Speaking of the new market being built in the lakeshore east neighborhood...

[a chicago bearcat]

wait? The Lakeshore East market is going to be operated by Roundys?

It will be weird shopping there, as I'll expect to walk out into the Dells or Madison, but be surrounded by skyscrapers instead.

[sentinel]

University of Chicago Mansueto Library progress: 03.15.10


http://www.flickr.com/photos/uchicagolibrary/

[denizen467]

^ Does this mean it's nearly done (other than interior furnishings etc.), since the only thing above ground is a dome?

Or are they using the "top-down" excavation method, where they dig successively deeper levels after pouring concrete for less-deeper levels?

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by denizen467

^ Does this mean it's nearly done (other than interior furnishings etc.), since the only thing above ground is a dome?

Or are they using the "top-down" excavation method, where they dig successively deeper levels after pouring concrete for less-deeper levels?

They aren't going any lower, they've already excavated down to the lowest level:

(Both this and the previous image I posted by John Pitcher; refer to link)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uchicagolibrary/


As far as the grade-level reading room seen in the first picture, there is still quite a bit of interior construction still to be done as there isn't just a large reading room under the dome but a digital library lab, a conservation lab and a circulation services area for staff.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/uchicagolibrary/

[ChicagoChicago]

I recognize that this is an economic story, but it talks about the vacancy rate for the loop, so I figured it has some purpose here...

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=37603

Downtown office vacancy highest in 4 years

(Crain’s) — The downtown vacancy rate has made its biggest leap in seven years, as a sharp drop in demand was compounded by the completion of yet another office project.


The vacancy rate spiked to 14.9% during the first quarter, compared to 13.8% during the fourth quarter and 11.5% during the first quarter of 2009, according to a report by the Chicago office of real estate firm CB Richard Ellis Inc.
The jump of 1.1 percentage points is the largest single-quarter increase since the fourth quarter of 2002, when the vacancy rate climbed 2.1 percentage points, to 12.9%, in the wake of another recession....