Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Interviews

Wicker Park Trader Joe’s: Good Company, Wrong Location

By Steven Vance | Mar 26, 2014 | 38 Comments

Neighbors of a Trader Joe’s grocery store, proposed by Smithfield Properties for the corner of Division Street and Honore Street in Wicker Park, fear that the development will harm the work they’ve put into crafting a pedestrian-friendly street lined with locally-owned businesses. The store is welcome in Wicker Park, but neighbors say that the proposed […]

How Do We Divvy? Data Challenge Winners Find Out

By Steven Vance | Mar 25, 2014 | 1 Comment

Divvy announced the Divvy Data Challenge‘s six winners this morning on its website. I talked to three winners to learn how they created their submissions, and what they learned about Divvy users in the process. The Data Challenge began February 11, when Divvy released data about 759,788 trips taken in 2013 and asked the public […]

Why Do Women Use Their Divvy Memberships Less Than Men?

By Steven Vance | Mar 12, 2014 | 52 Comments

Divvy’s data release last month raised as many questions as it answered about bike-share use in Chicago. Chicago Spectrum was the first to point out that there’s a large gap between male and female Divvy members. Women make up 31 percent of the membership, but the trip data showed that women made only 21 percent […]

Why Would a Developer Choose to Include Fewer Parking Spots?

By John Greenfield | Feb 27, 2014 | 16 Comments

For years Chicago’s zoning ordinance, which requires large amount of off-street car parking as part of most new residential buildings, has prevented developers from taking full advantage of transit-friendly locations. However, a transit-oriented development ordinance that passed last year lowers the required number of parking spaces for buildings near transit stations. As Steven Vance reported, […]

A Real Estate Investor Explains the Value of Bus Rapid Transit

By John Greenfield | Feb 20, 2014 | 14 Comments

Yesterday Blue Cross spokesman Michael Deering told me about how the Central Loop Bus Rapid Transit project will make it faster and easier for hundreds of the corporation’s employees to access it downtown headquarters. This morning I spoke with Peter Vilim, co-chair of the real estate investment firm Waterton Associates, about why his company supports […]

Blue Cross: Loop BRT Will Help Chicago Companies Recruit Workers

By John Greenfield | Feb 19, 2014 | 21 Comments

So far, there’s been far less noise surrounding the city’s Central Loop Bus Rapid Transit project than the Ashland BRT plan. The $32 million downtown project, bankrolled by a Federal Transit Administration grant and local tax increment financing, will include dedicated lanes on Washington, Madison, Clinton, and Canal, serving six bus routes and 1,000 buses […]

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