Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Wicker Park

Lindsay Bayley with her husband Drew and daughter Willow on a shopping run. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Bayley

Wicker Park Planner and Mom to Alderman Hopkins: No More Bike Crackdowns

By John Greenfield | Feb 3, 2017 | 36 Comments

In response to the Hopkins-ordered bike sting and other ward transportation and planning issues, local urban planner and mother Lindsay Bayley sent an open letter to the alderman this week.

Police serve and protect by standing around in the street blocking traffic. Photo: @hurmsolo

Today’s Crackdown on Cyclists in Wicker Park Was a Waste of CPD Resources

By John Greenfield | Jan 19, 2017 | 52 Comments

Update 5/30/18, 2:15 PM: Today Alderman Hopkins provided documentation that indicates that he asked the 14th Police District to hold a targeted enforcement event on January 19, 2017, to ticket motorists for dangerous driving, but the police took it upon themselves to focus on ticketing bicyclists instead. Read the full story, including the correspondence from Hopkins, […]

Council Approves Milwaukee Ave. Bike Counter, Slated for Spring Installation

By John Greenfield | Nov 2, 2016 | No Comments

At yesterday’s City Council meeting, aldermen passed an ordinance, supported by First Ward alderman Joe Moreno, to allow the developer LG Partners to install a bike counter in front of its new building at the northeast corner of Division, Ashland, and Milwaukee. Here’s the announcement from the mayor’s office: An ordinance that passed today will […]

Here’s How the Wood Street Greenway Could Better Prioritize Bicycling

By Steven Vance | Jun 17, 2016 | 2 Comments

Over the past few years the city has built a handful of “neighborhood greenways,” projects that involve small changes to side streets that can have a big impact in making them more bikeable, while connecting residential areas to the wider network of bike lanes. If the Chicago Department of Transportation picks up the pace on building these bikeways, […]

Cast Your Vote for the Milwaukee Avenue Bike Counter Design

By John Greenfield and Steven Vance | Apr 19, 2016 | 20 Comments

Here’s a chance to have your say on what Chicago’s newest piece of bike infrastructure will look like. The real estate company LG Development, in conjunction with the Chicago Department of Transportation, is planning to install a bike counter in […]

Active Trans May Launch a Petition Drive to Keep The 606 Open 24/7

By John Greenfield | Mar 14, 2016 | 10 Comments

[The Chicago Reader recently launched a new weekly transportation column written by Streetsblog Chicago editor John Greenfield. This partnership will allow Streetsblog to extend the reach of our livable streets advocacy. We’ll be syndicating a portion of the column on the day it comes out online; you can read the remainder on the Reader’s website […]

Why Isn’t There a Crosswalk Here? A Pedestrian Desire Line in Wicker Park

By John Greenfield | Feb 9, 2016 | 21 Comments

Located just north of a Blue Line station, the North/Damen/Milwaukee junction is the epicenter of the Wicker Park and Bucktown shopping district and one of the busiest locations in town for foot and bicycle traffic. But it’s also one of the city’s most dysfunctional intersections in terms of traffic management. Case in point is the […]

Eyes on the Street: A Roundup of New Bike Lanes, Part I

By John Greenfield | Nov 5, 2015 | 6 Comments

We’ve done write-ups of many bikeways the city installed this year as part of their effort to reach 100 miles of buffered and protected lane, including facilities on South Sacramento, South State, Vincennes, Clybourn, Milwaukee, and Washington. However, there were a few more new lanes I’d been meaning to check out, and some others that […]

The “Hipster Highway” Bike Counter Will Soon Be a Thing

By John Greenfield | Sep 25, 2015 | 13 Comments

Instant gratification is great, when you can get it. Yesterday, I proposed installing a Copenhagen-style bicycle counting device on Milwaukee Avenue, known as “The Hipster Highway” due to its high level of bike traffic. This would help build support for reallocating right-of-way on Milwaukee in Wicker Park to make it safer for cyclists. Today, we got […]

606 Ambassadors Will Help Make the Bloomingdale Trail Safer and More Fun

By Steven Vance | Aug 25, 2015 | No Comments

For two weeks now, 16 young adults have been walking back and forth on the Bloomingdale Trail, talking to trail users about the features of The 606 trail-and-park system, and providing etiquette tips. The new 606 Ambassadors come from neighborhoods near the trail, including West Humboldt Park and Austin. The trail, built on a former elevated […]

Our TOD Bike Tour Showcased Chicago’s Parking-Lite Building Projects

By Steven Vance | Apr 14, 2015 | 4 Comments

A score of Streetsblog Chicago readers joined John Greenfield and me last Saturday to pedal to 12 sites where developers are taking advantage of proximity to train stations by building dense housing with fewer parking spaces than usual. The buildings, in different phases of approval and construction, are all near Chicago Transit Authority ‘L’ stops. In […]

Another 207 Parking-Lite Residences Sprouting In Wicker Park

By Steven Vance | Dec 30, 2014 | 6 Comments

Way back in 2012, one developer proposed what was then a radical idea: tearing down what had been a cheesy restaurant and a moat of parking overlooking a faded corner, and replacing them with a gleaming tower housing 99 apartments, two shops, and just 16 car parking spaces. Ever since 1611 W. Division Street showed […]

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