These are heady times in Chicago. We recently inaugurated Lori Lightfoot as our first black, female, and openly gay mayor, and she immediately signed an executive order to end aldermanic privilege. That dubious tradition has allowed City Council members to veto good projects within their wards, including sustainable transportation initiatives.
To get a better sense of what other improvements for walking, biking, and transit are in store, I reached out to the dozen freshman aldermen to ask about their transportation priorities, and several got back to me by press time. Here’s what’s on their to-do lists.
He’s also excited about Active Trans’ proposal to create a safer bike and pedestrian route between Logan and Lathrop Homes through improvements to Logan Boulevard and Diversey. “As a cyclist, [transitioning between] Diversey and Logan can be pretty treacherous, so I would love to see something really strong happen there,” he told me.
This former employee of ex-Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan won the far-north-side seat vacated by incumbent Margaret Laurino, the architect of Chicago’s common-sense ordinance against using a cell phone when biking.
But after witnessing the high-end TOD boom along Milwaukee Avenue, which has been blamed for accelerating the displacement of longtime Logan Square residents, “We want to maintain affordability and make sure that residents and businesses that have been in the community for years are able to remain in the neighborhood,” Cubbage said.
On a macro scale, Martin said, “Chicago needs to step up its game and roll out many more miles of dedicated bus lanes.” While he said he’d be happy to get bus lanes on Western in his relatively affluent ward, “we would support prioritizing such lanes to improve connectivity and access to downtown jobs and economic opportunities for our city’s most marginalized communities first.”
