Has any Chicago sustainable transportation project been met with wilder “Not In My Back Yard”-style opposition than the Dickens Avenue Neighborhood Greenway project in Lincoln Park?
First announced in early 2019 for the stretch of Dickens (2100 N.) between Clybourn Avenue (1230 W.) and the Lincoln Park green space (300 W.), it seemed like a pretty uncontroversial affair. The Chicago Department of Transportation proposed installing a contraflow (“wrong-way”) bike lane to legalize eastbound cycling on the one-way westbound street, something plenty of people were already doing. The speed limit would be lowered to 20 mph, and curb bump-outs, speed humps, and raised crosswalks would be added to calm traffic and making walking safer and easier. There would be minimal inconvenience for drivers, since the plan didn’t call for traffic diverters, infrastructure that stops motorists from using the corridor as a through route.
Nonetheless, some residents freaked out. Ironically, they argued the traffic-calming project would make Dickens more dangerous, because more bike traffic would endanger pedestrians. They were concerned about more people cycling on a multiuse path at the south end of Oz Park, which would form part of the route. Some even worried out loud that “fixie kids” from less affluent neighborhoods to the west would come pedaling through their toney enclave, particularly if The 606 elevated trail is extended east from Wicker Park-Bucktown to Lincoln Park. Someone even launched an anonymous website against the greenway, and sent glossy political-style mailings exhorting neighbors to stop the project “before it’s too late.”
But at an August 2019 community meeting there was a strong turnout from supporters, including many parents and kids from the group Chicago Family Biking. In summer 2020, after COVID-19 arrived in our city, CDOT piloted a temporary “Slow Street” treatment on Dickens, placing traffic barricades and barrels on the street to calm traffic and facilitate safe walking, jogging, and biking in the street.
During another community meeting in May 2021 over Zoom, drawing 166 attendees, CDOT staffers noted that about two-thirds of all feedback received on the greenway plan has been positive. Finally in June 2021 local alderperson Michele Smith (43rd) announced that she was signing off on the greenway project, and bike advocates rejoiced.
So why is it that, more than three years after the Dickens Greenway proposal was announced, and over a year since Smith gave it her blessing, construction still hasn’t started? The 43rd Ward declined to comment on the matter, instead referring Streetsblog to CDOT for an update.
The transportation department gave a non-answer, but indicated in a statement that the project is still happening. “While we can’t confirm a start date at this time, CDOT remains fully supportive of the Dickens Neighborhood Greenway to improve pedestrian safety and provide a low-stress east-west route for people biking in the neighborhood.”
A person close to the project told Streetsblog that one factor in the delay has been this year’s strike by northern Illinois quarry workers, which messed up the schedules of street and sidewalk projects across the city, including other cycling initiatives like upgrades to Milwaukee Avenue bike lanes. The strike ended in late July, which allowed these projects to move forward.
However, a tipster told me about another possible reason the Dickens Greenway has taken so long to be approved and constructed. Edward C. Fitzpatrick, an attorney who lives a block from Oz Park (but doesn’t reside on Dickens) has been waging a rather monomaniacal war against the project behind the scenes for many months now.
Streetsblog submitted a Freedom of Information Act…
Read More: Lawyer Edward C. Fitzpatrick’s war on the Dickens Greenway – Streetsblog Chicago