| July
2006 |
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From Bogota to Chicago, Parkways Wins Public Over How Will It Look In Three Years? |
Importing a Sunday Tradition to Revitalize
Streets
During a visit to speak at the 2003 International Symposium on Human Transportation in Bogota, Columbia, Randy Neufeld was inspired by something he hadn’t quite expected. The conference began on the city’s annual Car-Free Day, presenting him with a rare opportunity to observe the acclaimed event. But before Neufeld flew home, Bogota held one more revelation for the then-executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation: its weekly Sunday Ciclovia, which every Sunday for the past 20 years closes down 75 miles of the city’s major streets from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the exclusive use of bicyclists, walkers, joggers, skaters and other forms of non-motorized activity. Upon returning to Chicago, Neufeld announced, “I think we should import the Ciclovia.”
“People come out in droves. On some days almost 2 million people use the network, including in-line skaters, scooters, and parents jogging beside kids on bikes with training wheels,” he reported. The following year, when Neufeld was named CBF chief strategy officer, he and his successor, CBF Executive Director Rob Sadowsky, shopped the idea to Mayor Richard M. Daley during a private meeting. Daley immediately assigned the Commissioner of the Department of the Environment to study its feasibility, and the proposal took on a new urgency. CBF and key city delegates agreed on a pilot and worked with citizens
to develop a path from Logan Square to Humboldt Park, drawing on
CBF’s experience with this route as a section of its annual
Boulevard
Lakefront Tour. CBF also was able to draw on established relationships
with the Logan
Square Neighborhood Association and other community groups.
CBF pushed the idea as a way to generate active, healthy living, to celebrate the diversity of Chicago’s neighborhoods and to transform Chicago’s arterial streets into public spaces. CBF also proposes integrating the event with farmer’s markets and lining the routes with activity stations like the type organized by the Park Districts’s Chicago Worksout. Launching the program in a largely Latino neighborhood also made
sense because residents are embracing Sunday Parkways as a Latin
American idea, an extension of the concept of plazas and traditional
Sunday promenades that is gaining popularity in other Latin American
cities like Guadalajara, Mexico. While the city sorted out logistics through a task force comprised of Office of Emergency Management and Communications (which is the new authority on traffic movement in Chicago), the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, Chicago Park District, the Chicago Department of Public Health and Chicago Police, CBF began organizing support in the communities of the pilot route. Ald. Rey Colon of the 35th Ward was instrumental in this effort. Colon heard first-hand about Sunday Parkways during the 2005 CBF Healthy Streets Conference, in a private meeting CBF arranged for city officials and conference keynote speaker Martha Lucia Barriga Hernandez, the director of the Via Recreactiva in Guadalajara, a weekly ciclovia modeled after Bogota’s. “The key piece was a quality photo presentation,” said Sadowsky. “And she (Hernandez) had the philosophy and the vision on how to win it.” Colon said the Logan Square/Humboldt Park corridor is well-suited to successfully launch a Sunday Parkways event that would spread throughout the city. “My ward would be the ideal spot for success,” the alderman said, adding that Sunday Parkways will encourage people to live a healthy lifestyle and appreciate the area’s green space and recreational opportunities. Meanwhile, CBF dispatched its Hispanic community liaison, Pete Rangel, to start bringing aboard people from Logan Square and Humboldt Park. Rangel worked closely with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association and CO-OP Humboldt Park, among other groups. Rangel estimates that he has spoken to nearly 1,000 people in the community about Sunday Parkways, and the reaction is overwhelmingly positive. “I have heard people say, ‘I wish my kids could go out and play in front of the house, but I’m not convinced it’s safe,’” Rangel said. He also looks forward to importing a sense of pride in the neighborhoods that he noticed in a recent visit to Guadalajara. “People were stopping to pick up litter and sweeping and cleaning the intersections” along the route of the Via Recreactiva, he said. But there were snags. Churches along the route expressed reservations about parking and attendance. “There was a concern that the disruption of parking will have a negative impact on the offering plate to churches,” Colon explained.
Many of the congregations’ members drive in from outside the area. The alderman didn’t take their reservations lightly. He and Sadowsky set about meeting with church leaders to win their confidence. “It’s a difficult thing for people who rely on their vehicles to grasp,” Colon said. “But it’s important here – when there are concerns – to involve as many people as possible locally and not shove it down their throats.” “We worked with them (the churches) enough that they’re willing to give it a try for this first pilot year,” Rangel said. “I kept hearing, ‘It’s great in theory, but …’” he continued. “So, we’d say, ‘Exactly. It’s great, so let’s figure out how to make it work.” Although it is a Latin American concept, Rangel believes Sunday Parkways will expand successfully if it reflects the character of each neighborhood it passes through. “It should look like a community event,” he said. “For it to be successful, people have to feel like it’s theirs.” Colon said he wants to “create something here that won’t just be Logan Square but will catch on in other wards and other parts of Chicago.” He expressed hope that “the most difficult part is behind us.” Challenges like funding remain, Colon said, and other obstacles are likely to present themselves. “But we can make it work.” Bike Traffic volunteer Ana Martinez contributed to this report; David Callahan is Bike Traffic managing editor
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