Forever Free and Clear

Transportation writer John Grenefield surveys cities across the nation that are creating safe, inviting places for exercise and transportation by removing the sight, sound, smell and danger of car traffic.

http://votewithyourfeetchicago.blogspot.com

The Chicago Children's Museum is still determined to plant a 100,000 square foot building in Grant Park, and Mayor Daley is still flexing his muscles to help.

The issue is likely to be decided by the Chicago City Council, so right now the people who can save our Lakefront are the 50 aldermen.

Take 3 easy steps to help save Grant Park:

We paved paradise, So why can't we find any place to park?

Because parking is one of the biggest boondoggles -- and environmental disasters -- in our country.

By Katharine Mieszkowski, Salon, Oct. 1, 2007
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/01/parking/index_np.html

Seattle leaders look for new ideas after viaduct vote
Non-Highway Option Shows Greatest Promise

Check out the amazing but true story of how one Chicago back yard was transformed from a hideous patch of concrete to a green oasis!

Go to:
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/mickhailb/album/576460762338447015

Click on 'View Slideshow' and enjoy!

The City of Chicago has once again endorsed depaving Lake Shore Drive and restoring our lakefront as "Forever Free and Clear of any Obstructions Whatsoever."

The new Chicago city sticker, which is required to be posted on the windshield of all private motor cars, clearly depicts a lakefront without a certain 8 lane superhighway.

Let's all take this opportunity to redouble our efforts to enact this hopeful vision for the future of our lakefront!

Lakeside walk minus traffic to be reality at Kankaria

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=211175

Ahmedabad, November 27: FIRST was the Sabarmati river front project. Now comes the Kankaria lake front development project, the foundation of which was laid by Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Monday evening. The idea here, however, doesn't appear to be malls and shops. The idea, according to Modi, is to make the lake and its periphery an ideal, must-visit destination for tourists.

So the Rs 28.50-crore project, to be complete in a year's time, includes development of its four-km long periphery. At present the road surrounding the lake is used for vehicular movement alone, leaving no space and little scope for visitors to enjoy the spot in a peaceful and pollution-free way.

The Chicago Journal covers our Tour de Depaving 2006!

The first stop was Talcott School at Ohio and Wood, where Burton’s wife, Gin Kilgore, explained that the now grassy area with a winding asphalt path had once been nothing but a teacher’s parking lot. Nodding to kids playing soccer, Burton noted that de-paving also "creates community."

"This used to be abandoned after teachers drove home," Burton said of the Talcott lot. When the riders reached Mitchell School, where Kilgore is a teacher, the dichotomy was made complete. The empty, asphalt-coated parking lot, had, as Burton duly noted, a Dresden-after-the-bombing feel.

Michael Burton
Chicago Sun-Times Featured Letter

Chicago's open lakefront is the envy of countless other shoreline cities that have privatized waterfronts or cluttered them with buildings and other structures. But the city's latest plan to build a pedestrian bridge at Queen's Landing [''Lakefront bridge plan revived,'' metro story, Oct. 14] defies not only Chicago's long open lakefront legacy, it also defies public opinion and common sense.

Chicago's lakefront has been preserved as open space only through much human toil. We all owe a great debt to Chicago forefathers such as Daniel Burnham and Montgomery Ward, who fought to keep the lakefront "forever open, free and clear."

Winds blew over temporary barricades at the Queen's Landing Cross Walk on Sunday, July 24. After weeks of outrage from Chicagoans over the closing of this popular Lake Shore Drive pedestrian crossing at Buckingham Fountain, it appears even that Mother Nature herself has weighed in the side of pedestrain access at Queen's Landing!