Thursday, April 24, 2014

Another chance to speak up for Lake Shore Drive improvements

by Michelle Stenzel

North Avenue Beach pedestrian bridge at peak usage.
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

The North Lake Shore Drive project team has released its Draft “Purpose and Need” statement. (I know this already sounds very wonky and bureaucratic -- just stay with me for another two sentences.) A "P&N" statement should describe the current situation and the problems that are in existence, so that solutions to those problems can be addressed during the course of the project. It's an important document because if a problem is not well-described in the P&N statement, then no solutions that are proposed later on can be considered. 

When the North LSD Purpose and Need draft was released April 8th to members of the task forces and published on the project website, many of us were surprised to see included only some of the issues that had been brought up during the course of the public meetings and task force meetings of the prior eight months. Supporters of Bike Walk Lincoln Park met a few weeks ago and submitted a list of 47 specific problems that we believe exist just on the Grand Avenue-to-Diversey stretch of the project. (We received a general response letter from Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider, encouraging us to continue providing feedback to the project.)  -->