[flickr]photo:6467222797[/flickr]
This is what Open Streets, one of the discussions below, can do for your neighborhood. Photo by Active Transportation Alliance.
We use EveryBlock as a promotional tool for our articles, but we also use the site to inform neighbors about projects in their area that they hadn’t yet heard of (I’m gauging that based on the lack of posts on the site about the project). The discussions I start usually go pretty well, and rarely do they go off topic. Here’s a list of the latest ones, including one I didn’t initiate:
- A bicycle “greenway” on Leland
- City proposes new cycle tracks for 4th Ward
- City proposes new cycle tracks for Bridgeport and Bronzeville
- Opening streets for socializing and play on Milwaukee Avenue
- Logan Square residents reveal their plans for new traffic circle design
- Sandi Jackson talks to Grid Chicago about transportation in the 7th Ward
- Talking transportation with 47th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar
I suspect that attempts at dialogue in many south side wards will be similar to the 7th.
Did you read the entire dialogue? Did you see how I tried to get it back on topic? I’ve since unsubscribed.
Have you considered the possibility that the conversation is, in fact, on topic? It does not seem like a stretch to me that residents’ perceived safety, or lack thereof, would be strongly related to their transportation behavior. For example, perhaps riding a bike makes one more vulnerable to violent crime, relative to driving a car. This problem will not be solved with bike lanes.
While the conversation included many comments about safety, the topic revolved around the Alderwoman’s behaviors, including lack of communication, unable to obtain results for the constituents, and including donation links on her office communiqués.