Category: Chicago

New cargo bike business wants to protect your windows

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Scott Baermann cleans windows at Ipsento on a sunny September afternoon. 

Scott Baermann has been in the window cleaning business for 10 years, mostly in northern Indiana. He operated that business from afar when he moved to Chicago in 2006. Earlier this year he took on his friend Ryan Hoban as a partner. But the future didn’t lie in northern Indiana, it was here in Chicago.

I interviewed the Urban Street Window Works guys in August at their “office” in Ipsento Coffee House in Bucktown. This was the same office at which Scott and Ryan decided to try storefronts as a way to break into business in the city, an industry they said was dominated by “one bucket wonders”.

Most people already have a guy, and they don’t know who it is. He just comes around a few times and you pay him $7, $8 bucks. We want to develop a relationship, in how we want to separate ourselves. We want them to know our names.

Our first storefront was Ipsento, I know Tim, I asked, “Who does your windows?” Shoot me a quote and we’ll talk. Tim bought the equipment himself, “but as you can see I don’t do a good job”.

Ipsento became their first customer. A walk around the neighborhood netted them a few more customers. The pair got bikes on their radar after the threat of parking tickets raised its ugly head (fortunately they didn’t get one on an early work call). They looked at trailers on Craigslist and bought a single wheel trailer in Evanston. Ryan mentioned the benefits of using a bike for work, saying, “We can be a lot more efficient. I love riding my bikes. So this is like a dream come true, riding my bike every day.” Continue reading New cargo bike business wants to protect your windows

Upcoming events: Two technology and planning roundtables at Metropolitan Planning Council

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Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), speaking at the value capture event. Photo by Ryan Griffin-Stegink of MPC. 

The Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) hosts roundtables each month about different planning topics. Many are centered on economic or transportation initiatives. Two in October will focus on technology. The first, on Tuesday, October 9, is “Plugging in to Placemaking: Technology’s Role in Community Planning”, and the second, on Thursday, October 11, is “State-of-the-Smart: Maximizing Capacity with Intelligent Transportation Systems”.

For these events, MPC brings in guest speakers from around the country to share their expertise with an audience of professional workers, scholars, and community organizers. I’ve been to several and written about one of them: replacing the gas tax with distance-based charging. They are good for staying abreast of current events, academic work, and best practices. Students will find them a good networking opportunity and a break from university-oriented programming.

Both events are at 140 S Dearborn, Suite 1400, and will be live streamed for free. They have a fee of $15 for MPC donors, $30 for everyone else.

Plugging in to Placemaking: Technology’s Role in Community Planning

October 9, 2012, 12–1:30 pm

Imagine a busy Dad who spends his days at the office and his evenings shuttling kids to practices and play dates. Or a businesswoman whose work frequently takes her out of town. Consider the night student, the small business owner, the shift worker: These are just a few of people who have something to contribute to local community decisions, but rarely have the time to attend traditional public meetings. Read more. Register here. Watch live stream on YouTube.

State-of-the-Smart: Maximizing Capacity with Intelligent Transportation Systems

October 11, 2012, 12–1:30 pm

Improving transportation infrastructure means more than building roads and bridges. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) use technology to maximize the capacity of existing infrastructure to improve traffic flow, decrease delays, and give riders up-to-the-minute system information for a relatively low cost. The Chicago region has several examples of ITS, such as the Chicago Transit Authority’s bus and train trackers and the Illinois Tollway’s I-PASS electronic tolling system. Still, there is tremendous room for growth. This roundtable will showcase how cities around the world are proving the real potential of ITS by implementing such technologies as congestion pricing, variable priced parking, and smartphone apps. Read more. Register here. Watch live stream on YouTube.

Take action: Residents in 4 wards have opportunity to directly influence expenditure of $4 million on infrastructure

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The walls of the Mess Hall community center in Rogers Park are covered in project proposals, in 2010. Photo by Samuel Barnett. See more photos from Barnett.

Major updates, 11:17 AM

We received an email Participatory Budgeting Chicago manager Thea Crum, at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) Great Cities Institute, that four alderman will be conducting participatory budgeting in their wards, committing $4 million in discretionary spending (which is short of the $5.2 million in menu funds they have available).

The four alderman are:

  • Leslie Hairston, 5th
  • John Arena, 45th
  • James Cappleman, 46th (see details below)
  • Joe Moore, 49th

Continue reading Take action: Residents in 4 wards have opportunity to directly influence expenditure of $4 million on infrastructure

Fatality Tracker: Crossing from between cars

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 21 (9 have been hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 4 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)
Transit: 7

Please, please, please do not cross from between cars. The Chicago Tribune reports on a fatal pedestrian crash on Thursday, September 27, 2012:

A 59-year-old West Side woman died after she was hit by a car as she crossed the street near the intersection of 79th Street and St. Lawrence Avenue, authorities said.

Rose Harris, of the 1100 block of North Leclaire Avenue, was pronounced dead at 7:06 p.m. at Holy Cross Hospital, a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

She was crossing from between two cars when struck by a car whose driver apparently didn’t have time to react, according to police.

Harris was hit about 6:50 p.m. and police said the driver did not flee the scene after hitting her.

The driver, Diedre G. Scott-Johnson, 66, was cited for driving without insurance and without a license, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Robert Perez said. She lives in the 10700 block of South Lafayette Street and is scheduled to appear in traffic court on Oct. 19.

If fatal pedestrian crashes continue at the current rate, we’ll have fewer in 2012 than 2011, a marked difference than New York City’s experience this year.

View 7900 S St. Lawrence in a larger Map. The news story reports the crash happened near this intersection.

Grid Shots: Chicago Critical Mass 15th Anniversary Ride

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The Great Chicago Bike Holdup. Photo by Mike Travis.

Last night was the 20th Anniversary of the worldwide Critical Mass movement, which began in San Francisco, and the 15th anniversary of Chicago’s monthly rides. It’s probably safe to say our local celebration drew over 2,000 participants. They marked the occasion with The Great Chicago Bike Holdup, raising their rides over their heads for a group portrait in front of the Picasso. The route dipped down to Roosevelt, went west to Ogden and Randolph, then up to Webster, and back south via Magnificent Mile, ending at a secret 10,000 square-foot private lot in River West with a bonfire and dance party. As someone who’s been doing the Daley Plaza rides since 1997, I enjoyed seeing many of the early participants show up for the anniversary ride, some visiting from out of town. Several of my friends met their mates through the Mass and some of the kids from these unions are now old enough that they pedaled solo in last night’s ride.

Continue reading Grid Shots: Chicago Critical Mass 15th Anniversary Ride

Wells Street gets better with time: new signs appear

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At the June 13, 2012, Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting, we asked Mike Amsden if the Wells Street “enhanced” marked shared lane would be accompanied with signs that say “bikes may use full lane”. He said “no”.

Things changed, as photo contributor Adam Herstein noticed this morning. He says this sign is posted at each intersection (from Wacker Drive to Van Buren Street, we presume, which is the length of the “enhanced” marked shared lane).

A larger version of this sign exists, but the unique situation of the ‘L’ track colums might prevent objects from exceeding the column width, unless they were higher up to avoid being smashed by trucks.

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