SideStreets

@sidestreets.bsky.social

925 Followers 502 Following

Radically pedestrian urban planning. Chicago-centric. ✶✶✶✶

Chicago's 34th Ward.
A section of books in a library, with titles including: King of All Balloons Balloon Flying Handbook Airship Saga Airship Flight Dynamics Analysis Airships in Peace & War This Airship Business! The Airship: A History Cruisers of the Air Dirigible Dreams The Age of the Airship
The main branch of the Chicago River, with shadows from skyscrapers covering the bridges in the foreground.
The railing, slats, and a Dunkin below said turn on the southwest corner of Tower 18.
A crowd of people on a soccer field with the Sears Tower behind them, watching a screen
A detailed closeup of the ceiling at the reconstructed Chicago Stock Exchange, with an intricate geometric design in a glass skylight.
A house with ornate stonework trim, featuring a turret, a grand window for the attic, and two arches over the door and foyer window.
ON THIS DAY IN CHICAGO HISTORY July 18, 1901 Alderman John Minwegen was riding over the Clark Street bridge in his buggy when he noticed two planks were missing from the roadway. He stopped his team and went looking for the bridge tender. He finally found the bridge tender's assistant. The man was surprised anybody would worry about a hole in the bridge. Minwegen called for a couple of planks, a hammer and nails. While a small crowd watched, he took off his coat and proceeded to personally repair the hole. The alderman was experienced in making repairs with wood he owned a furniture store.
Reference Monitor: 132 Clarity Nodes: 65 and 91
State Street past the Chicago Theater, through the haze.
A Wendell’s Boat Tour with a half-full top deck coming in to dock under the Wrigley Building. The buildings are shrouded in the haze of 400+ AQI
A forlorn face on Plensa’s Crown Fountain looks on at a smoke-filled skyline where the Sears Tower is barely visible
Georgie O’Keefe’s The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y. The sun is partially obscured by a dark building.
A view down Adams Street from Ogden, with no skyscrapers visible thru the 400+ AQI
Newspaper from Friday, July 17, 2009. Headline: "'Willis stick?' Could be tough" Subheader: "Sears Tower's new name makes few inroads with the locals Auxiliary article by Blair Kamin: "Sears Tower, and city, losing sense of identity"
An exhibit features a pair of black and red flip-flop sandals with Obama’s face and the words “Obama ‘09: The Face of Change”.
A sign on a traffic signal pole reads: “Three Things to Say Today: I’m Sorry, Thank You, I Love You”
The report “Transporting Watermelons in Bulk and Bins by Truck”.
The famous report “Transporting Watermelons in Bulk and Bins by Truck”.
Alderman Vasquez requests clarification on the rules around the vote for Lester Barclay's appointment, which the Mayor confirms were valid due to it being an appointment and not an ordinance.
32 yeas for Appointment of Christian Diaz for Metra Commuter Rail
A man in a paint-drenched outfit rants into a microphone at Chicago's City Hall about parental oversight of teenagers, jerking the microphone around so much that the wind cover comes off. The sergeant-at-arms comes up to remove him when he gets too rough with it, but the man brushes him off.
Highway sign reads: WËLLKOMM TO BELGIUM "HOME OF LUXEMBOURGERS"
Public commenter at the mic.
A speaker in a Baylor hat at the public comment mic.
Laura Donelson speaks to a hand-held mic from a wheelchair.
A speaker in a yellow jacket at the public comment mic.
Ellen Steinke speaks at the public comment mic.
Nik Hunder speaks into the public comment mic (wearing a RAYGUN shirt).
Leslé Honoré speaks at the public comment mic.
Robert Schulz speaks into the public comment mic.
Emmanuel Garcia speaks at the public comment mic.
MAYORAL WARD APPOINTMENT OF OSWALDO ALVAREZ AS A MEMBER OF THE NORTHERN ILLINOIS TRANSIT AUTHORITY BOARD AND CHICAGO TRANSIT BOARD – The appointment of Oswaldo Alvarez as a member of the NITA Board and Chicago Transit Board for a term effective September 1, 2026, and expiring September 1, 2031. APPOINTMENT OF LESTER BARCLAY AS A MEMBER OF THE NORTHERN ILLINOIS TRANSIT AUTHORITY BOARD AND CHICAGO TRANSIT BOARD – The appointment of Lester Barclay as a member of the NITA Board and Chicago Transit Board for a term effective September 1, 2026, and expiring September 1, 2029. APPOINTMENT OF DENNIS MONDERO AS A MEMBER OF THE NORTHERN ILLINOIS TRANSIT AUTHORITY BOARD AND METRA COMMUTER RAIL BOARD – The appointment of Dennis Mondero as a member of the NITA Board and Metra Commuter Rail Board for a term effective September 1, 2026, and expiring September 1, 2029. APPOINTMENT OF NATASHA JENKINS AS A MEMBER OF THE NORTHERN ILLINOIS TRANSIT AUTHORITY BOARD AND PACE BOARD – The appointment of Natasha Jenkins as a member of the NITA Board and Pace Board for a term effective September 1, 2026, and expiring September 1, 2031. APPOINTMENT OF DEE ATKINS AS A MEMBER OF THE NORTHERN ILLINOIS TRANSIT BOARD – The appointment of Dee Atkins as a member of the NITA Board for a term effective September 1, 2026, and expiring September 1, 2031. APPOINTMENT OF CHRISTIAN DIAZ AS A MEMBER OF THE METRA COMMUTER RAIL BOARD – The appointment of Christian Diaz as a member of the Metra Commuter Rail Board for a term effective September 1, 2026, and expiring September 1, 2031. 4 APPOINTMENT OF MICHAEL EADDY AS A MEMBER OF THE CHICAGO TRANSIT BOARD- The appointment of Michael Eaddy as a member of the Chicago Transit Board for a term effective September 1, 2026, and expiring September 1, 2029. APPOINTMENT OF KAREN TAMLEY AS A MEMBER OF THE PACE BOARD – The appointment of Karen Tamley as a member of the Pace Board for a term effective September 1, 2026, and expiring September 1, 2031.
Job Description We are hiring Senior Product Designers to design and ship resident-facing products end-to-end. This is a hands-on role spanning user research, interaction design, visual design, and content design. You will pair closely with product managers, engineers, other designers, policy teams, and other city employees to move from problem statements to working products and services for New Yorkers. You will lead design across the full process: framing the problem, conducting user research, building prototypes, designing interfaces, and partnering with product managers and engineers through build and launch. You will also lead modern design practices for the team: how we conduct research, how we use shared design systems, and how we produce quality products and services at pace and scale.
Holding the book “Heatwave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago” by Eric Klinenberg on a CTA platform.
The Chicago River’s main branch, looking east towards the Vista Tower (now St. Regis).
A Graham Garfield/chicago-L.org photo of the CTA Wellington Station showing two large parkades just to the right of the platform.
7 yellow jersey barriers lined parallel on a roadway through Grant Park, allowing pedestrian access while blocking vehicle access.
A man in a sport jacket outfit rides an electric divvy among shirtless bike riders on Chicago Avenue.
A group of bike riders head down Kinzie at sunset towards the Loop, with a police tail. All the bikers are in various stages of undress.
A JCDecaux bus shelter featuring a picture of an overgrown bus shelter in the ad slot, titled Gabriel Orozco’s ‘Public Nature’.
A human-sized artwork of a pizza slice with unnatural colors.
A triangular bike frame with small wheels but a full gear.
Fireworks over Maggie Daley Park go off while the Grant Park Orchestra plays the Andante - Allegro con Anima from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E Minor at the Pritzker Pavillion.
A bike in a cybertruck’s rear bed, with green lightning bolts on a black background in the bike’s paint scheme to match the cybertruck’s paint scheme
A man rides a bicycle west on 18th Street while singing into a microphone
A diagram for the Connector Transitway v17 by the Chicago Central Area Committee, going from McCormick Plan up to the Roosevelt CTA stop over to Union Station then onto the Carroll Ave connection towards Navy Pier
A street lamp with two signs saying “Keep Eight” and eight security cameras pointing in four directions.
Roosevelt Rd. Bridge ROW Alignment (96’ width) Diagram shows a sidewalk, bus lane, a bike lane, bollard protection, two travel lanes, and the center line. Reversed on opposite side.
POSITION STATEMENT from South Loop Neighbors The Central Connector: Properly Connecting Metra and CTA to Regional Amenities What it is The Central Connector is a proposed 4.2-mile grade-separated bus rapid transit (BRT) line in Chicago's central core. Running in a dedicated, fully separated right-of-way, it offers train-like reliability and frequency without the cost or timeline of new rail. It can be executed with existing roads and without taking away traffic or bike lines. The alignment runs from Ogilvie Transportation Center in the West Loop Gate, south along Canal/Clinton into the South Loop, and then east along Roosevelt to the museum campus, with stations at Ogilvie, Union Station, Clinton, Canal Street, Taylor Street, The 78, Roosevelt Station, and Museum Campus. An alternate path continues down the McCormick busway to connect to McCormick place and the Michael Reese site.
Rogers Park, showing a network of sharros with no dedicated infrastructure, and a prominent "neighborhood greenway". On the fringe is a protected bike lane on Pratt by an industrial site, and short painted bike lanes on Morse and Howard that don't connect to anything.
Woodlawn with painted bike lanes on 63rd between the Green Line and Jackson Park, Marquette but missing a one block jog from 66th to 67th, and MLK but missing from 60th to 63rd.
A map showing the painted bike land and greenways in the Lower West Side, with protected bike lanes on Damen north, Blue Island north, 18th east, and Loomis south all ending on the fringe of the neighborhood.
The Chicago bike map with a dashed yellow line on Milwaukee Avenue from Logan Square to Central Park Ave signifying a lack of dedicated bike infrastructure and the mere presence of sharrows. The map shows a protected bike lane south of Logan Square and a a painted bike lane north past Central Park Ave.
The California Zephyr Amtrak train arriving at Osceola station 7 hours behind schedule.
A green Gillig bus with the logo of The Jule, it’s four windows covered by three artworks and an explainer paragraph.
A painting of a frog on a Lilly pad on the ground below a bus shelter.