^ Well, I can't find where it was posted. Spyguy posted it somewhere about a week or two ago.

The RTA is studying TOD, though. Here's a tidbit:

http://www.rtachicago.com/community-...-projects.html
2010 Program of Projects

The RTA Board approved the following projects on October 15, 2009. The RTA Board will consider approval of funding for these projects at the December 17, 2009 Board of Directors meeting. Projects are anticipated to begin by March 2010. For specific details and updates about each project please visit the
Regional Transportation Asset Management System (RTAMS).

Applicant Project Title and Description

City of Chicago Washington Park 63rd Street Corridor TOD Study - This project will create a transit-oriented development (TOD) plan for the 63rd Street Corridor in Chicago’s Washington Park Neighborhood between St. Lawrence Avenue on the East and Stewart Avenue on the West. Tasks include the creation of land use development concepts, design guidelines, and implementation strategies for TOD along the corridor. Planning for TOD along the corridor can help maximize the existing transit investments within the neighborhood, including CTA bus routes(Route 63, which ranks ninth in overall bus ridership for the CTA) and rail services (63rd Street Red Line Station and the King Drive Green Line Station). The plan will serve as a guide to enhance development, increase transit ridership and expand housing and economic development opportunities in the neighborhood.

Village of Clarendon Hills Train Station Redevelopment Phase I Implementation - This project will create an implementation plan for advancing the redevelopment of Clarendon Hills’ Metra Station area. The Village completed a transit-oriented development study for their Metra Station area in 2006; this project will further refine the recommendations from that study and develop a detailed blueprint for implementation. The study will consist of a detailed implementation plan for the train station and the adjacent properties, focusing on land acquisition and development costs of three specific sites and an analysis of parking and transportation issues around the station.

City of Geneva Geneva Downtown / Station Area Master Plan - This project will create a transit-oriented development plan for an approximate ½ mile radius of the existing Metra station within the City. The plan will focus on the expansion of retail development, increasing housing diversity, mixed-use development, assessing the need for parking expansion, and improving access to and around the station. This project will also aid in determining how to reassign commuter parking areas that will be lost due to a track expansion by Metra. The project will consist of an existing conditions report, market analysis, concept plans, parking and circulation guide, design guidelines and implementation recommendations.

Village of Lombard Village of Lombard Downtown Plan - This project will create a transit-oriented development plan for an approximate ½ mile radius of the existing Metra station within the Village. The plan will focus on improving pedestrian and bicycle safety and access, improving access to transit facilities and expanding residential, commercial and mixed-use development near the station. Study tasks include community outreach, and residential and commercial market analysis, land use and development concepts, an access and circulation plan and implementation strategies. The study will include access considerations associated with the Innovation, Coordination and Enhancement (ICE) funded circulator route.

Village of Skokie Skokie Dempster Station Area Plan - This project will create a transit-oriented development plan for an approximate ½ mile radius of the future relocated and elevated Skokie-Dempster Station on the CTA Yellow Line. The CTA is currently conducting an Alternatives Analysis to extend the Yellow Line from the current terminus at Skokie-Dempster to Old Orchard Road. If the line is extended, the existing Skokie-Dempster Station will be elevated near its current location. The new elevation presents an opportunity to improve circulation around the station where the at-grade tracks and station currently act as a physical barrier limiting development. The goal of the project is to create a circulation plan, a corresponding market study, and land use analysis for the Skokie-Dempster Station area.

Village of South Elgin Village of South Elgin Transit Improvement Plan - This project will create a transit improvement study for the Village of South Elgin. This project will identify transit needs and opportunities within the Village in response to recent population growth and development. The project will identify potential improvements to the existing Pace Route #801 as well as provide recommendations for potential community-based transit service. Tasks include an analysis of current travel patterns, a mobility needs assessment, development of service recommendations and implementation strategies.

The "constituency" for it is everyone who wants the CTA to be able to pay a higher percentage of operations from farebox revenue so, yes, I think that with the proper selling strategy there is a very large constituency in favor of it.

^ The key here is to ignore the ignorant constituency and ram TOD down their throats. Any opportunity we can get to bypass the democratic process should be pursued

Perhaps we can get someone to pipe in subliminal messages in favor of TOD into Mayor Daley's office or better yet, his bedroom. If the mayor isn't in favor of it, it'll never happen. I can't imagine a significant number of Aldermen spearheading this.

Here in Oak Park, its nearly impossible to increase density even around the CTA-Metra Harlem Ave station, the most logical place for TOD.

^ If it can't be done in an area of relatively educated, well-off residents like Oak Park, it probably can't be done anywhere. Sadly, the current municipal budget crunch has occured around the same time as the real estate collapse. Otherwise, municipalities would have no choice but to approve projects just for revenue's sake and rezone parts of town to promote more efficient land use.

In Oak Park, I think its somewhat of a generational divide. Many old timers still think of OP as a low-density village, rather than a dense, vibrant inner suburb. All the younger folks (<40 years old) that I talk to are more TOD oriented.

^ Bypassing the Aldermanic system could very well be the most important breakthrough in a half century towards finally improving land use in Chicago.

I would love to see something passed from the State level, but alas few higher ups have much passion for this issue.

I recall seeing some opposition to the development on Ontario and Harlem on Forest Avenue. A bunch of houses on Forest Ave. had "No Tower" signs in their windows. For those whom are not familiar with Oak Park, Forest Avenue contains a large concentration of Frank Lloyd Wright houses.

Seeing those signs and hearing the objections to the potential Lake and Forest development, I think part of the opposition stems from a desire to protect the historic character of the village. I think Oak Park's history is a bit of a curse in this regards. Aside from the public library, Oak Park hasn't had anything of architectural merit built in decades. I think this also hampers TOD developments.

Traditional NIMBY complaints are probably also in effect.

As for a silver lining, at least there is a strong preservationist spirit in the village.

I don't know whether you support TOD or not, but if you do I really wish you wouldn't say things like that because it just provides red meat to NIMBY opposition. A pro-TOD argument is a pro-democracy argument regardless of how poorly it's been made recently. To win the argument in the long run, pro-TOD people need to be steadfast in their argument that TOD IS what the people want, even if voters often seem ambivalent about it because of conflicting issues.

I'm not sure which is the most appropriate thread for this news-- or even if it has already been posted-- but this was posted in the Wall Street Journal today:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...GHTTopCarousel

This is exactly what we need. Factually there is a fiscal in-balance as noted by the law suit. Glad someone has hopefully found a way for the state and RTA to address the funding bullshit. I know that as a Metra rider I hate getting looked down upon by the METRA because I catch the train at Ravenswood.....because again factually I am subsidizing those who live outside Chicago city limits by paying more fare per mile than them.

And we all know that suburbs were created mostly out of white flight...so there is still institutional racism built into their very existence that needs to be addressed...and this funding issue is one of them.

Remember...in our crazy justice system that Al Capone had to be taken down with tax evasion because we couldn't get him for all the illegal things he did as a mob leader.

Oh, please. Your sales taxes don't support Metra; only sales taxes collected in the suburbs do. The only thing you're paying for your ride is a "fare" that covers less than half of the above-the-rail operating expenses. Your empty seat has to be hauled all the way from Kenosha even if you don't sit in it until Ravenswood.

^^^
Holy smokes. Say goodbye to Wacker Drive for a few years...

Good ideas.....especially the TOD zoning and the adaptation of purple and yellow line assets...sounds good

Fares darling fares. Do the research...a great article came out last year explaining this concept in deepth in the tribune and should be easy for most on here to comprehend.

P.S. Have to stand a lot on the Metra. You just don't ride it do you?

I wanted to follow up on this again with another point: Despite what we'd like to believe, most people in Chicago don't live near CTA transit stations, but they all pay taxes the subsidize CTA operations. Since they don't live near "L" stations, they don't care about the zoning near "L" stations any more than they care about the zoning across the street from the Willis Tower - which is to say, they pretty much don't care at all.

If you started a campaign that explained to people in a clear way that they're paying for the CTA, but that the CTA would need less funding if more people lived, worked and shopped near the "L," then the 80% of Chicagoans who don't live within 1/4 mile of an "L" station, coupled with the significant portion (even if it were a minority) of those who DO live near an "L" station who support density, would mean an electorate that overwhelmingly supported city-wide, alderman-resistant TOD zoning near CTA stations.

Start with that, and if (when) it works, move on to Metra stations and some formula for places served for frequent, high-capacity bus service.

The ONLY caveat I can think of is putting in wording that required NEW stations to get rezoned with the same criteria. That might be less popular, but I don't think it would create enough of a stumbling block to stop overall support - after all, very few places are even remotely under consideration for a "L" station in the near future, and with only a couple exceptions places that are, are probably more receptive than average to some upzoning anyway.

^ I agree. I think its mostly an issue of education. Not to be an ass, but it amazes me that half of people even know how to put one foot in front of the other.

Agreed on all points except this last one. Better to force the issue on a case by case basis than to say you absolutely cannot have an L station without increasing density. What happens when a neighborhood says "fine, we won't take the L station at all then."? I'm not sure if there're any L stations on the drawing board (a transfer station perhaps) that are really critical to the system outside of the surrounding neighborhood, but I could see how it would be a possible issue. Sure, density is better, no argument there, but sometimes the overall system has to take priority over the density in one neighborhood. Force the density issue after the station is built if that ever were to come up, don't make it a prerequisite for even being considered for an L station.

pros:
-enlarging the park at the 290/Wacker interchange, IE putting most of the ramps underground
-straightening of the lanes of lower wacker, which currently jog abruptly to the left or to the right with little warning
-the creation of a merging lane for the on ramp onto 290 from wacker (as opposed to the current yield sign)

cons:
-removing two of the ramps between upper and lower wacker. while i understand the reasoning for this (straightening of the lanes on lower wacker) i think it takes away from the connectivity of lower wacker and the surface. also, those ramps are cool as hell, they should keep 'em ;)
-removal of the Franklin St off ramp and on ramp to 290
-TWO years? thats a very long time, traffic is going to be horrible.

Look again. There will still be a direct ramp from eastbound Congress to northbound Franklin, but it will come into Franklin from the left. The opposite ramp (northbound Franklin to westbound Congress) isn't very heavily used, probably because Franklin ends one block to the south at a large vacant lot.

Two years isn't so bad... we endured it for the east-west section of Wacker, and we got a beautiful and functional road out of it, that doesn't snarl semi trucks. It won't be so bad... the timeline is such that, although CDOT claims that three major projects will all occur at the same time, only two projects will have road closures at any given time. First the Eisenhower resurfacing and Congress Bridge through 2010, then in 2011 the Eisenhower will be done and the closures on Wacker will begin, while the bridge work continues until the end of 2011.

I'm not sure this is realistic. Aldermen, in true Chicago style, cover each others' asses if it doesn't harm them to do so. Aldermen in wards without rapid transit stations don't want their colleagues to lose control over local development, because that erodes the whole concept of aldermanic privilege and would lay the groundwork for the whole practice to be abolished.

ahh, indeed you are right. i stand corrected

Quick, could Mr. Downtown or someone notify CDOT. Why are they planning a project around a building called "19 N. Wacker" that does not exist (page 6). Oh, how this project has long been waiting to come to fruition.

Kudos, though, to their "Sears Tower" designation.

^ My favorite part is the burying of the 290 ramps.

Nothing says "great, big city" like submerged transportation infrastructure

Maybe, although I think new stations should have fairly high a minimum ridership target, and places that can generate that as they are maybe should be excepted, but places that aren't there, but the location may still make sense, should be forced to upzone to foster better usage stats. If we're going to invest in infrastructure that feeds a pedestrian lifestyle, then we need to also invest in usage patterns that enable it.

I'm not saying it's realistic to do in a year, but if a strategy of educational groundwork, followed by private support from a few key alderman and the mayor, then followed by a large public campaign equating low density near "L" stations with higher taxes in a timeframe ahead of aldermanic elections, I think it could be done. We'd be talking a 3-5 year process, but I think it could be done.

Nothing says "great, big city" like confidently building towers over submerged transportation infrastructure;).

Amen to that.

No, nothing says "terrorism target" like building buildings over submerged roads...

I guess a few dozen massive buildings in NYC are targets then—or many service sections of lower wacker or michigan and wabash north of the river, I guess Trump is a huge liability.

^ Not to mention all the underground garages, or parking podiums (which, in fact, have been terrorism targets before - the original WTC attack).

The only surefire way to prevent terrorist attacks is to keep terrorists OUT of our country, through intelligence-gathering services. Look at this last one - his own father contacted authorities to warn them about his son, and nobody followed up on it. Then the dude boards a plane with an underwear bomb. Terrorists don't have to attack planes, which means that there are infinite other ways they could get in and kill scores of people - perhaps on trains, buses, at concerts, sporting events, or demonstrations. Regardless, we will never be able to stop these people without advance knowledge of their plans to harm Americans.

Ok, it does take more than just being over a road to become a terrorist target, but you all have to admit that its stupid to build certain types of buildings over roads. For example, the old Post Office. I know it wasn't a concern then, but that building would be a huge target for terrorists. I mean they could have shut down mail delivery to a large part of the US just by driving one timothy McVey bomb truck under it and detonating. Same goes for the fact that the CSX trading floors were cleverly built over a freeway. Hello, if that were in NYC it would have been attacked by now.

Also, parking garages are not the same as building over a road. Parking garages have limited access and can be easily secured. A busy freeway has hundreds of thousands of people passing under it each day completely unscreened.

Anyhow, terrorists or not, I still think its a complete waste of money to build buildings over infrastructure in Chicago right now. Its not like this area of the city is running super short on developable land. I'd much rather have them start filling in the gaping holes in the landscape to the south and south west of the Sears Tower than waste their time building on spaces that could actually make a pretty pleasant and needed park.

Sorry, wrong place

There is really not that much open space s and sw of the Sears Tower except for maybe the Dominicks surface lot.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=41.869...,0.041242&z=15

What? There are dozens of giant sears tower sized surface parking lots and acres and acres of undeveloped land in that area.... I realize Roosevelt collection is filling in one big chunk over on Roosevelt, but given the adjacency to the loop, it would be pretty hard for this general area to feel any less dense than it does.

I used to live at 333 S Desplaines, and walked down to Dominick's or Whole Foods a lot, and there is just block after block of surface lots, power stations, and warehouses engulfed in total desolation. Aside from being able to see the skyscrapers a half mile away or so, it feels like no man's land. As I walked it went from super high density Loop/West Loop to blocks and blocks of warehouse (some seemingly abandoned) buildings/surface parking lots, and then you emerge into the suburbanized strip mall hell that now exists by Roosevelt. While I think it blows ass to be a pedestrian in this area of the city, it is light years better than it was 6-7 years ago when there was pretty much just a vast empty wasteland there (No University Village/Target/Whole Foods/Home Depot/anything). That said, this area of the city needs far more mixed-use developments, and along with that better access to transit (pretty much zero buses run through it). Obviously a lot of this is because this area is totally segregated from the city with highway to the west, and the railroad tracks, river, and shitty ass dearborn park to the east with basically no E-W streets connecting with the lakefront or the UIC area aside from grade separated Roosevelt.

There is so much potential in that area of the city (even after being shat all over by strip malls) if it just had better connections through it...

^^^ Yeah, have you ever been to the South Loop Marcu? I mean there is like 20 square blocks of open land along the river directly south of the Sears alone...

Not to mention the two empty blocks directly east of the ramps in question, two huge lots next to 311 S Wacker, the lot next to the chiller plant, and the dozens of lots west of the river, east of 94, and south of Congress. That area is practically a wasteland. Also, if we are going to start building buildings over stuff, we should start decking over the massive rail yards that are right along the river. That RE is much more valuable than begin conveniently situated on top of the Congress expressway with virtually no way to walk to and from your apartment or office without being hit by speeding cars.

Last I heard, that area has been "almost developed" a number of times before running into various problems, so as far as I'm concerned, it is still under development pending financial/economic improvement. Not building an underground onramp won't stop future development. Continuing economic and financial problems will.

All the things you listed, rail tracks, surface lots, etc. are not necessarily open for development. It may not be desirable use, but it's not as if the chiller plant is ready to sell its parking lot if only a developer came along. If they haven't sold yet, they probably won't unless they outright move. Moving rail tracks is by all accounts jsut as costly as buring onramps.

The are may not be good to good or desirable use, but that's not the same as it being completely empty.

I just don't see how not buring onramps will somehow stimulate more growth southwest of the Loop. If anything, it will only make the general area more desirable.

There's already a proposal for the parking lot next to the chiller plant. The site is owned by Development Resources, not ComEd.

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/7782/wacker2.jpg

The fact that this tower wasn't built just testifies to the weak office market in the Loop, not a lack of interest by developers. In 2003, smaller developers could build midrises in the West Loop and find back-office tenants and small firms to fill them. Later, as vacancy rates started to climb, only the biggest developers like John Buck could put together an anchor tenant and smaller tenants to land financing for a new tower. Last year, we saw the very end of that, as Hines couldn't get the financing to build River Point even with 40% of its space leased, and city commitments to fund the plaza. Development Resources simply had bad timing, as they started to market this tower at the worst possible time.'

Not that this relates AT ALL to transit...

One wasn't developed because of corruption the other huge open area was almost developed but it appears to be dormant now because of the economic crash, same goes with the above proposal. Clearly there are much better places to start developing.

Also, whats with this "not available to develop" stuff? How do we determine that, almost all lots in the city are not owned by developers, so does that mean there are no developable lots in the city? No, developers buy whatever they come across in areas they are interested in when it becomes available. Also what makes the airights over those ramps any more developable than a parking lot? If anything I would expect the bureaucratic bs associated with pulling off such a development would make it a far less appealing option than simply making a high offer on a nextdoor lot that doesn't even have any infrastructure buried under it...

George Ritzlin, who has an antique map shop in Evanston, today sent me a picture of a woman who recently visited his shop. She has the CTA rail map that I designed tattooed on her foot!

http://www.ritzlin.com/Tatoo_map.jpg

Indeed, that Red Line Extension is going to terminate in a most inconvenient location.

^^ Haha... already out of date.

Does that girl know that her dirty toenail is floating around the internet?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...0,841735.story

Despite suburbs' attempts to derail plans, Canadian National Railway's Chicago bypass on track

Doomsday crises have yet to appear, but railroad's volume not yet up to full speed

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/...1/51708225.jpg
Canadian National Railway freight cars zoom across Ogden Avenue in Naperville. So far, dire predictions about CN’s use of suburban tracks have not come true. (Tribune photo by Chuck Berman / January 11, 2010)


By Richard Wronski
Tribune reporter
January 18, 2010

I'm just shocked that the worst possible outcome didn't happen ... :)

I would be interested in some analysis about reduction in delays and traffic on other lines that were previously used for trains ...

This sign just went up on Skokie Blvd near Oakton.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4060/...d0647d239d.jpg
flickr/chicagobus.org

nice. i support that

The need to put a station at Dodge St. in Evanston. I believe that there was one there many years ago.

interesting Go To 2040 transit articles
 

Summary And A Quick Tour Of Transit For World-Class Metropolises: Can Chicagoland Compete?

by Robert Munson, CAC member

I especially like the bits about "micro micro" economies and how transit rich Chicago neighborhoods save 12% annually on transportation.

http://www.goto2040.org/blogs/blog.a...493&blogid=618

They estimate 17 months for construction. I don't think the project has been let yet, but that should happen soon.

I'm so mad at the bastard CTA unions. I can't believe they'd rather have 1000 of their employees be laid off than have all of their employees cancel their 2010 3.5% raises. I thought the point of unions was to fight for their members. Maybe I'm not getting something