CHICAGO | Lincoln Yards

[Toasty Joe]

Originally Posted by west-town-brad

Lincoln Yards sits between two of the most in demand and restrictive housing neighborhoods in the city. It's a great place for high density housing I think.

Exactly... and seems like a no brainer to create a better pedestrian/cyclist experience for residents of bucktown/wicker crossing over the river to LP/the lake AND residents of lincoln park to the "cooler" restaurants/bars/music venues in logan, wicker, & bucktown. As of now, the highway and industrial/big box sites establish a barrier that lead many to uber. BRT on Armitage would also be huge.

[Briguy]

Originally Posted by Toasty Joe

Exactly... and seems like a no brainer to create a better pedestrian/cyclist experience for residents of bucktown/wicker crossing over the river to LP/the lake AND residents of lincoln park to the "cooler" restaurants/bars/music venues in logan, wicker, & bucktown. As of now, the highway and industrial/big box sites establish a barrier that lead many to uber. BRT on Armitage would also be huge.

Yes the residents of Lincoln park and bucktown are positively clamoring to take the bus.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Toasty Joe

Exactly... and seems like a no brainer to create a better pedestrian/cyclist experience for residents of bucktown/wicker crossing over the river to LP/the lake AND residents of lincoln park to the "cooler" restaurants/bars/music venues in logan, wicker, & bucktown. As of now, the highway and industrial/big box sites establish a barrier that lead many to uber. BRT on Armitage would also be huge.

As someone who lives in Logan Sq., I cannot emphasize how true this is. I call the industrial/Kennedy/River zone the "38th Parallel" because it really feels like a border crossing lol.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Briguy

Yes the residents of Lincoln park and bucktown are positively clamoring to take the bus.

What does this even mean? Tons of people in these neighborhoods take the bus. People were fighting for Ashland BRT not long ago. Currently, the Ashland #9 bus goes through both neighborhoods and has top-5 highest ridership in the entire system. I'm sure the 20,000 Depaul students in Lincoln Park would like better bus service, too.

[west-town-brad]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

What does this even mean? Tons of people in these neighborhoods take the bus. People were fighting for Ashland BRT not long ago. Currently, the Ashland #9 bus goes through both neighborhoods and has top-5 highest ridership in the entire system. I'm sure the 20,000 Depaul students in Lincoln Park would like better bus service, too.

it's the gilded class! LOL

[Toasty Joe]

Originally Posted by Briguy

Yes the residents of Lincoln park and bucktown are positively clamoring to take the bus.

If it's clean, reliable, moves faster than traffic (BRT), and costs $2.50 vs. a $10-18 uber, I don't see why not. You'd be surprised how cost-conscious people who live in $2M houses are, not to mention the thousands of "regular" people who live in those neighborhoods

[AlpacaObsessor]

Originally Posted by Toasty Joe

If it's clean, reliable, moves faster than traffic (BRT), and costs $2.50 vs. a $10-18 uber, I don't see why not. You'd be surprised how cost-conscious people who live in $2M houses are, not to mention the thousands of "regular" people who live in those neighborhoods

Exactly. These may be prototypical NIMBY neighborhoods but there's still a ton of historic high-density areas in both and I know loads of yuppie coworkers who commute from LP in to the loop either via #156 or #22. If anything I'd say my coworkers who live downtown are less used to riding the bus since they stick to walking or the El.

[west-town-brad]

Originally Posted by AlpacaObsessor

Exactly. These may be prototypical NIMBY neighborhoods but there's still a ton of historic high-density areas in both and I know loads of yuppie coworkers who commute from LP in to the loop either via #156 or #22. If anything I'd say my coworkers who live downtown are less used to riding the bus since they stick to walking or the El.

I commute by train and my wife commutes by bus. We live in a multi million dollar house in Bucktown. I don't know if these are NIMBY neighborhoods so much as single family neighborhoods. We have high density along all commercial streets and low density on the residential streets that have been low density residential for the last 100+ years.

[Briguy]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

What does this even mean? Tons of people in these neighborhoods take the bus. People were fighting for Ashland BRT not long ago. Currently, the Ashland #9 bus goes through both neighborhoods and has top-5 highest ridership in the entire system. I'm sure the 20,000 Depaul students in Lincoln Park would like better bus service, too.

The neighborhood pushback on armitage BRT would be like nothing you've ever seen.

[gandalf612]

Originally Posted by Briguy

Yes the residents of Lincoln park and bucktown are positively clamoring to take the bus.

I had an apartment in Lincoln Park two years ago for $860 a month. LP is more socio-economically diverse than you might realize, and I know plenty of well-off people who regularly commute by bus too. Truly some bizarrely misplaced sarcasm on your part,

[BrinChi]

Originally Posted by Briguy

The neighborhood pushback on armitage BRT would be like nothing you've ever seen.

I don't think Armitage is good for BRT. It's got to be one of the arteries with 2 lanes of traffic + parking today. Then one of the lanes becomes BRT. So this would be North Ave, Fullerton, or Irving Park on the north side.

[Klippenstein]

Originally Posted by BrinChi

I don't think Armitage is good for BRT. It's got to be one of the arteries with 2 lanes of traffic + parking today. Then one of the lanes becomes BRT. So this would be North Ave, Fullerton, or Irving Park on the north side.

Or, dare I say, take away the parking… though might be impossible with the parking meter deal. Would love for the city to find a way around that if so because that would be a huge roadblock.

[Toasty Joe]

Originally Posted by BrinChi

I don't think Armitage is good for BRT. It's got to be one of the arteries with 2 lanes of traffic + parking today. Then one of the lanes becomes BRT. So this would be North Ave, Fullerton, or Irving Park on the north side.

I threw Armitage out there because it slices through the LY site where all of this future density is planned, although the funky detour to Cortland to cross the river would ideally need to be addressed. Should the city find a way around the parking meter fiasco, using the parking spaces as BRT seems like the best bet here.

As much as I'd love North Ave BRT, it's managed by IDOT so unfortunately not realistic.

For the context of this discussion, Fullerton is a bit far from LY to entice ridership from future residents, and the majority of Bucktown residents would need to cross under the Kennedy to access anyways, which brings us back to the barrier issue. But agreed it should be implemented anyways to better connect LP and Logan Square.

[west-town-brad]

Originally Posted by Briguy

The neighborhood pushback on armitage BRT would be like nothing you've ever seen.

Lincoln Park might be the most transit-served neighborhood in the city. To say the residents are anti-transit or anti-development is pretty silly.

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by west-town-brad

Lincoln Park might be the most transit-served neighborhood in the city. To say the residents are anti-transit or anti-development is pretty silly.

The residents enjoy the development they have now, but their is a public freak-out any time something new is proposed.
Neighbors sued to block Lincoln Common and absolutely melted down when that two-story Walgreens was built on Armitage (which is a major commercial/retail corridor).

[west-town-brad]

Originally Posted by r18tdi

The residents enjoy the development they have now, but their is a public freak-out any time something new is proposed.
Neighbors sued to block Lincoln Common and absolutely melted down when that two-story Walgreens was built on Armitage (which is a major commercial/retail corridor).

yet both were built.

[west-town-brad]

Originally Posted by r18tdi

The residents enjoy the development they have now, but their is a public freak-out any time something new is proposed.
Neighbors sued to block Lincoln Common and absolutely melted down when that two-story Walgreens was built on Armitage (which is a major commercial/retail corridor).

there will always be crazies in any neighborhood regarding any topic or change. for example....

one homeowner down the street from me in bucktown tried to rally the neighborhood residents around the idea that the two residential lots next to her house should be a new public park. she got coverage in blockclubchicago and had designs made for the public park on her own dime. she put flyers around the neighborhood saying that new houses being built on a residential street full of houses was somehow over development.

in time she gave up. the lots are still vacant and owned by a home builder.

[Jibba]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

What does this even mean? Tons of people in these neighborhoods take the bus. People were fighting for Ashland BRT not long ago. Currently, the Ashland #9 bus goes through both neighborhoods and has top-5 highest ridership in the entire system. I'm sure the 20,000 Depaul students in Lincoln Park would like better bus service, too.

I know very few people who take the bus, whether that's social contacts, professional contacts, or family. I'm 95% bus/train/Divvy/walking and reserve Uber/Lyft/taxi for rare occasions, but I'm very much in the minority (if not the sole person) among my acquaintances in that regard. Anecdotal, surely, but so are the other accounts from other posters here.

The last data I've seen, Chicago car use is higher than NYC, Philly, and (I think) Boston, and my impression (another anecdote) is that it's only climbed higher since the onset of the pandemic (from the ambient traffic seen everywhere).

[Handro]

Chicago is huge and vastly underserved by reliable transit so it makes sense we drive more than people in comparatively tiny cities Philly/Boston, and NYC’s sprawling subway system makes it MORE convenient than driving many times. If I want to go from my house to my girlfriends parents in Norwood Park right now, it would take nearly twice as long on the CTA (over an hour) than it would to drive or bike (both 35ish minutes). Unless the trip is to/from the direction of downtown, it’s painfully slow on transit.

[Roy_Batty]

People who think Lincoln Park has no demand for public buses are all wrong. There are thousands of people using public buses in the area, and not only Lincoln Park but the entire north Chicago (buses connect and cross different neighborhoods so you cannot judge this for 1 specific neighborhood, although as I mentioned, there are still thousands of people using public transport inside Lincoln Park).

Lincoln Park is not only populated by millionaires with penthouses and single 3 floor town houses in front of the park, there are several middle class professionals, students, people that rent since they cannot afford to buy something themselves, etcetera, that live in apartments, duplexes and what not. In the east side you also find a lot of people traveling to the park from outside the neighborhood, and not to forget, the western section of Lincoln Park close to the Clybourne Corridor is very far from upscale. Is crazy how you are misjudging the entire neighborhood.

I know there will always have the typical NIMBYs that will oppose public transport, but as usual, this will be a minority. People in this forum making the argument there are no riders for public transport inside Lincoln Park are just being ignorant and making the argument fit the usual nonsense from NYMBYs.

I live in the area and I am a witness of people using public transport, being a bus and CTA user myself, so please stop misjudging the area and using this stupid stereotypes.