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Permalink Reply by Larry Mysz on July 19, 2019 at 11:21am

The 1.2 mi section of OPRT through Chicago Heights does have a pretty rough neighborhood on one side.  But there has not been any crime on the Chicago Heights section since it opened in 2015.

The only two OPRT problems that I am aware of both occurred 2014, and they were in Matteson and New Lennox, not in the Heights.  April 24, 2014 at 5:30 am there was a rape at the trail next to the  Matteson Metra Station, and Sept 30, 2014 at 6:30 pm a bicyclist attempted to grab a jogger who didn't wave back to him as he passed in New Lennox.

I ride the Chicago Heights section by myself a couple of times a week without issue. And I fairly regularly ride from the east end of OPRT in the Heights on to Lansing (check out the Calumet Bakery), to my daughter’s place in Munster or take OPRT west to Joliet.  One of my daughters rides OPRT from Munster, through the Heights and on to Frankfort and back 4 or 5 times a year.

OPRT through the Heights is part of The Grand Illinois Trail, the Adventure Cycling Route 66 cross country route, and the American Discovery Trail cross country hiking trail.

I sure would like to see that article with the alderman bashing the trail thru the Heights.  That sounds like some of the horrible NIMBY  “stuff” some folks were saying when the trail was first proposed.

Enjoy your ride!

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Permalink Reply by Larry Mysz on July 19, 2019 at 11:46am

ooops ... edit timed out while I was double checking the statistics .. just found another incident on OPRT in 2017, also in New Lennox.   Those 2014 incidents happened before the Chicago Heights section was completed in Sept 2015.

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