Letter to the New York Times re: misleading article about Chicago bike initiatives
See the text of the article below my letter.
John Greenfield
http://gridchicago.com
To the editor:
I’m sure David Lepeska meant well when he wrote about Chicago’s new cycling initiatives [“City Bike Plan Is Accused of a Neighborhood Bias,” October 16]. But several misleading statements in the piece, starting with the headline, suggest Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s bike plan discriminates against poor neighborhoods and locals are angry about it. In reality there has been no significant class-based resistance to Emanuel’s $150 million proposal to install one hundred miles of car-protected bike lanes, create a large-scale bike share system and build the Bloomingdale Trail and Navy Pier Flyover.
Mr. Lepeska writes, “Mr. Emanuel’s initial plan is drawing complaints about an inequitable distribution of the investment.” In fact, only one Chicagoan, Oboi Reed, is quoted as worrying that low-income communities might not get their fare share of facilities like protected lanes and bike share kiosks. Mr. Reed doesn’t actually accuse the plan of being biased, since the city hasn’t chosen locations for the vast majority of the lanes, or any of the kiosks yet. His concern is justified due to City’s Hall’s historic neglect of the South Side. It’s also true that under Mayor Richard M. Daley the city striped more bike lanes on the North Side than the South, mostly due to higher demand from residents and aldermen in wealthier wards, and less demand, or even opposition, from some low-income areas.
But the only other critical voice in the article is a professor in Saint Louis who seems unclear on the concept that Chicago’s bike projects are transportation projects, and they help low-income folks by providing a cheap alternative to driving. Lepeska accurately reports my GridChicago.com blogging partner Steven Vance questioned the first few protected bike lane locations, but not because of geographic inequity. Steven just thought the lanes might be more useful on streets with heavier car traffic and/or greater potential for increased bike traffic.
Mr. Lepeska’s statement that the protected lane on 18th Street is the only facility slated for a poor neighborhood is inaccurate. Two out of the three initial protected lanes serve low-income areas, and the Bloomingdale Trail elevated greenway will run through the largely low-income Humboldt Park and Logan Square communities. Future locations for the hundred miles of protected lanes will be determined with input from community meetings, and many miles are likely to be built in South and West Side neighborhoods, especially if residents show up to the meetings and voice their support.
Lepeska says Emanuel may have a hard time justifying the price tag for the new bike facilities in a city that’s almost $640 million in debt. In reality, much of the money will come from state and federal grants, not city funds. For example, Chicago recently won a $36.5 million Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement grant to build the Bloomingdale, estimated to cost $40 to 50 million.
While there has been no major backlash to the bicycle plan yet, Lepeska’s article generates confusion that could create one. That would be an unfortunate speed bump on the road to a bike-friendly Chicago.
John Greenfield
The New York Times
October 15, 2011
City Bike Plan Is Accused of a Neighborhood Bias
By DAVID LEPESKA
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/us/chicago-bike-plan-accused-of-neighborhood-bias.html?scp=1&sq=bicycle%20chicago&st=cse
Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to spend nearly $150 million to make Chicago “the bike-friendliest city” in the United States. That challenge is considerable, given Chicago’s slow start compared with Portland, Ore., and other bike-centered cities, and Mr. Emanuel’s initial plan is drawing complaints about an inequitable distribution of the investment.
The Chicago Department of Transportation’s $18 million bike-share program is expected to begin next summer with 3,000 bicycles and 300 rental stations, to be located in areas with dense employment, residential development and retail. The Bloomingdale Trail, to be built in an unused two-and-a-half-mile rail line that runs from Wicker Park to Humboldt Park on the North Side, is expected to cost around $50 million over several years. The city planning commission recently approved designs for a $50 million flyover bridge at Navy Pier, the busiest section of the 15-mile lakefront trail.
But so far, the city’s lower-income areas include just one project: a protected bike lane on 18th Street in the 25th Ward, though more such lanes could be added in the spring as part of a four-year, $28 million construction plan. The alderman for the 25th Ward, Daniel Solis, is also the chairman of the City Council’s zoning committee, and he is traveling to Amsterdam this month at the expense of Bikes Belong, an advocacy group based in Boulder, Colo.
Oboi Reed, a lifelong Chatham resident and founder of the Pioneers Bicycle Club, said Mr. Emanuel is pursuing a good objective, but is on the wrong path.
“I definitely support getting more people on bikes because a lot of the common health problems African-Americans face are a result of not getting enough exercise,” Mr. Reed said. “My concern is that the lion’s share of the resources are going to go downtown and to the North Side — the South and West will only see a sprinkling.”
With the city facing a budget deficit of nearly $640 million and a double-digit unemployment rate, Mr. Emanuel may find it difficult to justify spending large amounts on bike facilities.
“It probably isn’t going to help many low-income and out-of-work folks,” said Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who analyzes poverty and inequality. “You can’t spend all your money on a single priority, ignoring transportation or anything else. Given the situation in Chicago, this much spending seems a bit out of whack.”
From 2000 to 2009, the percentage of Chicagoans commuting by bike increased from about 0.5 percent to 1.1 percent. The growth is similar to that seen in other industrial cities like Milwaukee, Detroit and Oakland, Calif., but still lags behind Portland, which tops the United States with 6 percent commuting by bike.
Mr. Emanuel has set a goal of installing 100 miles of protected bike lanes — at a cost of $28 million — by the end of his term in 2015. Protected bike lanes are separated from car traffic by cones, curbs or other impediments. Chicago’s first protected bike lane opened in July on Kinzie Street. The second lane is to be installed this month, on Jackson Street, with another 20 to be built in the spring — all in locations chosen by the city.
Sam Schwartz Engineering, a firm based in New York that was hired by Chicago to design a 150- to 250-mile bike lane network, will hold a series of meetings over the next eight months to help determine the best locations for all future bike lanes.
“There’s been zero public outreach on where the bike lanes should go,” said Steven Vance, a former transportation department consultant on bike planning issues and co-founder ofGridChicago.com. Mr. Vance said he approved of the city’s efforts to increase ridership but questioned the first few bike lane locations.
The lack of outreach could be a concern, according to Alan Berube, research director of the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “If it’s done without public education and public input, there could be some real resistance,” he said.
Ben Gomberg, the Transportation Department’s bike program coordinator, said the city chooses wide streets that either see a lot of bike traffic or connect main arteries. To save money, the department also tries to piggyback on current roadway projects. The city has applied for state support and for federal clean-air financing that could total $50 million.
Mr. Berube said the bike initiatives could help in a city where the unemployment rate is more than 10 percent and nearly one in four residents live in poverty. “It can connect people to services, to work, and improve their health,” he said. “We need more jobs, but we need accessible jobs, too.”
david.lepeska@gmail.com
Views: 366
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on
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I'm glad you wrote this. I've crossed the western end of the Jackson bike lane (on Oakley) several times in the past few days and thought it was intellectually dishonest on the part of the author and/or interviewees to pretend it doesn't exist. It transects a neighborhood that received publicity not long ago of being one of the "25 most danger...
On the other hand, I wonder if it would have been more effective not to mention Grid-- you risk coming off like your intent is to advertise for it, and having your response dismissed as such.
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Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on
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I agree with your statement about Jackson. He also failed to mention that the Bloomingdale Trail will serve low-income neighborhoods.
My blogging partner Steven Vance was quoted and our blog Grid Chicago were mentioned in Lepeska's article. So don't think I had any choice except to disclose my connection to Grid Chicago and Steve when writing the letter to the NYT, rather than to just come across as a concerned citizen.
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Permalink Reply by prof.gfr on
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Good for you for setting the record straight. I thought the original NYTimes article was typical of NYTimes sensationalism. They've been doing this for years with parenting horror stories that make new parents jump all over each other in a frothing rage on the comments pages of the articles, which generates page hits, which generates revenue. All in reference to an over-hyped, and oftentimes misleading characterization of a parenting "fad" that is only followed by a narrow demographic and hardly merits mention, let alone analysis. It's unfortunate that they aren't ding more research (even a casual read of this site would reveal a more nuanced perspective!)
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Permalink Reply by Moc Artsy on
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Thanks for writing this, John. I live in McKinley Park and would be willing to help represent the south aide at any and all community meetings. Is there a schedule for these meetings, or is there some way for me to be informed of dates and times?
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Notice it doesn't say the meetings will be open to the public, or that they'll take place in Chicago . . .
Sam Schwartz Engineering, a firm based in New York that was hired by Chicago to design a 150- to 250-mile bike lane network, will hold a series of meetings over the next eight months to help determine the best locations for all future bike lanes.
Moc Artsy said:Thanks for writing this, John. I live in McKinley Park and would be willing to help represent the south aide at any and all community meetings. Is there a schedule for these meetings, or is there some way for me to be informed of dates and times?
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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on
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They WILL be open to the public at locations in Chicago. Dates and locations TBA.
h' said:
Notice it doesn't say the meetings will be open to the public, or that they'll take place in Chicago . . .
Sam Schwartz Engineering, a firm based in New York that was hired by Chicago to design a 150- to 250-mile bike lane network, will hold a series of meetings over the next eight months to help determine the best locations for all future bike lanes.
Moc Artsy said:Thanks for writing this, John. I live in McKinley Park and would be willing to help represent the south aide at any and all community meetings. Is there a schedule for these meetings, or is there some way for me to be informed of dates and times?
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Steven Vance provides an update on the upcoming community input process for choosing protected bike lane locations at Grid Chicago: http://gridchicago.com/2011/bikeway-public-outreach-to-come/
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