They didn't plow the protected bike lane in the loop this morning.

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on January 25, 2013 at 4:47pm

Would be interested to hear how grid pickup has helped you.  My streets and san sup. things it's going to make things worse.

Lisa Curcio 4.0 mi said:

Well, then, given that I am meandering with the "thread police" ;-) . . . . .I never heard the story either--only that people with control were "out to get him".  I am really out of the political loop.  The cost of such a lawsuit would be huge and he would have to find a way to fund it.   I believe he would have to challenge the entire map.  Again, knowing nothing about election law, I don't know if it is still possible.  He was doing some fundraising this past fall, but I have not gotten anything for him lately.

IMHO, in their effort to get at Bob Fioretti they did an incredible disservice to a part of the city.  We still operate under a system where the alderman has a lot of power and how any alderman is going to get things done for the constituents of the new 2nd Ward is beyond me.  I am just glad they went to grid garbage pick-up!
 
h' 1.0 said:

The "problem" presented in the thread seems to be resolved, so I don't see the harm in meandering...

His office is not in the ward either. I heard he was going to fight it and then decided not to?

I never did hear the backstory of why he got this treatment from the rest of the council.

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Permalink Reply by efe on January 25, 2013 at 4:57pm

Well, now that we are going with this off topic thing...

The story on Fioretti is that he's a bit independent-minded, and even considered (until he was diagnosed with cancer) running for mayor against Rahm.  He's really been an improvement over our former alderman, and I'm pretty disappointed that the city felt it necessary to split my neighborhood among 4 different wards, all to get Fioretti out.  The South Loop is now left with aldermen whose allegiances lie elsewhere, which doesn't seem to serve any of us very well.  

Not sure the legality of having Alderman making zoning decisions (as was suggested by Ald. Solis last week) in their new wards... We voted for Fioretti, not Burns/Dowell/Solis/etc.

Lisa Curcio 4.0 mi said:

Well, then, given that I am meandering with the "thread police" ;-) . . . . .I never heard the story either--only that people with control were "out to get him".  I am really out of the political loop.  The cost of such a lawsuit would be huge and he would have to find a way to fund it.   I believe he would have to challenge the entire map.  Again, knowing nothing about election law, I don't know if it is still possible.  He was doing some fundraising this past fall, but I have not gotten anything for him lately.

IMHO, in their effort to get at Bob Fioretti they did an incredible disservice to a part of the city.  We still operate under a system where the alderman has a lot of power and how any alderman is going to get things done for the constituents of the new 2nd Ward is beyond me.  I am just glad they went to grid garbage pick-up!
 
h' 1.0 said:

The "problem" presented in the thread seems to be resolved, so I don't see the harm in meandering...

His office is not in the ward either. I heard he was going to fight it and then decided not to?

I never did hear the backstory of why he got this treatment from the rest of the council.

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Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on January 25, 2013 at 6:04pm

It's the responsibility of Streets & Sanitation to plow (and sweep) our streets, which now include more  protected bike lanes every year. I'd suggest directing comments and complaints to them: http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/streets.html . CDOT should not be responsible for plowing (or sweeping) the streets.

- Lee Crandell, Active Trans

h' 1.0 said:

A city service request is easy and probably should be placed without much deliberation for pretty much every problem whether it's likely to produce results or not.

Beyond that, I'd say Charlie Short is our next avenue, or any Active Trans contact if he's not responding, and then if we can get our Grid Chicago-cum-Streetsblog lads on the case....
And then there are those among us who are magically able to get return communication from Gabe Klein.

Lisa Curcio 4.0 mi said:

You know, h' is right.  I have not checked, and I will, but does anyone know if it is possible to make a 311 complaint about this on line?  Or should we be sending e-mails to someone?  Or any other suggestions?  In a day or two the little bit of snow that fell will be gone, but the piles that buildings pushed into the lane will not be.  Those piles will be rock hard and even more dangerous than they are now.  It goes beyond a plan to clear the snow that falls.  Building owners must be stopped from plowing snow into the lane.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on January 25, 2013 at 7:05pm

The most important thing is that our garbage is picked up the same day every week.  Since it switched to the grid system, they have not missed.  Before we were never sure when the garbage would be picked up.  Although they almost always picked up once each week it could be any day.

h' 1.0 said:

Would be interested to hear how grid pickup has helped you.  My streets and san sup. things it's going to make things worse.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 25, 2013 at 7:33pm

Yes, it is an extremely creative map, and not in a good way.  This kind of extreme gerrymandering is ridiculous.  How can there be any cohesiveness in a ward mapped this way?  How much does this kind of map affect an alderman's ability to effectively serve his/her constituents?  

And to get back on topic, I agree with Lisa's thought that building owners and those working for them MUST be stopped from plowing snow into bike lanes.  311 complaints and escalating fines would be a good starting point.

I used to work in a Loop office building where the maintenance staff observed a very good green practice, which helps in solving where to put the snow.  Before using any salt, they pile clean snow over any tree grates along the sidewalk.  This helps to provide the trees with moisture and also protects the roots from freeze-thaw cycles.  BTW, the trees on that property are some of the longest lived in the Loop.  Not every Loop building has trees or planters out front, but many do.

Kevin C 4.1 mi said:

Fioretti lives in a portion of the "new" 28th. This ward remap wasn't even on my radar screen. This is the new map. Creative even by Chicago standards. I remained in the 1st by half a block.

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Permalink Reply by globalguy on January 26, 2013 at 9:40am

With all due respect, I too will withhold my accolades for a Mayor who wanted a certain number of bike lanes before the New Year, regardless of location, without any plan for sustaining new infrastructure. One self-congratulatory press conference or the usual suspects on Dearborn does not equal a long-term approach to building AND maintaining bike lanes.

h' 1.0 said:

Blah blah blah

Adam Herstein (5.5 mi) said:

Did you honestly expect that Dearborn would get plowed this morning? This should come as a surprise to no one.

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