Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on June 15, 2015 at 4:16am

At $25 MILLION/mile I'd put my vote in the "better left as it was" column. 

Typical Chicago crony-capitalism.   It's only money...

Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on June 15, 2015 at 4:17am

Geez. I think we heard you the first 5 times. 

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on June 15, 2015 at 10:52am

The path was wider back then.

Permalink Reply by Eli on June 15, 2015 at 7:41am

you still have to admit it's better that this exists and is being used vs. just leaving the abandoned tracks as they were

All other things being equal, yes. They're not equal. Leaving the tracks as they were cost $0; building this thing cost $95 million, $50 million of which came out of a pot that was supposed to be for commuting projects, which will now suffer because that money was spent on a park with little or no commuting value instead.

Permalink Reply by Rich S on June 15, 2015 at 8:28am

I was under the impression that the federal grant portion of funding was provided specifically to build the trail. That we wouldn't have had the money if not for Bloomingdale project. Not a case of here's $50 million for commuting projects and it's up to you how to spend it. However nothing I found in 10 minutes of google searching indicated one way or the other. 

Permalink Reply by Eli on June 15, 2015 at 10:28am

I based my comment on a paragraph from this DNAinfo article:

Taking the Bloomingdale Trail as an alternative to walking or biking along east-west thoroughfares North and Armitage avenues is an apt use, considering the majority of the $95 million needed to build the trail came in the form of $50 million worth of federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grants, which are earmarked for commuting projects.

Permalink Reply by David Barish on June 15, 2015 at 5:04am

I rode it yesterday for the first time. I went from about Ashland to Albany and must have seen a couple thousand people riding, walking, skating, hanging out, pushing prams and leading dogs. It is a great place to take a walk. A decent place to take a run and an ok place to ride a bike. Still, it was very cool to be on this path sharing it with such a large variety of people of every age and every color. I doubt I would use if for a regular commute and I would hesitate to bring a kid there on a bike. Still, just seeing how many people were enjoying the path clearly answers the questions about it's usefulness. For now the path seems to draw the city together and get people outside moving their bodies. I had a very positive reaction to being on the 606 even if my short time on it dramatically reduced my average speed for the day's ride.

Permalink Reply by Alex Z on June 15, 2015 at 5:43am

+1 Agreed.

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on June 15, 2015 at 8:50am

My second weekend using the trail was great.

In awe of how most of the pedestrians ( with the exception of a few who intentionally felt the need to not share ) stayed towards the side of the path to let me cruise easily through.

Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on June 15, 2015 at 11:48am

https://youtu.be/IIypdzgZAaI

CAREFUL !

Permalink Reply by Rich S on June 15, 2015 at 12:37pm

I missed those and was just on the trail about a half hour ago. 

Today's storm wrecked some of the landscaping. 

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on June 16, 2015 at 4:58am

The lake's always good in the morning. It's the summer evenings you have to watch out for. And weekends.

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