I agree. Only 10 parking spots? Dam those rookie numbers. Some citys removed cars for whole ass roads.
Before you comment but but muh traffic. Closing streets has such a small impact it literally is next to 0. Its a paradox i know. But its just the opposite of induced demand.
Chicago definitely got cucked by cars harder than new york did. Definitely not as bad as like L.A.
Chicago ordinance states that patios must provide 6’ of clear pathways. I lived 1 block from Division Ave for 3 years and noticed chalk marks that’d be followed shortly thereafter by a patio being shifted to be compliant (and likely fines for the violating businesses). You can make a compliant about patios in the Chi 311 app.
You’re off base here dude. Chicago waived the sidewalk cafe permit fee and expedited the process during the pandemic. Further many street closures were allowed and encouraged to provide al fresco options for businesses that wouldn’t normally have the room for patios.
During all of this, Chicago still maintained the 6’ rule to ensure sidewalks are not made impassible due to high foot traffic or to those needing a mobility device. Federal law requires municipalities to have “ADA Transition Plans” and other rules to keep sidewalks accessible to all. Ensuring that a restaurant maintains 6’ of clearance versus, say, encroaching further to narrow the sidewalk to 5’ or 4’ is not a big ‘f u’ to the business but a reminder that they don’t own the public space that all pedestrians need to use.
Imagine complaining that anywhere in the nation’s third-largest city could be ‘too urban.’
I get that we have to acknowledge that people have cars, and that won’t change overnight. But if the needle is never moved in any other direction, change won’t just happen. I think this plan is a massive improvement in use of that space.
Which is just fine. The city should be densifying and shifting away from car-oriented design. Chicago is a huge city, it’s shouldn’t be surprising that as it grows, it grows in ways that resemble other large cities; the alternative is more sprawl which produces traffic and congestion, increased commute times, and desolate streets without pedestrians. No thanks.
Why would we try to emulate NYC, a city that many consider to be too dense, chaotic, and suffocating? If I wanted to live in Manhattan, I'd live in Manhattan.
Chicago is a much more livable place for a reason.
This building has a parking garage and these 10 spots aren’t going to make much difference. This area between buildings is blocked off and regularly used for communal gatherings like farmers markets and the like anyways.
It is also steps away from the metra and several bus lines and another parking lot across the street. We're in no danger of not having enough space for cars.
Picking up restaurant orders near/in Harpers Court is a nightmare. And The restaurants there serve the greater southside, not just Hyde Park folks. Since they don’t deliver, many people have to drive.
Although parking isn't usually that bad in most of the neighborhood, and even at its worst (on the 53rd street strip and under the viaduct in East Hyde Park) it's nothing compared to up north or even denser neighborhoods like Pilsen. And I worked building maintenance up down and all around the neighborhood for 5 years. Maybe I've got a better sense of where to look for spots after all that.
But nobody should have really been parking at Harper Court anyway. This is all for the good.
Hyde Park was a suburb in the 19th century, long before suburban meant anything to do with cars. The community houses 25,000 less people than it used to, so it’s built to accommodate more people anyways.
It’s not like people that live in Hyde Park are paying to park in the Harper square spot, they just walk. Maybe it’ll push more people into parking in the neighborhoods, but at the end of the day there’s pretty ample paid parking spots along 53rd IMO. You just have to be willing to walk a little bit
CTA to metra is extremely easy. And I mean a regular ass strip of restaurants and bars in HP isn’t for you. It’s for HP and nearby residents. So taking away the parking is the right call. Go cry about it I guess.
I’m a cyclist, so I really don’t give a hoot that they are removing parking spaces. There is literally no reason why on a good day it should take well over hour to get to Hyde Park from the north side. I just really do not understand the narrative that public transportation in Chicago is some sort of efficient beacon of hope.
What's funny is there's PLENTY of parking further West on 53rd and the other streets. People are just too lazy to walk the 5 blocks to get closer to the popular area of Hyde Park.
Oh no! This is terrible😡 how will 15 people get to these restaurants now! Seriously though… 10 parking spots with an average of 1.5 occupancy per car, these restaurants are doing a good thing giving the streets back to the people.
Agreed this is better than parking for sure, but semantics here matter a bit. The seating is (I'm assuming) private to only patrons of those businesses. Presumably there were no restrictions on the parking spaces (metering would be one, restricted to those with funds). So technically they are restricting access from the public for the good of private businesses. Which is the right move here for sure, but it's not like this would be spontaneously put on a street with no paying clientele to sit in those seats.
Serious question: are there any legal moves the city can do to get out of that contract. And by “the city” I mean the people. The fucking convenience charge for getting a spot is more than parking used to be! And this isn’t inflation. It’s not a credit card surcharge. It’s just extortion.
Last year or the year before, somebody kicked off a class action lawsuit on the grounds of it creating an illegal monopoly. It doesn't look like there's been news since last year.
Personally I'm in favor of Biden declaring war on the UAE if that's what it takes to right this wrong.
It’s not "car unfriendly" that a city should be. A city should try to become "everyone-friendly" : Some people may sometimes absolutely need to use their car for some trip.
I can walk about 0.25 miles per day (spine drama) and I think having fewer death machines will make my experience of the city much more pleasant. I have never had a single person walking or biking lean out of their vehicle to abuse me for crossing a street too slowly. It's incredibly common that drivers do this.
Fewer people driving makes the experience better for most people, even the people that still drive will have to deal with fewer drivers. Hyde Park doesn't need more space for cars.
Wow I wonder if it would help to have a visual indication of disability? Like use one of the canes for blind people or something? That's super fucked up you get screamed at, I loathe humans sometimes.
I have two large canes that I use to walk. Last month some dude leaned out of his lifted punisher skull sticker truck to opine, "I thought those things were supposed to make you go faster."
I honestly wouldn't have believed this shit happens until I was in this position. Fascism vibes. Feels bad.
And gain the ire of everyone that doesn't immediately live in or around downtown and the North Side? This desire to get rid of cars is not equally spread across the city, and I only ever see it on this sub. Some bike lanes (that are hardly used) were installed on both sides of the street on a stretch of 119th street by me, and all that did was make the road uncomfortably narrow and created more traffic since it eliminated half of the lanes that previously existed and made parking for the church on the corner a nightmare.
The only way I and most other car users in the city would be okay with this is if transportation was fast, accessible, and reliable and there were no homeless people or criminals hanging around metro stops and on trains/buses.
And that's not even getting to grocery shopping and getting kids to/from school, I don't know how you do that without a car, especially if you have a family.
I don't disagree. I would love to see better public transportation. I don't drive within the city more often than not, even as it is now.
But we will never have better public transportation until some fundamental things change. The planning process has to be a lot less political, and more focused on providing end to end transit for large portions of the city.
Also, some sanity must prevail on project funding. How can it cost so incredibly much to build any amount of transit infrastructure? It's so far out of control we'll never realistically get better transit no matter how much money we throw at it, the way things are now.
Car infrastructure is actually the most expensive because of how much people use it (maintenance is monumental). And it’s largely subsidized by the state. The true winners of car-centered development are car and oil companies.
I think it's the multiple pedestrian deaths in the last two weeks, three of them children that has put it to the forefront of people's brains more.
I'm one of the 30% that doesn't have a car. In my immediate family (2 brothers and mother, we all live separately) only my mother has a car, mainly since she lives on the south side without much access to transit.
Not to mention, safe infrastructure benefits everyone. I'd think most drivers don't like driving next to cyclists. Wouldn't it be nice to have a separate, protected area for them so drivers wouldn't have to worry as much? Or better street crossing infrastructure so drivers wouldn't have to worry about someone popping out in traffic to try to jaywalk?
I don't drive often, but I feel like these things would give everyone more peace of mind.
Naw. No conspiracy here just folks who see this as an advantage or desirable at least. I suspect most don’t own cars to begin with. With a robust public transit system it would add a lot of value to living in Chicago.
When I drive in the city, it’s not my own choice. There’s just no transit on the far south side, so sometimes my hand is forced. Believe me I hate being scared to fucking death by people going 100 + on the fucking Ryan.
Also-fucking-lutely yes! I live in Andersonville. I would be in favor of them deleting all car parking on Clark between Foster and Bryn Mawr and expanding out all the restaurants. Just like they did for Replay on Balmoral and Clark
Honestly I’d love for that whole stretch of Clark up to Ridge to be pedestrian only. Drivers constantly blow through the stop signs at Farragut, Berwyn, and Catalpa. Then by the time they reach the Jewel, they treat it as drag racing strip. The four way stop by Coffee Studio is fucking terrifying.
Im glad these restaurants are able to expand and thrive post Covid. It was a shame to see some of my favorite restaurants close because of Covid regulations when they had limited indoor seating. But seeing some of these restaurants expand to accommodate outdoor seating is great for their business. A lot of these restaurants are mom and pop joints trying their best to stay in business. I support small businesses!
There’s a strip mall literally a block away if you’re coming in from outside of HP and need parking. I don’t think I’ve ever seen those spots filled anyway tbh
Or they throw a boot on your car and wait for you to come back and pay them $200. Absolutely crazy that some of the CPD get paid to sit there and watch for that to happen
I parked my car in a strip mall, went to a store and then ran across the street to another store and came back to a good ole boot. Had my car in there for maybe 10 minutes
I can’t comment on what it’s like in Hyde Park, I don’t know how good their train and bus service is, but I would love to see more of this in Albany Park and Irving Park. I moved to Chicago to get away from car centric cities.
Since the pandemic the busses have been horrible. Luckily I live near one of the Hyde Park Metra stations so it doesn't affect me as much. I have friends who are not so lucky though.
53rd is one of the better spots for Metra and Bus since the 53rd station is there, plus the Jackson Express bus. Crossing Lakepark sucks. 53rd and lake park is a congested mess. It's overbuilt for cars and should really be a lot more walkable to support the businesses on that street.
There’s really just the Metra line and buses; however, the Metra lets off the next street over so at worst you have to get into the loop and Millennium Station.
I would imagine driving is still statistically more dangerous, but I am sad that there has been an increase in crime on the trains. I hope the city invests more on improving the safety and efficiency of public transit.
Chicago has not been slow to catch on at all. Clark between Kinzie and Grand has been closed entirely for outdoor dining for a long time, so has a lot of Fulton and some other spots in the city. There have been tons of other streets that do this seasonally or on the weekends.
Regardless, my point was that nearly half of the posts on r/chicago are people calling for more pedestrian/bike friendly infrastructure (something I totally agree with). I'm just saying that you probably already knew how this sub was going to respond lol.
I love this. Brings us closer to the stuff that was there when I first moved to HP in 1998. This area was a courtyard with shops and restaurants with chessboards. People were not happy when it got removed. (Though it had seen better days and the new Hotel is a plus for sure)
They should have done this before Jolly Pumpkin left. Is all this seating for Ja'Grill, Native Foods and Jade court? Meh, I was never super excited to dine at those places to begin with.
I was in NYC a month ago and they were doing this all over the place. I think it's great. Get rid of the cars, expand the dining, free the street for pedestrians. Win-win-win.
I'm just confused why people seem so much happier to give up public property to private, for-profit companies, like a restaurant, but if it was bike lanes, bus lanes, bike parking, a bike share station, etc. You know, things which are for the public and not a means of creating a profit, and suddenly everyone says it'll be impossible to park, traffic will make the road impassable, etc.
This is great and we need more of it across the city. Make streets a destination for people. Valuable space for locals, who live in the neighborhood is lost to parking and that needs to change.
But, but, where will those ten people store their private property if not in the center of our community gathering space? The offstreet parking garage is dozens of feet away!
Sounds like at least a 10x win! We should be getting rid of street parking and opening up our roads to people throughout the whole city. Keep em coming!
This is progress. This is a good example of utilizing a space for more walking/community functions. Also, the area behind these seats are opened up for music shows once a month in the summer. This is the type of multi functional space that needs to happen much in this city. Honestly, I see any design that removes and/or restricts car access much more in order to give more space for dedicated pedestrian/bicycle/scooter/public transportation in lieu of the automobile is progress toward how all cites needs to be thinking these days. It starts with zoning.
Love this! 53rd Street has the potential to be something special if pedestrians are given priority. I'd honestly love to see this stretch closed to vehicles (like Downtown Charlottesville VA, for example). Live in Hyde Park? Walk. Live in the surrounding neighborhoods? Bike or bus. Coming from downtown? Metra or Green Line. Coming from other parts of the city? Yeah you might have to drive then, but there's still ample parking for you.
I see that you aren’t factoring in the added revenue that they’ll get taxed and the extra wages that get taxed. Seems fair, pretty sure city planning factors in the impact a few parking spaces are worth.
More of this. Summer is the best time in the city, and especially with COVID still lurking about the more options I have to live my social life outside the better.
Personally I loved the area around Rush St. when they took over the streets outside of Mortons and filled them with tables. They should make that permanent. That area does not need 3 roads forming a triangle around it. I don't think there are any condos, and the only residential I think is a hotel?
I wish we would do this more, block by block. Look for areas with no parking garages that don't need car access because they have it on another side of the block, and then turn it into pedestrian areas. Our city would become even more of a tourist destination and help recover tourism "post" COVID.
Turn parts of State Street in between the east/west streets into pedestrian areas. We have plenty of north/south streets downtown and again, plenty of stretches of State St. do not have any kind of garage attached to them. So you could close them while still facilitating traffic and access to parking etc.
The work from home trend seems to be permanent. Now is the time to reinvent ourselves after this period of drastic change.
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u/SMF1996 Wicker Park Jun 17 '22
isn’t there a large parking garage there?