Trails and tribulations

WATERED DOWN The plan for a bicycle bridge over the North Shore Channel is getting clogged.

The North Shore Channel Trail, a riverfront bike path that begins just north of Lawrence and heads into Lincolnwood and Skokie, has been greatly improved in recent years—but it’s suffering from a pothole of sorts.

The path follows the east bank of the river for 1.5 miles—a pleasant enough ride, but one that used to suffer from interruptions at every major east-west street. About two years ago, as part of the city’s ongoing effort to be more bike-friendly, the Chicago Department of Transportation completed underpasses at those busy arterials, such as Foster and Bryn Mawr Avenues.

Today, you can ride the path north unhindered—until you go underneath the busy intersection of Peterson and Lincoln Avenues, where the trail peters out. Oddly, it picks up almost immediately on the other side of the river. With no way across the water, cyclists must double back to Lincoln and cross the roadway bridge (with car traffic), or proceed north along Kedzie Avenue to Devon Avenue, where they can cross the river (again with traffic) on the Devon bridge before picking up the trail and continuing north.

For the past two years, cycling advocates and Ald. Bernard Stone of the 50th Ward have butted heads over a bike bridge just north of Peterson that was supposed to solve that problem. The bridge was planned for and funded, according to Chicagoland Bicycle Federation officials, but Stone has chosen not to move forward with the project.

Stone faces three opponents on the February 27 ballot, including Naisy Dolar, a former member of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and cyclist who has embraced the issue. On Saturday 17, bike activists are hosting the “Build the Bridge!” concert to benefit Dolar, who, if elected, would become the city’s first Asian-American alderman.

But Stone asserts that he was never consulted about the bridge ahead of time. “Let me put it to you this way: The one city official who apparently wasn’t involved in the planning is the alderman of the ward,” Stone says, speaking in third person. “[But] the alderman of the ward is aware of something that none of the other of so-called planners were aware of: He was aware of an eight-story building that was going to be built on the west shore of the river—the senior-citizen building.” Stone says the senior center, currently under construction, was planned four years ago. “There just is no place to put a bridge,” he says. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

A dotted line over the water indicates the gap in the trail.

Bike enthusiast Bob Kastigar, who’s created a website documenting the lack of a bridge at www.tinyurl.com/ytfa9g, says he was among a group of cyclists who met with Stone almost two years ago to discuss the impasse. “It was not a friendly meeting,” Kastigar recalls. “He was dead set against the bridge.” At the time, Kastigar says, Stone didn’t mention the senior-citizen building, but cited concerns for cyclist safety as the bridge could misdirect people into the Lincoln Village shopping center’s back-end parking lot.

Randy Warren of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, says the bridge is the final link in completing the trail. The lack of a safe, simple passage across the river is “a huge impediment for someone on a bike,” Warren adds. “They’re going to say, ‘Well, it was a nice ride to this point. What am I supposed to do now?’ They don’t like either option, going up to Devon [via Kedzie] or across the Lincoln bridge…. And you’re really not supposed to ride on the sidewalk if you’re 12 years or older. You’re supposed to ride on the road, and there’s a high traffic volume. It’s a threatening environment.” Warren says CBF takes no position on political campaigns, but that the group will be watching the race closely.

Dolar, who hopes to tip some votes in her favor, says,  “[Stone is] discouraging biking and a healthy lifestyle, and he’s disconnecting the path right in our ward. That’s embarrassing.”

For his part, the current alderman seems a little miffed about the bridge brouhaha. “It’s being used for a political issue now,” says the feisty incumbent, who was first elected to his post in 1973. “Can you imagine they’re using it for a fundraiser for one of the candidates running against me? That’s ridiculous.”

The “Build the Bridge!” benefit is Saturday 17 at the Elbo Room.