Faced with a shortage of open space for parks on Chicago’s near northwest side, city planners looked around–and then up. Midway between North and Armitage there’s a dormant rail line that runs along a 13-foot-high embankment from Ridgeway to Ashland, a stretch of almost three miles. It’s overgrown, glass sprinkled, and littered with crumpled clothes, bottles, and other debris. The city has plans to turn it into a park in the sky.
For that reason, and because it will connect with existing bike lanes going north, south, and east, the Bloomingdale is also a candidate for top-priority status within the Chicago Trails Plan–a car-free network on the drawing board of the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT).
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Canadian Pacific has already agreed to sell the line to the city for $1. Control eventually will pass to the Chicago Park District, which will handle design and management issues and probably hold more community meetings to refine the plans. Luckily, the city owns the land–in New York, Friends of the High Line has had to go to court to protect that line from owners of the private property it winds through who favor demolition.
The money hunt, a joint effort of the city and community groups, will get serious once the land is acquired. For now, says Ciabotti, the key to moving the project forward is to build support among residents and political leaders.
Colon argues that the trail may help curb criminal activity. “I think it’s going to prevent crime because it will give people another way to use their energy–physically, mentally. The idle mind is the devil’s playground,” he says. “I would not use this as a reason to not do this project. If we keep thinking like that, we’re going to deny ourselves some key resources.” He notes that the local 14th Police District recently added 14 officers on bicycles, and that cameras on the trail are an option.
the impact that it’s going to have on the neighborhood.”
