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Northwest Tower Project, Parking Confusion Makes Milwaukee Unsafe, Some Say

By Alisa Hauser | July 23, 2014 1:55pm
 "No Parking" signs have been removed across from a construction project just north of the neighborhood's busiest intersection, and cars continue to park in a lane shared by cyclists and moving traffic.
Northwest Tower Construction July 2014
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WICKER PARK —  A busy stretch of Milwaukee Avenue has become unsafe for commuters after a lane was recently narrowed to accommodate construction nearby — a plan which wasn't announced in advance, residents and businesses say. 

"It's very unsafe" when people now try to park on the narrowed street, said Sarah Merryman, manager of Trim, a waxing boutique at 1629 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Trim is located across the street from Wicker Park's Northwest Tower, where a half-block long concrete walkway was erected last month as part of a construction project to build a boutique hotel at the Milwaukee, Damen and North avenues intersection.

Alisa Hauser explains why traffic has been a mess through Wicker Park lately:

About two weeks ago — to make the southbound lane safer for cyclists traveling alongside the concrete walkway — new bright yellow lane markers pushed Milwaukee Avenue's southbound lane to the north and subsequently narrowed "an already very narrow street," Merryman said.

Although parking on the street now partially blocks traffic, cars continue to park there, many said.

Even delivery trucks are continuing to park on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue, according to Steven Vance, a cyclist who traveled on the route late Tuesday.

Temporary "No Parking" signs that announced an entire year of parking restrictions had been affixed to trees and street poles within the past two weeks but the rain washed them away, Merryman said.

Vance called them "jokes of a sign" and unclear.

One of the signs, which restricted parking through July 2015, has been since removed.

The sign, printed on stationary with 1st Ward Ald. Joe Moreno's logo, was framed with cardboard and so unusual looking that Molly Poppe, a spokeswoman for the city's Streets and Sanitation Department, said she had never seen a similar "no parking" sign.

Raymond Valadez, a spokesman for Moreno, told DNAinfo Chicago that his office had been approached by a worker from CDOT earlier this month asking for temporary signs.

Valadez said he "was under the impression it would be a temporary 'no parking' restriction for a quick couple of days, and not an entire year."

"When we found out it was an entire year, we had the signs removed and told them they need to get a permit from the Department of Transportation," Valadez said.

A CDOT spokesman was not immediately available to respond to questions about when more permanent signs would be installed along the eastern side of Milwaukee Avenue or how many parking spaces would be temporarily removed.

Evan Meister, a spokesman for the hotel project developer, Convexity Properties, was not immediately available for comment. Convexity is compensating the city for the lost parking spaces along the east side of Milwaukee Avenue, Streetsblog Chicago reported.

Small business owners along the 1600 block of North Milwaukee Avenue said they are being negatively impacted by the unsafe parking conditions.

Ann Nolan, who operates a State Farm insurance agency at 1631 N. Milwaukee Ave., said that she had just paid to renew a loading zone in front of her business, which cars now cannot use without blocking the traffic lane.

Nolan said she "had no clue [the developers] were taking up [the eastern] side of the street." 

"We never saw any traffic plans, nor did anyone on the street," Nolan said.

Nolan is the chair of the Wicker Park and Bucktown Chamber of Commerce's Planning, Zoning and Development Committee, which has given resounding support to the hotel project.

"I am very supportive of the hotel project but they just dropped the ball on making the community aware," Nolan said.

Vance said widening the southbound street lane due to making room for the concrete walkway was "a good plan for the intersection along one of our most efficient diagonal routes for cycling." He said the street would still be safe "as long as people respect the no parking signs."

But when people do park "that puts the plan out of whack," Vance said.

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