PALMER SQUARE — An influential neighborhood group in Logan Square is the newest organization to support traffic-calming measures around Palmer Square Park.
Logan Square Preservation voted unanimously to support the installation of speed tables, or raised crosswalks, around the park to curb the use of Palmer Boulevard as “a speedway” for drivers attempting to get around Fullerton Avenue traffic.
“We want to see this issue taken care of in its totality — not redesign without thought to the whole,” said Andrew Schneider, president of Logan Square Preservation.
The neighborhood group announced its unanimous vote in a letter to 32nd Ward Ald. Scott Waguespack last week after about 30 residents met to discuss the issue. The letter also called for a speed camera at the park and asked that trees be trimmed around the park to increase traffic sign visibility.
“We want it all," Schneider said.
The cost of a complete redesign, based on the most recent Chicago Transportation Department figures, would eat up about $550,000 of the 32nd Ward’s annual $1.3 million discretionary budget, Waguespack said in June.
Waguespack has approved 18 crosswalk updates at the park, including repainting the park's crosswalks and adding the word “stop” on the street at each crossing point. Those changes would cost about $160,000, he said. The raised crosswalks would cost $40,000.
According to Schneider, a "holistic" solution will go beyond that. Aside from the two raised crosswalks advocated by an online petition, they support a plan that would address an unusual boulevard parking ordinance and wide traffic lanes that some say encourage speeding in the area.
"We would also ask that when their design is begun that due consideration is given to the historic aesthetic of Palmer Square and they are made to blend in as much as possible," Schneider wrote in the letter to Waguespack.
Waguespack spokesman Paul Sajovec said if the raised crosswalks are installed and the need for more safety improvements arises, the alderman’s office can continue to modify the street based on CDOT recommendations included in the overall $550,000 tally.
However, the raised crosswalks are not to be confused with speed humps, Sajovec said. They're geared more toward increasing pedestrian visibility, not physically slowing down vehicles.
In June, Ald. Rey Colon (35th), whose ward contained Palmer Square Park when CDOT's recommendations were first made in 2008, said he supports "the whole enchilada" in regard to a comprehensive fix.
“The trick is to try and hone in on the thing that balances all the different perspectives to accomplish the objective in the most targeted way possible,” Sajovec said.
Waguespack’s office will continue to take public comment and feedback on ways to improve safety at the park.
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