PILSEN — A total of 12 Aztec calendar sidewalk decorations will be moved due to growing safety concerns over residents slipping on the metal artwork in wet weather, a 25th Ward representative said.
“Over the past two years, our office has received complaints from constituents regarding the calendars as a slippery walking hazard during rain and snow,” Ald. Danny Solis spokeswoman Stacy Raker said via email.
The calendars — 20 in total — were installed in 1999 along 18th Street as part of a streetscaping collaboration between the Chicago Department of Transportation and University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Architecture.
On Tuesday, the alderman’s Facebook page had several comments about the plan to move the calendars, most of which supported the decision.
“Finally! They’ve been a safety hazard from the beginning!” one poster said.
"I find it disrespectful and inconsiderate to our culture that the calendars get walked on at all. You take better care of that mural on the side of the building on 18th and Paulina than you ever did of the Aztec calendars,” another wrote.
Due to budget constraints, just 12 of the calendars will be moved to the parkway that runs along Paulina and Laflin streets, about 10 feet from their current location.
Raker said construction on these 12 calendar sites would most likely start toward the end of summer:
1702 W. 18th St.
1700 W. 18th St.
1600 W. 18th St.
1658 W. 18th St.
1659 W. 18th St.
1601 W. 18th St.
1558 W. 18th St.
1559 W. 18th St.
1458 W. 18th St.
1459 W. 18th St.
1500 W. 18th St.
1501 W. 18th St.
