What We Can Learn from Chicago

I spent a weekend in Chicago recently, and in many ways East Rockville could learn a lot from the way the city is planned.

• The city is built on a grid, which creates a very positive environment for walking and transit.
• Large swaths of the city, though they have fairly low population density, are able to support thriving business districts and scattered apartment buildings which blend into the fabric of smaller, dense homes quite well, even as they are demolished and rebuilt periodically.

  

  These newer condominium buildings (foreground), coupled with older apartments (background), provide a nice mix of housing stock in the West Ridge area.

  
  

  

  Less than a block away, turn of the century single-family homes sit next to 1930s Chicago-style bungalows.

  
  

  

  And, about one block further, the Western Avenue business district provides residents with restaurants, convenience stores, florists, and even a hardware store.

• This is something many East Rockvillians fear (I assume that this is due to a thought that this will result in the entire neighborhood's housing stock becoming dense multifamily), but, with strict development guidelines as are present in Chicago, a more dense East Rockville which still prioritizes the neighborhood's single family character is possible.
• Each neighborhood has a very distinct identity, which is created through neighborhood banners, murals, signs, and other place making elements. To get people to identify their residence as "East Rockville" and feel an even stronger sense of connection with the neighborhood, something similar could be useful.

  

  The Uptown neighborhood's Argyle Street is home to a large number of Southeast Asian businesses and residents, and uses murals and signs to help exhibit its unique identity to visitors. (image credits: Landscape Architecture Magazine)

• Additionally, neighborhoods are unafraid to sway from the status quo, and try something new to confront a problem the area faces. For example, the above-mentioned Argyle Street in Uptown, due to its large number of pedestrians and relatively narrow sidewalks, has recently implemented a "shared street" project, raising the street level to that of the surrounding sidewalks and installing planters in a way that slows down car traffic.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  When I visited on a fairly busy Saturday night, everything seemed to be functioning smoothly and cars were moving fairly slowly. A street design like this could be useful for a redesigned North Stonestreet Avenue, or for Park Road.

• Finally, the city's use of alleys is something that East Rockville should strive to emulate. Our neighborhood has some now, and the city owns the right-of-way for many more which could be resurrected. In Chicago, these alleys serve to divert extremely local traffic off of local streets, contain many garages and other car-dependent uses, and are a place for trash to be put out on collection days. If strictly enforced in East Rockville, streets with alleys could become much more pedestrian friendly and aesthetically pleasing quite quickly.

  

  The alley here serves as an informal parking lot for neighborhood cars, as well as a place to put out trash for residents of West Ridge on Chicago's Far North Side.