Bikes on a train!

In the world of public transit, our train line Metra gets some things really right and I hope, is catching up on some of the other things.  It's very cool that they have searchable schedules online, and you can get emails to your phone telling you if your train is running late.  At most times of the day, you can bring your bike on a train too!  I took mine down to Chicago last week to hang out with my sister, and we both brought ours back up to Waukegan.  It did take me a while to figure out where exactly to lock it up, but I got it.

Biking in Chicago is awesome.  Yeah, cars are always terrifying, but life is so much better with bike lanes and in a place where drivers are used to looking out for cyclists.  I'm sure another reason they do it is cost - we biked past a gas station in the City where some kind of gas was $4.97 a gallon!  Good grief!!!  I came across this article from TIME called "We Pay More to Drive Than We Spend on Taxes" and it makes some great points that you've probably already heard, but read them again and think about it.  Could you take public transit to work?  Could you get a job closer to home?  Could you get a more fuel efficient car, or give it up altogether?   How much does driving cost you? 

There's an amazing organization called Active Transportation Alliance that works to improve cycling, walking, and transit options in the Chicago area, and we're working with them on some ideas for Waukegan too.  I still can't get over how awesome it was seeing hundreds of people biking in the streets, talking to people at the bus stops, and making friends carrying bikes onto the train.  I really believe my city's headed in that direction too, so thank you to all those of you helping make it happen by taking public transit and working to reduce our reliance on cars.

Pace Buses: Connecting Communities

First question:  When's the last time your rode a bus?
Second question:  When's the last time you advocated for better transit services?

Pace Suburban Bus Service has been doing some great community outreach lately, thanks in large part to Lake County Community Foundation.  Last night I attended the first in a series of community forums to learn how Pace plans routes and stop locations and hear more about how they're working to update tech options for their passengers.  Good news - they're working on an app!  There are even some stops that have QR codes on the bus shelter that you can take a picture of with your smartphone, and it will tell you what time the next bus is coming.  Follow the Pace Facebook page or check out their website for more details on this and other new projects. 

The most exciting part for me was definitely overcoming my (ridiculous) fear of taking my bike on the bus.  It's kind of intimidating if you haven't done it before, and I was so sure my bike was either going to get run over because I put it on wrong, or I'd just embarrass the heck out of myself trying to figure it out and take forever.  But, so you never have to worry about that, my friend Maggie helped me make a how-to video: 

A friend of mine pointed out that some cities have way cooler versions of this instructional video.  Here's a challenge for us:  make a better one.  This is my FAVORITE: 

Pace is also looking to develop a "pulse point," or a bigger bus hub in downtown Waukegan.  I'll keep you posted on their ideas and when the next public meeting will be.  Until then, happy bus riding!

ArtWauking and PediCab-ing it

Saturday was one of our monthly ArtWauks in downtown Waukegan and I had a blast!  There was no place to park downtown (sold out shows at Clockwise Theatre and the Genesee Theatre all weekend) but it didn't matter to me!  I just walked downstairs from my apartment and had tons of cool stuff to do within walking distance.

Will giving us a ride.

And for those who wanted a ride, my friend Will started the Waukegan Bike Project a year ago and this year their newest initiative is pedicabs!  I drove one around for a few hours and I will tell you, roads that don't seem like hills when you're biking by yourself are HILLS when you're giving people rides.  I promised some of my poor riders that they could get their next ride from a more experience professional pedicab driver, but I'm gonna keep at it - it's a good work out for sure!

Downhill is a lot easier.

And in other news, I just completed my Principles & Practice of New Urbanism course!  The University of Miami School of Architecture has a great program and I learned an incredible amount about how to implement New Urbanism concepts in our neighborhood planning.  I'll tell you pedicabs are just a part of it, and there's lots more coming to downtown Waukegan!  Come down and check it out.


(Oh, and I sometimes forget this blog is about Lent because not driving isn't seeming like a sacrifice.  I'm really just enjoying the opportunity to tell you all what I do all the time without a car!  Not to mention, with all the money I save from not driving a car, paying insurance, or buying gas.  Hint:  it almost all gets re-invested in my neighborhood economy here.)

"How far would you walk for a lemon?" A post from my mom.

Hi, Violet. Thank you for inspiring us to walk instead of drive.

This morning, the sun was shining and the temperature was a warm 70 degrees, so I decided to make iced tea. Sadly, we were out of lemons. What to do?

There used to be an ad campaign for Camel cigarettes, and the slogan was, "I'd walk a mile for a Camel."  We decided it would be silly to drive to Jewel for a lemon. It made me start to think, "Would I walk a mile for lemon? What WOULD I walk a mile for?

I knew that North School was 7/10 of a mile from our house, since I checked it once (ironically, with the car) when I used to walk some of you to school. So Dad and I decided to walk to Cribbs to get a lemon. It took us sixteen minutes to walk there (instead of ten minutes to drive to Jewel), while enjoying the air and checking out our neighborhood. We decided to take the road less travelled and avoided North Avenue. As a result, we noticed for the first time a house decorated with a display of about thirty bowling balls in the front yard. I'm also happy to report that we had sidewalks all the way there.

By the time we returned home about forty minutes later, the famous Lake Michigan winds had shifted and backyard temperature had dropped to  60 dregrees, but we still enjoyed the fruits of our labor and drank our iced tea in the yard before coming back in to warm up!

Love,
Mom

Fountain Square vs. Downtown

This morning I woke up early to take the bus to a restaurant at Fountain Square for an 8am breakfast meeting.  When I decided to give up driving for Lent, I promised myself I'd try to do everything I would have with a car - including going to meetings that aren't within walking distance of my office.  Fountain Square, for those of you not familiar with Waukegan, is the shopping district off the highway with a bunch of big box retail stores and chain restaurants.  It's pretty much the opposite of downtown, and I learned that even more clearly trying to walk around it this morning.

First of all, compliments to Pace Bus that's always been on time in the mornings when I've taken it.  I was in good company with people on their way to work, students on their way to school, and  people like me just going places we need to go.  There were a lot of people getting off the train and taking the bus, and at the corner of Washington & Sheridan, there are way more people taking public transit than driving by.  I got on the 568 bus at 7:02am and headed for Fountain Square.  I really like talking to people on the bus.  Some of you would probably dread sitting next to me on an airplane or bus or train because I'm a talker, but I learn a lot that way.  This morning I was on the bus with some middle school kids on their way to Jefferson (where I went to school!) and some people headed to Walmart.

I didn't realize this at the time, but that was the stop I was going to have to get off at too.  At 7:32am I got off the bus, yes, at Walmart.  The arch-rival of downtowns and small businesses.  I walked down a very empty, very long sidewalk around the Walmart to get to the restaurant where my meeting was.
Not only was my walk extremely lonely and the sidewalk literally only went all the way around Walmart island, but I can't imagine it's used much.  Fountain Square, unlike downtown, is built for cars - not for pedestrians.  I'm positive that people walking from their cars in the Walmart parking lot to the section of the store that sells milk have a way longer walk than I do from my apartment to buy milk.  And then they have to drive home.

I had about half an hour before my meeting started so I decided to grab some coffee at my other arch-rival: Starbucks.  After surviving crossing the giant, crosswalk-less street and getting to the door of Starbucks that didn't connect to a sidewalk (only to a parking lot) I made it inside.  The cashiers were really friendly but I didn't know them and they didn't know my name because they're not my neighborhood coffee shop.  As I sat by myself drinking coffee and watching an insane number of cars go through the drive though, all I could think about was how much more stressful the whole situation was than my relaxing mornings or afternoon coffee breaks at Joplin's Java in my neighborhood.  I love going there because I always see people I know, the coffee is great, and I like supporting the local economy and re-investing my dollars in my neighborhood.

So I made it to the meeting, had a great talk, and headed back to the bus stop to wait for the 568 back home.  I only had to wait a few minutes (although all bus stops without wind shelters are freezing cold in winter wind) and I knew one of the guys on the bus when I sat down.  One of my neighbors, this guy was actually working on a petition to expand Pace service on a couple routes to Zion and to the Navy Base so they have weekend service.  He had tons of signatures and was getting more every time somebody got on.  If you're interested in being part of the conversation about Pace Bus service, come to one of the upcoming community forums in the area.  I really a hope a lot of bus riders will come because most of the people who make these decisions about funding public transit don't actually take public transit.  There's a quote from Place Matters, a great book about urban inequality and metropolitics, on the subject:

"Metropolitan polarization is more than a troubling statistical trend.  It violates basic American values.  The spatial and political isolation of the central-city and inner-suburban poor prevents them from forging the cross-class coalitions necessary to make their influence felt and makes blatant class legislation against the poor more likely.  It threatens to dissolve the bonds of solidarity that join us as Americans.  As a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York observed, it forces us to ask 'whether we will be able to go forward together as a unified society with a confident outlook or as a society of diverse economic groups suspicious of both the future and each other.'  Indeed, Henry Richmond argues that the political fragmentation of metropolitan areas represents 'the most important community-building challenge to face America since the adoption of the constitution'." - Chapter 7, Metropolicies for the 21st Century, pg 253.   All that to say, economic inequality is cyclical because people with lower incomes tend to have less political power, and economic segregation only serves to keep people from building alliances that can be used for political progress.

Lessons learned today:  people are great, buses get you where you need to go, and in my opinion, downtown is still way cooler and definitely more pedestrian friendly than big commercial shopping centers.  Mixed-use neighborhoods with public transit access and walkability are where I like to live.

incidental contact

There's a book I totally love and I did consider just typing the whole thing here for you - it's that good.  Definitely get a copy of Sidewalks in the Kingdom by Eric Jacobsen if you can.   Last night I read chapter 6:  Mixed Use, Pedestrian Scale, and the Whole Person, and I haven't stopped thinking about it all day.

Jacobsen puts Jesus in the context of our current ridiculous commuting norms, asking who would miss out on talking to Jesus if He jumped in His SUV on the way to the mega-church instead of walking there.  How many people wouldn't have been able to touch the hem of His garment and be healed?  How many people wouldn't have seen His smile or heard that they are loved?  It was these unplanned, incidental contacts that meant so much to the people who encountered Jesus as a person just like them.

Today, incidental contacts have just as much value.  Jacobsen offers an example of a janitor and a CEO standing in line to buy their morning papers at the same corner store.  In that context, they only have things in common and are on equal ground to have a conversation and be in real relationship with one another.  Income inequality, which leads to segregation by income, is one of the greatest injustices of our time and is causing myriad more problems.  Walkable neighborhoods are desirable places to live, and communities that can figure out how to get back to the basics of the old urbanism model where neighbors know each other are really doing God's work in making it easier for neighbors to love each other.  You can't really love someone until you've met them.

Yesterday a friend and I were walking down to the lake because we had some unusually nice weather and I was going stir crazy in my office.  We stopped at a corner and a couple with a little dog asked us how to get to the lake.  Well, anybody who has been in Waukegan knows it's awesome when you get to the pier or to the beach, but tricky to figure out the first time.  Anyway, we walked our new friends down there.  They turned out to have just moved to the area and I got to give my shpeel about all the cool things happening downtown.  We traded phone numbers and I'm looking forward to inviting them to our next event in my neighborhood and inviting them to really become part of our community.  Here's the thing about incidental contact - neither of us knew how much money the other makes or what other people think of us, and we didn't care.  We all just wanted to walk to the lake.  

Here are the questions Jacobsen asks after chapter 6:

1)    What kind of variety in housing and commercial activity can you find within a five minutes walk from your front door?

2)    Would you rather live in a mixed-use neighborhood or a single use neighborhood?  Try to come up with a list of specific advantages and disadvantages of both models.

3)    If you wanted to live in a mixed-use neighborhood, would that even be possible for you given your geographic and economic limitations?

4)    Do you have any errands or tasks in your day where you choose to walk instead of drive?  What factors lead you to make this choice?

5)    Of all of the neighborhoods that you’ve lived in or visited, what has provided the best setting for walking?  What made it the best?

More important than walkability or efficiency is a neighborhood that is built for the Whole Person.  A place where people have more than just their physical needs met - where they feel good and where they want to live.  Whole People have time to make improvements to their neighborhood.  Crime is reduced because Whole People check up on each other.  Whole People are tremendous advocates for their own communities.

Tonight I have some work to finish and when I leave my office after a while, I know when I walk home I'll see my friends closing up Taqueria Guerrero and Pierce Florist on my block, people hanging out after trivia night at Green Town, actors and actresses leaving rehearsal at Clockwise Theatre, and some commuters walking home from the train station.  And I know that if I'm feeling a little discouraged or overwhelmed with work and need somebody to make me back into a Whole Person, I've got people within walking distance who might just have time for some incidental contact. 

I really do love where I live.

 

you can go INSIDE mcdonalds?

I've made it a whole week and a half without a car and I'm afraid it's not as exciting as I thought it might be.  This week I made it to work no problem (walking that one block isn't even really a big deal when it's snowing - some people have to walk that far to their cars in parking lots anyway) and went to tons of fun stuff.  I ate lunch and dinner at restaurants within walking distance of my apartment and even played guitar with my dad at open mic night at one of our bars.  I had to carry my guitar downstairs and about 20 feet to Green Town Tavern  - again, closer than most people park to music venues.

This morning I did have a revelation though - that building attached to the McDonalds drive through isn't just a big kitchen.  You can go INSIDE McDonalds.  Crazy, I know.  So I went inside to get coffee this morning, and there are all these people in there!  Reading newspapers and talking.  AND, they have free wi-fi!  I talked to a couple people and met some more neighbors who live downtown and walk or take the bus most places.  I never thought I'd say this before my no driving adventure, but McDonalds is totally going to be one of my new hangouts.

I came across a cool video today about "road diets" from the Walkable & Livable Communities Institute.  Once you start reading about this stuff, there's a huge movement of people actively trying to reduce our reliance on cars.  Check it out:


Tomorrow I'm thinking sledding.

Cool stuff I walked to today.

This morning I walked to work, walked to lunch and met my sister Susan at China Garden, and walked to a Neighborhood Conversation at First Baptist Church where we got to meet the incredibly talented landscape architect Kaizad Irani, who designed the Phoenix Park 9/11 memorial in New York City.  And get this - he's going to do a project in Waukegan too.  AND, I'll be able to walk to it.

It was a great night and I wish everyone in Waukegan could have come to be part of the conversation about what we love about where we live.  I was really inspired, and really impressed by the number of people who talked about walkable neighborhoods or bicycling.  Two of my friends who were there, Will G and David V, also live downtown and had walked to the meeting. 

People get it.  People like places that feel like real neighborhoods, and people like feeling safe in their neighborhoods.  The best, easiest way to do that is to know your neighbors and love your neighbors.  People like walkability even when they don't know the word for it.  The Congress for the New Urbanism has this great post on why this type of design just performs better, and I couldn't agree more. 

Tonight I was talking to somebody at the church and Lent came up, so I mentioned my giving up driving thing.  At first this guy looked at me like I was crazy, but when I said that I just lived a few blocks from the church, he said, "oh, well it's not that much of a sacrifice then."  He was totally right. 

It snows during Lent.

My sister took this picture in
front of our parents' house
and I'm smiling crazy because
it was really, really windy.

Biking is fun and healthy and free and all those good things, but biking in the snow is something else.  I rode my bike to my friend Tarah's house yesterday for a delicious lunch (she's a fabulous cook!) and it wasn't too far - just about 2 miles, but it took me way longer than it should have because I kept having to stop and figure out how to get around/over/through piles of snow at sidewalk edges.  I have a new appreciation for people who shovel their sidewalks on busy roads, and how I've always thought we have an amazing public works department in Waukegan that does a great job on the roads, the sidewalks and driveway edges are another thing entirely.

Chicago actually has a program to encourage business owners to shovel their sidewalks - you can read more about it at http://www.activetrans.org/shovel.  They recognize people who do a good job keeping sidewalks clear for pedestrians with a "thank you for shoveling" sign, and I'm convinced we should do that here next winter.

I'm deciding I like the bike better than the bus because my couple bus trips so far have been fine but I'm just too impatient.  I do realize that there are people who don't even have the option of a bike and that's a luxury too - I was thinking about this last night when I was reading tweets with the #firstworldlent and completely couldn't stop laughing.  It's stuff like "I will only use one social networking website during Lent" or "giving up all non-local craft beer."

I guess the short answer is that there have been very few things so far that I haven't been able to do without a car.  Friday morning I did make a pre-arranged exception to carpool with my parents to a reception for an award, but it was a 30 minute drive to a place off the bus route.  I honestly don't know how I would have gotten there otherwise.  To be technical about my Lenten commitment, I'm just not driving myself, meaning that I can be in a carpool, which I think is still pretty in line with the whole thing.

I did get to lock my bike to a bike rack for the first time (instead of a tree or a light post) when I was at at City Hall yesterday afternoon.  It was even covered by a roof so when it was snowing my bike stayed dry.

Another thing I want to point out: if you who rely on public transit or your bike as your primary means of transportation, winter doesn't change that.

Good news for me though - everything is close by.  I had a delicious brunch at Jerry's Tacos this morning and tonight I'm going to a show at the incredible Genesee Theatre.  Things are good.  

Annnnnnd.... buses.

So buses turn out to be awesome.  The things about buses that are weird include:  the bus stops, the irregularity of when buses show up, and that there's not a lot to do when you're sitting at the bus - EXCEPT:  talk to people, clean up, ask what they want in the neighborhood, find out why they're taking the bus in the first place, learn their names, learn about their families and why they live here, what they want our city to be, and a million other things that come up when you have 20 minutes to talk to someone you're just meeting for the first time.  Hey wanna see my bus pass?

It's cool.  So far people talked to me about their doctors' appointments, which buildings they think are getting torn down (next) in my neighborhood, and what their kids did that day.  I have to say, it's kind of bizarre that we haven't figured out a way to put two things at bus stops:  tiny playgrounds and cigarette-butt-disposals.  You have a lot of time to sit and be stressed and/or bored at a bus stop and I definitely would love to see some stuff to play at.  A really nice mom was encouraging her kids to stop playing in the chainlink fence + garbage / mud + cigarette butts "playground" behind the bus stop and I wanted so badly for these kids to have a sandbox at that moment.  A couple calls and we'll see how it goes but, it's kind of weird because the view from the bus stop looks like this:

and you don't even realize that gorgeous, amazing Lake Michigan is right behind you, or that there are a few simultaneous, amazing development projects going on across the street.  Cool things about the bus stop at Sheridan & Washington:  there are nice wind shelters, unlike a lot of the bus stops, and super nice people announce what bus is coming.  I just found out about this by sitting there, but somebody stands up and says "571 ya'll!" or "cinqo seis cinqo ahora" so you don't miss your bus if you're texting/blogging/sleeping/raising kids, and it's really cool. 

The first day, I took the bus to the bike shop to pick up my bike, then rode my bike home, rode my bike to church, and rode it home from church in the rain.  I stopped at a gas station because I was super thirsty and here's where I parked it: 

Yeah, there aren't any actual places to park bikes.  Even at my church, which I love, I locked my bike to a tree.  (I tried to take a picture but it was pretty dark.)  One cool thing is that the sidewalks here are great and I didn't ever have to jump a curb - they all had those little ramps for handicap accessibility / bicyclability. 

So I made it home, ashes on my forehead, kind of snowy and wishing I had better gloves - but I was on time to church and it only took me 11 minutes to ride there, which isn't too long.  The good thing is that carrying my bike up one flight of stairs isn't a big deal, even though it is kind of weird to keep my bike in my kitchen until I figure out a better place.  I got through all of today without driving, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the weekend goes.  I'm thinking Chicago, but we'll see where my bus pass and train tickets take me.

Walking Home

So, some of the things that people who live here already know:

It's really cold walking/Wauking home down Genesee Street in February.  We get that same beautiful "lake breeze" that Chicago gets - meaning the wind off the lake is really freaking cold.  The cool thing is that I got to walk home from the fabulous Big Ed's after the meeting and I had a really great time.  Mardi Gras beads and everything.  So excited to figure out how this all translates into a lifestyle I'm pretty close to already.

We're really close to Lake Michigan.  I can see it from my apartment and that's even more awesome in summer but right now, at night, it just seems freezing cold.

I need to figure out how to talk Taqueria Guerrero into staying open later because I forgot to eat dinner today and we're super close to getting downtown Waukegan to translate itself into a later-in-the-evening kind of place, but I need more people to want ceviche and chorizo tacos at 11pm.

Sometimes people ask me if I feel safe walking home alone at night and I wonder exactly what they're worried about...  I can only assume it's that they're concerned I will encounter people asking for money or cigarettes (don't worry, I know all the regulars down here by name and they're cool) or something, but frankly I have the opposite problem. I get to talk to nobody when I'm walking home.  Don't worry, I'm working on getting more people to live by me.

Beyond all that, it's a nice walk.  Lake view.  Cool art in a lot of the windows.  Super cool restaurants that will open in... 9 hours?   A very nice apartment with all the stuff I need (NEED - working on comprehending that), friends who can be here within minutes, family a (very cold) 15 minute walk away, train station that has a couple more trains out if I decide I need to be in Chicago, buses that can get me... some places.  It's all good.

Lent, I am so ready.

No More Car Keys

Alright, I turned in the keys and parked the car at my dad's warehouse, where it will enjoy a restful Lent.  So far so good.  My first adventure has been getting the front bike tire replaced on my bike because the front wheel got stolen in Chicago.  My brother and I drove the bike (I get the irony) to Midwest Bicycle on Grand in Waukegan.  The guy there was super nice and I'm picking it up tomorrow with a replacement hybrid tire and fixed up brakes.  I'm also going to invest in a nice new bike lock.

I asked the bike shop employee, and he told me Midwest Bicycle & Billiards, Inc. [(847) 249-5670] opened in Waukegan in 1980 and has been 
at 1928 Grand Avenue since 1993.  

The shop is great and they have all kinds of used parts and specialize in repairs and tune ups.  I'm sure I'll be back there again soon.  In the mean time, I'm trying to decide where my bike is going to live.  There's not a lot of extra space at my apartment, and I'm considering asking my landlord if I can come up with some kind of covered outdoor storage for my bike in my parking space.  We don't have any public covered bike parking in Waukegan as far as I know, although some of the apartments around here do.  There are a ton of cool examples in other communities.  It's also one of the criteria for getting certified as a bicycle friendly city by the League of American Bicyclists.  

Gotta get to a meeting (conveniently within walking distance) but I'm psyched for my trek to buy a bus pass tomorrow.  Bring it on, Lent.

One more day with a car.

For Lent this year I'm giving up driving.  There are a lot of things about driving that I don't like, but like most people who can afford to, I totally rely on my car.  I drive it when I could walk, and I don't plan my errands to combine trips efficiently.  Gas, car payments, and insurance add up - and for me and many of my fellow 20 somethings, that's one of the factors preventing us from being able to pay off student loans or put a down payment on a house.  I've also learned a lot lately while reading everything I can about New Urbanism - the movement in neighborhood development that promotes walkability, sustainability, and community.  I have lots to say about that, but we've got 46 days.  I'll give you a quick preview though:



I live in downtown Waukegan, Illinois and within walking distance of almost everything I need, so I don't think it'll be that difficult.  I'm going to keep a blog to chronicle my adventures on public transportation and to brag about all the cool stuff I can walk to, ride my bike to, take the bus to, and take the train to.

On Wednesday, for the start of my 46 days without a car, I'm walking to the Pace Bus ticket center at 1400 W. 10th Street, which is 2 miles away from my apartment, to see if I can figure out what kind of bus pass / train pass combo deal I can work out.  I did find a bunch of closer places to buy bus passes, which is cool, but I'm gonna see if I can get a map and try to decipher some of the bus routes.

For as much as I promote walkability and accessibility, I'm sure sometimes I don't know what I'm talking about regarding transit in Waukegan.  I make it sound more convenient than it really is and talk about it the way I remember buses and the subway when I was in college in DC.  There are tons of people in my neighborhood now who rely on public transit to get to work, church, stores, and to see friends and family and I know that for many of them, having a car would be a life changer.

So, here's hoping I learn a lot and figure out what I can do to improve public transit options, bike & pedestrian accessibility, and make driving less necessary in my neighborhood.  And on the Lenten note - I think Jesus would totally love a lot of the reasons for doing this.  My friends and I are doing a Bible study on the subject, on the book Sidewalks In the Kingdom.   The premise is that Jesus told us to love our neighbors, so why do so few of us know our neighbors?  I'm sure I'm going to meet more of mine at the bus stop this week.  I'll keep you posted.