Millennium Reserve will fill the gap

This past Friday morning, I stood on the 11th floor of the USA Bank building, that icon of the Bishop Ford at 111th St.—with at least a 30-mile view of the patchy, sometimes flowering, someti

Sneak a peek: The Cal-Sag Trail Legacy Campaign

Friends of the Cal-Sag Trail are posting teasers every two days from the full-length Legacy Campaign video that wil

I-beam trusses and six steel strings—that's the SOUL of the Cal-Sag Trail! http://bridgesandblues.org

Friends of the Calumet-Sag Trail invite you to celebrate a heritage forged in the furnaces that built Chicago and laid down in the riffs that built Rock & Roll.

What: Bridges & Blues, a benefit to build the 32-mile Calumet-Sag Trail
Where: Gaelic Park, 6119 W 147th St, Oak Forest, Ill. [get map]
When: November 5, 2011, 6 PM - 11:30 PM [add to calendar]
Only 300 tickets are available! [get tickets]

Tune in to Active Trans work on the Calumet-Sag Trail, Palos Heights Non-Motorized Plan

Palos Heights' local cable access channel, Channel 4, put Palos Heights Parks & Rec director Mike Leonard and me on Sue Jankowski's show.

Rails to Trails Conservancy: Calumet-Sag Trail "a national model of rail-trail excellence"

Rails to Trails Conservancy (RTC) with The Coca-Cola Company has awarded the Friends of the Calumet-Sag Trail (

Image Gallery: 

 Oak Lawn will vote to adopt or reject the Oak Lawn Bicycle Plan on January 26.

From that day on, Oak Lawn streets will either begin to make its streets safer and more fun to ride on and across...or it won’t.

The recommendations in the Oak Lawn Bicycle Plan will guide the village toward bicycle friendly improvements the village can do quickly, like adding parking racks; within a few years such as creating a link to the Calumet-Sag Trail; and over the long-term, like taking on dangerous roads such as 95th St. and Southwest Hwy. The plan will help the village win the grant funding that will pay up to 80% or more of the cost of those improvements.

Adopting the plan sets Oak Lawn’s course toward sustainability and a higher quality of life. Rejecting the plan...doesn’t.

Filling the room with residents and cyclists who dream of and need a bicycle friendly community will tell the board to take leadership on making this plan a reality.

We need you in that room. Please attend the January 26 Village Board Meeting, 7:30 PM at the municipal center, Raymond and 95th St., just west of the library. Please consider riding to the meeting. Steve Buchtel, the consultant who worked with the village and residents to develop the plan, welcomes any of your questions beforehand. Reach him here: steve@activetrans.org, or 708/365-9365.

When: December 15, 2009; 7 PM - 9 PM

Where: Lake Katherine Nature Center Club House, about 1 mile west of Harlem on Rte. 83 (get map)

'Twas a year worth celebrating: the Friends raised $30,000 for the Calumet-Sag Trail in 2009, which will be matched by federal grants 5-1 — meaning $150,000 for planning and designing the Calumet-Sag Trail.

At the holiday social, the Calumet-Sag Trail's planners and engineers, from Town Builders Studios, Terry Guen & Associates, and URS, will take us on a tour of trail status, where the trail is going, visions for the trail, and the current timeline to ribbon cutting. We'll drink, and eat, and celebrate a long year past that was full of good work, and look forward to opportunities for the Friends in 2010.

Write to friends@calsagtrail.org for more information, or go to our website: http://calsagtrail.org.

Resolution at the side of the road with the hood up

Got this message from friend 

Friends of the Calumet-Sag Trail receive 501c3 non-profit status

 Fly, little bird: