Activating our communities one block at a time

By Margo O’Hara

Few cities can compete with Chicago’s summers, and Chicago summers wouldn’t be the same without block parties. There is hardly a better way to spend an afternoon: families and friends grilling in the street, kids playing kickball and jumping in the famous Jumping Jack, parents catching up on front stoops.

These festive scenes are also part of a new program beginning this summer called Active Living on the Block, which will connect Active Trans with 24 block parties in underserved neighborhoods to get residents thinking about safety and the way we all get around.

“Block parties are such a great place to get people thinking about their streets and how we prioritize space. Usually streets are filled with fast moving traffic, but on these days, streets are filled with people enjoying themselves and feeling safe,” said Adolfo Hernandez, Active Trans’ advocacy director.

Active Trans will talk with residents - young and old – to hear about the frustrating and downright scary parts of getting around their neighborhoods. The program targets lower income neighborhoods in particular because they experience a disproportionately higher rate of bicycle and pedestrian crashes.

Christina Bronsing, health manager at the Little Village community organization Enlace Chicago says the program’s value is getting residents to take an active role in making change.

“It is an empowering thing to create some tangible change on a local level and realize that it is actually possible,” she said.

Our expert transportation planners will lead workshops where residents can share their ideas and concerns about their blocks. Together, they can discuss local data like traffic volume and crash numbers that give a picture of transportation safety on their blocks.

Residents can talk about specific concerns: their children’s safety playing outside or walking to school, speeding traffic, cars not stopping at stop signs, or unsafe walking conditions.

The workshops will provide residents with a toolbox of resources they can use to improve their communities, including ways of accessing aldermanic menu money and holding decision makers accountable for citywide policies like Complete Streets, Home Zones and Safe Park Zones – all of which prioritize pedestrians and cyclists as road users.

“The activities will open the door to talk about transportation and how that affects everything from safety to physical activity to the way it isolates or unites our neighbors,” Hernandez said.

Bronsing can see how this could be successful in Little Village.

“Along 26th Street, it’s really evident that that’s our habit – to get into our cars,” Bronsing said. “We need to rethink as a neighborhood.”

Margo O'Hara is Active Trans' director of communications.