Arline Welty of the Active Transportation Alliance asks an interesting question:
"What does it mean when major urban planning decisions are made without consideration for effects on land use and travel behavior?"
Here's what it means: We've had a family picnic since time immemorial in a part of Lincoln Park near the Lake which we used to call the "Addison Rocks" (north part of Belmont Harbor). The last time we had this was two years ago.
In order to get to this part of the park, there's an access road that wings by the Bird Sanctuary and Archery Range on one side and the Belmont Yacht Club on the other.
At the opening of this access road, two years ago, we noticed that a private company "Amano" had set up a booth and was collecting $8 ($10 now) for parking. Everyone had to pay -- except for members of the Yacht Club who are just waved through as if they owned the place.
Even this would be okay, if they had planted the booth in front of a parking lot. Instead again, it's at the opening of the access road, right off the Drive. If, according to them, all the parking places are taken, that's it: you can't get in. No park for you.
The problem is, my parents and the parents of my friends are all in their upper 70s and 80s. One parent of a friend of mine had just undergone hip replacement surgery and was on a walker. The person at the Booth refused to let the car holding this parent in -- not to park the car but simply to drop the parent off a bit closer to where we were.
You want to know what it means "when major urban planning decisions are made without consideration for effects on land use and travel behavior"?
It means forcing an 80-year-old on a walker to walk the equivalent of several blocks in order to join us. It means they had to do this on what previously had been a public road in a public park but which now for all intents and purposes, has been turned into a private driveway for the Belmont Yacht Club.
That's what it means. But don't believe me. Just go down there on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
