PILSEN — Neighbors who need to weigh in on infrastructure enhancements to the twenty fifth Ward — together with potential upgrades to alleys, sidewalks, lighting, streets or bike lanes — can participate in a survey that runs via April 1.
The town allocates about $1.5 million in “menu cash” yearly to every of the 50 wards. Sometimes, alderpeople have discretion on how that cash is spent, however some Metropolis Council members let neighbors resolve or affect how that cash is used — a course of often called participatory budgeting.
Suggestions from this 12 months’s survey will assist Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (twenty fifth) choose initiatives, Lucia Moya-Calderon, ward chief of employees, stated at a March 20 city corridor assembly on the Rudy Lozano department library in Pilsen.
“Infrastructure wants are all the time current, and your participation makes positive that our priorities are in step with the wants,” Sigcho-Lopez instructed attendees.
Some neighbors on the assembly instructed Block Membership the ward wants extra bike lanes and pedestrian security enhancements.
Pilsen’s Bradley Graupner, who rides his bike across the neighborhood, stated roundabouts might enhance security in complicated intersections, just like the one in entrance of the library the place West 18th Road, South Loomis Road and South Blue Island Avenue meet. On 18th Road, including designated loading and unloading zones for ride-share and supply vans might assist forestall these automobiles from blocking bike lanes throughout busy instances, Graupner stated.
One other neighbor requested whether or not a site visitors sign may very well be put in on the intersection of West sixteenth and South Canal streets, the place a excessive quantity of site visitors generally makes it tough for pedestrians to cross.
Jerry Mandujano, an aldermanic liaison for the Chicago Division of Transportation who was on the assembly, defined that putting in a site visitors mild is an costly and prolonged undertaking that begins with a site visitors examine. Neighbors can all the time contact the ward workplace to make suggestions for harmful intersections or request such site visitors research, Moya-Calderon stated.
Different neighbors requested for readability on the participatory budgeting processing, together with on how previous surveys have knowledgeable infrastructure plans and the way a lot every undertaking might price.
“Can that be shared with the survey and the folks right here so we are able to perceive the price per mile and implementation relatively than simply rating issues which might be drastically completely different in potential worth factors?” requested Austin Busch, a Decrease West Facet neighbor.
Relatively than asking neighbors to vote on particular initiatives with particular allotted prices, the twenty fifth Ward survey asks neighbors to rank their choice for normal enchancment classes, together with alleys, sidewalks and guarded bike lanes.
Neighbors can go to the town’s Workplace of Funds Administration web site to see how menu cash has been spent previously, Moya-Calderon stated. This 12 months’s survey outcomes will likely be revealed on the twenty fifth Ward’s web site. Generic price estimates for infrastructure initiatives might be present in CDOT’s annual funds, Mandujano stated.
Every spring, the twenty fifth Ward workplace submits a listing of wanted infrastructure initiatives to the town. The listing is made out of neighbors’ requests submitted to the ward workplace, via the town’s 311 system and of survey outcomes, Moya-Calderon stated. CDOT then creates undertaking estimates, Mandujano stated. Utilizing that data, the alderman authorizes initiatives to be funded utilizing menu cash.
On the March 20 assembly, Sigcho-Lopez additionally floated the concept of beginning a ward infrastructure committee that would interact neighbors in figuring out wants.
Neighbors can even submit requests to enhance or repair infrastructure year-round utilizing the town’s 311 system, the twenty fifth Ward’s web site or by calling calling 773-523-4100, emailing ward25@cityofchicago.org or visiting the twenty fifth Ward Workplace at 2100 W. Cermak Highway.
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