Sustainable Chicago Winter 2011 : Page 15

SUSTAINABLE CHICAGOWinter 2011 It’s an elevated corridor 2.6 miles long, along Bloom-ingdale Avenue through Chicago’s northwest neighbor-hoods of Bucktown, Humboldt Park, Logan Square and Wicker Park. To the passerby below, it looks like an old, abandoned track corridor. However, to the brave souls that ignore the “no trespass-ing” and “private property” signs and risk prosecution, this “Bloomingdale Trail” is the future linear park for walkers, joggers, bicyclists and all ac-tive transportation advocates. The High Line park, built on a disused elevated railway in Manhattan, is the iconic project in the rails-to-trails movement. This relatively new urban renewal development, now seen in cities like Phila-delphia and St. Louis, pushes policy makers and alternate transit enthusiasts to create plans to renovate abandoned railways and transform them into usable and attractive spaces. “Cities recognize parks are good for their economies. They’re no longer nice things to have, but a must,” said Will Rogers, President and Chief Executive of the nonprofit Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national conservation group based in San Francisco. Many case studies show a direct cor-relation between business growth for start-ups and cre-ative companies as well as in-creased health benefits directly adjacent to these parks. The Canadian Pacific Rail-way owns the elevated tracks, but the rails have been train-free for over a decade. Ben Helphand, president of the Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail, and BethWhite, Director of TPL’s Chicago office have worked with project planners and volunteers. “It’s much more than just a trail,” said www.Sustainable-Chicago.com 15 Helphand. “I see it as a thing with infinite capacity.” Their vision is to transform the rail corridor to a green parkway that would seam-lessly connect 37 blocks and four communities. “[The rail-road line] has served as a physical barrier for so long between the communities,” said White. “The trail is a way for the communities to work together and learn about each other. It’s really breaking bar-riers in a different way.” The project has seen an increase in attention over the past year because of a cam-paign pledge by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to see the project come to life during his first term. Just last month, the trail’s design and engineering study was commissioned. This will identify the costs involved and devise a more accurate

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