Want to Ruin a Perfectly Beautiful Afternoon?

Dear Editor,

Go to Seafood City! Cynthia (my wife) and I stopped by there for supper this afternoon. I’ll never go there again, ever!

Situated in a former KMart location, it looked like a potential Destination Stop for Chicago and suburban residents. It took us 10 minutes to find parking, 20 minutes in line to place an order, have to pakiusap a kababayan to sit at a table he was hogging for his companions, and waited to for half an hour before realizing that with our order number it would be a twohour wait!

It’s like a regular Jewel but with side grill and a frying section. While it was planned to be a Portillo’s, any similarity is purely accidental. So just imagine a Portillo’s with a Jewel Grocery in the middle. Except the food line was a complete disaster. They told us to get seated and wait for our number to get called. They did not have the decency to inform us how long the wait would be.

We got #60, sat next to a woman who had been waiting an hour for order number 35, and realized we had been duped. At the rate they were going, it would be 3 to 4-hr. Wait. The woman left, we left.

As we left the order number machine had recycled to 4. Good thing we had not paid yet. My suggestion to those in line, as we left, was go to Whole Foods or Mariano’s!

I never liked going to Divisoria 50 years ago. Now it’s here in Chicagoland. Never again!

Joe Flores, Chicago, IL.

 

Chicago lands top spot in ranking of best cities for cycling

Dear Editor, Exciting new infrastructure combined with growing ridership and a strong voice for advocacy has made Chicago SUBSCRIPTION a biking mecca

It was announced on Sept 19 that Chicago has taken first place among best US cities for bicycling, moving up from #2 since Bicycling Magazine’s last national ranking two years ago. The ranking recognizes that Chicago has become a national leader for bicycling, thanks to a flood of newly minted riders and bold new projects like the 606 rail trail and a rapidly growing bike sharing system.

Particularly transformative has been the effort since 2011 to build a network of low-stress bike routes in Chicago. This included construction of 23 miles of protected bike lanes and more than 80 miles of buffered (wide) bike lanes. And over the next three years the city will add 50 more miles of these types of bike lanes.

“It’s wonderful to get recognized for the great strides bicycling has taken here in recent years,” said Ron Burke, executive director of theActive Transportation Alliance, a nonprofit group that works for better biking, walking and transit throughout Chicagoland. “We’ve come a long way and it’s taken lots of work.”

Another recent triumph for Chicago is the announcement of separate biking and walking paths coming to the Chicago Lakefront Trail—a plan that Active Trans has been lobbying for several years.

These and other developments would not have happened without a highly engaged advocacy community, an enthusiastic department of transportation and a keenly supportive mayor. Credit also goes to a vibrant local biking culture comprised of bike clubs, online communities and blogs, nonprofit organizations, racing teams and grassroots groups.

While this is a perfect moment for everyone involved to take a bow, it’s also a good time to acknowledge the extensive work that still needs to be done. Active Trans believes that Chicagoans of all ages and abilities should have easy access to safe and comfortable bikes routes that take them where they need to go. Last fall, we laid out our Bikeways for All vision that identifies priority streets for protected bike lanes, neighborhood greenways and urban trails.

ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION ALLIANCE