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NYC building its first physically-separated bike lane

October 6, 2007 / / 0 Comments

New York City has beat out Chicago in building a physically-separated bike lane.

The physically-separated bike lane is touted to be the the road device that will attract new cyclists to the streets and is part of both Chicago’s 2015 Bike Plan and PlaNYC 2030.

The first video of the new lane on 9th Avenue appeared on StreetsBlog. At the beginning of construction, only flexible bollards and lane striping will be present. Eventually, a concrete and landscaped median will fill up the empty, striped space between the bike lane (which abuts the sidewalk on the left side of the street) and the lane for parked cars.

bike lane
From jschumacer.

This shows how bikers are kept away from moving cars. Cyclists are still at risk of left-turning cars, but better road striping and street signs will alert drivers of the changes in this roadway.

The bike lane is also very wide and basically allows the cyclist to temporarily stop having to pay so much attention to road hazards, AKA cars.

Chicago is investigating several physical-separation methods and is planning to implement all kinds for experimentation. I can’t wait.

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Rent as a percentage of income

October 5, 2007 / / 0 Comments

The following is an interpretation of Census 2000 data for a very small sample: My census tract, number 3106.

There are 1,718 rented units in this census tract.

A rule of thumb is that not more than a third of your income should be designated for housing. If you are using more than a third of your income, you either don’t make enough money, or you live in housing that’s too pricey or you are plainly living beyond what is practical for you. At least that’s what I believe in.

Of those 1,718 rented units in my census tract, 57.7% of the renters are only using up to a third of their household income to pay for the rent. That’s decent. However, let’s look at the other end.

13.9% of the renters spend 35-49% of their income on rent and nearly a quarter of the renting residents here spend more than half of their income.

So, applying my rule of thumb, the housing here is either too expensive, the residents in that high-end quarter are not making enough income or there are not enough income earners, OR, they are choosing to live beyond practicality. I believe that there is not enough household income.

I must add that this data is seven years old and it’s very obvious (for those who live here) to know that housing prices in this neighborhood are going up. A more detailed look, as well as recent data, would help me determine with more accuracy what economical forces are having more effect here: wages not going up with inflation and costs of living, or housing costs rising because of short-term trends?

Sidenote: I live in Pilsen, zipcode 60608, in Chicago, IL.

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Chicagoland transit needs better funding

October 4, 2007 / / 0 Comments

The RTA is Chicago and the suburbs’ authority to distribute funding (and also to coordinate service and expansion efforts) for the CTA, Pace, and Metra. The RTA is funded by sales tax in the six-county metro area. The sales tax formula was created in 1983.

Now, 24 years later, the funding formula has proven itself multiple times to be insufficient. For the past several years, all RTA agencies have been involved in major cost cutting and the CTA has had to transfer funds from a the capital budget to the operations budget, not something it looks forward to doing…ever. When the state legislature devised the funding formulate, they themselves admitted it would not last for more than two years and expected the future legislators to make a new law to fund the RTA.

Recently, to avoid a major service cut on September 16th, 2007, the CTA accepted a band-aid in the form of a cash advance from the state, taken from next year’s state funding. This has only served to delay the CTA’s service cuts to mid-November – but accepted under the guise that it would give the state assembly more time to vote on a new funding plan.

What I just explained is a very commonly misunderstood, and often ignored, element of transit doomsday scenarios. People become vocal about how the CTA is discriminating against a certain group of customers, or that it’s run by morons, or that it might as well be dismantled.

A state audit proved that the CTA is in fact well run, and not corrupt. There are many things that were overlooked, but the new president, Ron Huberman is already showing that he’s committed to making the CTA deservedly respectable.

Any blame for the “doomsday” service cuts should be placed squarely on the shoulders of Illinois’ state senators and representatives. They are the ones who are not agreeing on solutions or taking too long to vote, or not ready to override the governor’s promised veto if sales taxes are to be increased.

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The Metro Chicago Immigration Factbook

October 2, 2007 / / 0 Comments

The Metro Chicago Immigration Factbook is a case study of the U.S. Census stricly dealing with incoming (foreign born) immigrants to the 6- and 13-country metropolitan region of Northeastern Illinois, Northwestern Indiana, and Southeastern Wisconsin.

The study was performed and released by Roosevelt University in downtown Chicago.

The most interesting parts of the article are not in the graphs, maps, and charts but in the interpretation of the presented data.

What I thought was very important in the article was the subtle ways the authors expressed how important immigration is the region, without explicitly saying so. It is inferred from simple statements as saying foreign-born residents made up 76% of the growth of the region. Had the immigrants in that group of 76% not come, the region would have only grown by 2.7%.

And without immigration, Cook County, alone, would have seen a 4% decrease in population.

Extrapolating this information and thinking of numerous growth in housing stock (primarily to own) in Chicago and expansion of city events, services, and amenities, I question whether or not our city would be improving as much as it is now. With the increase in population comes an increase in revenue for the city, county, and state, but also at the same time, services to residents needs to become more diverse and the city needs to adapt.

Understanding immigration patterns into this region will help us to do just that.

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UIC and the Urban Planning school

September 29, 2007 / / 0 Comments

UIC has a notable graduate school for Urban Planning. It works closely with the city and several metropolitan planning organizations to settle itself in the regional planning community in order to create networking contacts for students with potential employers and to enhance the education the school offers students.

That’s a great marketing statement for the school I just made up on the spot now. I recently submitted my application to the school – it’s due tomorrow, Monday, October 1st, 2007. I hope I get in. However, I’m not sure if I would be disappointed if I don’t get in. I feel that I will have more options for graduate school should I be rejected. For one, I will have to apply to other schools for the Fall 2008 semester, and two, I will take the GRE before reapplying.

UIC is one of the few schools which I’ve investigated that allows students to join the program in the spring semester. Arizona State University doesn’t accept students for spring and neither does Portland State University, both schools I’ve briefly considered. The one school in which I’m interested but haven’t checked for application deadlines is the University of Washington in Seattle.

I looked into ASU because my dad resides in Mesa, Arizona, next door to ASU’s hometown of Tempe. I’ve researched PSU because Portland, Oregon, is a great city, as is Seattle – I also enjoy the weather of the Pacific Northwest. A few years ago, I was planning to go to the University of Washington for my undergraduate studies, but the non-resident’s tuition cost kept me away.

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