The Real Impacts of Downtown Sporting Venues

Nur Asri is an Associate at Larisa Ortiz Associates.

The 2018 Major League Baseball season is upon us. Like every other major professional sport, the season reminds us of the vast impacts– both good and bad – that sport has on our cities and downtowns. Across the country, downtowns are becoming choice sites for sports arenas. In 2016, the Brookings Institution found that 45 stadiums and arenas for the four major professional sports — football, baseball, basketball, and hockey — were constructed/renovated in the United States from 2000 to 2014 with a large majority of these being built in urban centers.

This map shows a concentration of sports teams (and by extension, their stadiums) by city from 2012.

Communities around the country are often told by political leaders of the potential economic effects of building these stadia or arenas; however the reality is often a lot less rosy. Sure, these attractions are bringing in visitors downtown in large numbers like no other business might. Last year, the average attendance to any Major League Baseball game in the US was approximately 30,000. In 2016, the Yankee Stadium in the Bronx saw over 3.5 million spectators enter their doors.

As a result, local bars and restaurants might see hikes in foot traffic due to pre- and post- game crowds seeking replenishment. In Downtown Sacramento, pedestrian traffic in the immediate area of the NBA Kings stadium grew by 10%, according to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership. Many bars have even leveraged these pedestrian counts by hosting parties that coincide with game days and even hired special DJs or introduced sport-themed menu items to lure passing crowds. Unfortunately, the same impact is unlikely for retailers offering goods and services unrelated to entertainment, dining, or sports and wellness. So the jewelry store, hair salon or local book store aren’t naturally going to be the biggest fans of a stadium.

The No-Trickle Effect

In recent years, stadiums themselves have become increasingly mixed-use and entertainment-focused attractions. This means that the developments are inward-looking and offer amenities and attractions that responsive to what already exists in adjacent areas. In particular, the retail and food and beverage offerings found within stadiums are driving visitors with busier schedules to completely skip stopping by outside bars and restaurants before games and spending their dollars directly in these arenas.

In an anecdote from 2012, owner of the Yankee Tavern in the Bronx, Joe Bastone, stated that his business was not really making more money as a result of the new Yankee Stadium’s opening. He claimed that the stadium in fact killed local business because once inside, “visitors can choose from 444 souvenir shops, eateries and concession stands, nearly 50 percent more options than in the old stadium. From hot dogs to Cuban sandwiches and sushi, and from pennants to pinstriped jerseys, Yankees fans can find it all without setting foot outside the stadium.”

Photo: USA Today

Some stadiums have carefully curated concession stands to offer local fare and structured vendor deals with local restaurants. For example, the Barclays Center in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, home to the Nets basketball team and Islanders hockey team, offers Brooklyn-based Williamsburg Pizza, Café Habana Cuban sandwiches, and of course Brooklyn Lager on tap. However, stadium and sports arena developments still have much more to do in terms of growing partnership with small businesses and downtown associations and to enhance cross-shopping opportunities outside the arenas to support adjacent economies.

Furthermore, having tens of thousands of bodies arrive all at once in a concentrated geography doesn’t always bode well for businesses and residents. The hordes of spectators entering and leaving the downtown can be noisy and disorganized, and will certainly impede the regular operations of a business. To mitigate the impacts of human and vehicular congestion on game days, downtown associations are taking a few precautionary measures:

Educating potential visitors on available parking options and street closures. Partner with local news outlets to publish day-of articles that include details on how to get to sporting venues by car or by public transit. This information helps visitors plan their trip ahead of time and reduces frustration on the day of the game.

Uber at Coors Fields, CO

Partnering with ride-share services to manage people and vehicle flow near the venue. Designated Uber pick-up and drop-off areas with clear signage and instructions should be made available to riders to reduce congestion near the stadium.

Detroit Tigers, for example, signed Uber as the official ride-sharing partner for Comerica Park in downtown Detroit. The partnership not only designates pick up areas but also offers first time riders promotional codes. The same deal was made with the Detroit Lions and Detroit Pistons.

Providing shuttle rides to and from transit stops or parking lots farther away. Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena partners with the Downtown Partnership to provide such a service during event days. Again, this helps reduce congestion near the arena and makes the experience downtown less stressful for visitors.

Photo: San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

Providing convenient, attended bike parking service. This strategy has in fact made driving to games the more inconvenient option for those in San Francisco. A regulation passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1999 requires monitored bicycle parking if an event incurs a street closure and anticipates more than 2,000 participants. As a result, all San Francisco Giants games played at AT&T park now provide valet bike parking services to more than 200 spectators, thanks to an arrangement with local bike advocacy group, SF Bicycle Coalition.

So if you’re thinking of attracting a sports team to make its home downtown in a new arena to catalyze further investment in the area and attract visitors, think also about the potential impacts it will have on foot traffic diversion and vehicular congestion. Prepare small local businesses for game days and at the same time, make sure that the arena is responsive to and supportive of existing businesses in the area. 

The Bike Effect on Retail

Lately, we've been busy conducting stakeholder interviews and focus groups with business owners in downtowns all over the region and a common complaint that often arises is a shortage of parking. No matter where we are, merchants argue that a large number of potential customers and visitors to downtown are not coming because there simply isn't enough parking spaces to meet demand. But will building more parking spaces really increase retail vibrancy downtown? What about alternative transportation options such as walking and biking that so many cities around the country are slowly turning their heads to, and what about building infrastructure for those modes instead?

Biking, as we all know by now, comes with a myriad of environmental and health benefits. However, more recently, it is also proving its worth in bringing economic benefits to commercial districts. Unfortunately, it's not yet intuitive that paying customers might arrive by bicycle so business owners remain the last supporters of bike infrastructure.

Bike lanes, as it appears, do not hurt businesses. In a study by the NYC Department of Transportation in 2012 that followed various street redesign projects, it was revealed that sales income at locally-based businesses along 9th Avenue, where a protected bike lane was installed, increased as much as 49% between 2006 and 2010, compared to 3% borough-wide. Although the better sales performance cannot directly be attributed to the installation of bike lanes, it is clear that the bike lanes did not negatively impact businesses. 


Some posit this phenomenon occurs because cyclists have fewer barriers to stopping at a local business than those driving on the same street (Just imagine the hassle of looking for a parking spot for a car versus a bike that can be locked to any old lamp post or corral). However, it is more important that we recognize the overall calming effect that bike lanes provide to our streets. With the presence of bike lanes, protected or otherwise, motorists are forced to be more aware of cyclists on the roads and therefore move at slower speeds. This traffic calming effect then in turn attracts more pedestrians who, like cyclists, have greater freedom to stop and notice storefronts compared to those in automobiles. 

Although the fear faced by business owners of reducing on-street parking spaces for bike infrastructure may sometimes be unfounded, it is important that commercial districts looking to install bike lanes and corrals, or bike programs downtown engage business owners from the very beginning of the process to maintain transparency and build support among these stakeholders.

The Bike Friendly Business District Program in Long Beach, California, for example, did an amazing job in getting business owners involved from the get-go. The program encourages local visitors to bike to the commercial district to shop and dine by growing the number of bike-related businesses downtown and providing bike racks and corrals, bike lanes and clear signage that bolster the pedestrian and cyclist experience of the corridor. In the beginning of the process, the District partnered with neighborhood groups to research how customers traveled to a particular business and shared that information publicly with business owners, reducing common misconceptions about who shops where and how they arrive. By also putting on neighborhood events that encourage people to arrive by bicycle and on foot, and encouraging businesses to offer discounts to customers who cycle, the program has built a bike-friendly business district that today continues to thrive. 

Narratives about the economic benefits of bike infrastructure downtown may differ from town to town but the key to success lies in involving business owners at all turns of the process and clearing up any unfounded fear of the bike lane. Polk Street in San Francisco, for example, revealed that merchants' fears of removing parking spaces for pedestrian and bike infrastructure were completely groundless when an intercept survey conducted in 2013 revealed that only 14% of visitors to the commercial street arrived by car. 

It is also important to note that not all businesses will benefit equally from a bike lane. Furniture stores, for example, may have to adapt more than a cafe because customers simply cannot bike home with a product purchased in-store. However, there are ways to cope. For example, making available cargo bikes for delivery may be one way of adapting - as carried out in Long Beach, CA. Ultimately, the flexibility of a business will determine its chances of survival no matter the change to the district's physical landscape. If the environmental and health benefits of biking weren't already enough to convince you that customers are slowly converting to this mode of transportation, consider the calming effect of bikes on your commercial street and its potential to drive greater foot traffic - a new bike corral in front of your store may not be such a bad idea after all!

The most fundamental thing you need to know before you make your next downtown investment

What is the one most critical factor driving the success of your downtown economy? Getting this wrong could mean millions of dollars in wasted investment that fails to catalyze downtown - and could instead undermine it. Read on to learn more. 

Lessons learned the hard way

A few years ago I was working in a small waterfront community (name and places have been omitted to protect the innocent). To the north lay a large body of water (not many shoppers there!). To the south were certainly lots of people, but most were poised to travel away from the water and towards the malls that have located in more central locations. That said, the town had great bones. Main Street had a charming, pedestrian friendly feel. What’s more, walkable neighborhoods surrounded downtown. These homes, for the most part, had been well maintained and still evoked a feeling of small town living, where parents might send their kids downtown for ice cream with a few dollars in hand. This was the kind of place that many people might want to live.

Yet here we were – with a downtown that was struggling. The local movie theater was on the brink of closure. Vacancies were increasing. Downtown simply could not compete with the pull of nearby shopping malls, with their multiple offerings and centralized location. And even though there was more than enough parking downtown, much of it structured and behind the main street, the parking structures felt unsafe after having been neglected for years.  Dark corridors and broken elevators do not make for an inviting place to arrive for work or a downtown shopping trip.

Over the course of the project, I couldn’t help but notice that the community had also made infrastructure investments, some quite recently, that significantly undermined the downtown economy, and they probably did it without realizing it. Millions of dollars in infrastructure investment had recently gone towards street “improvements” around downtown that did very little for pedestrians, cyclists or those who use public transportation. The improvements were designed only with car owners in mind. It probably made sense at the time. I can imagine the conversation in City Hall … “most people drive, so let’s make sure we make driving through downtown fast and easy, and if they want to shop, let’s make sure they have more than enough parking.” Makes sense on some level. But what they also did was deprive residents of alternative options, options that might make a stroll or bike ride downtown part of an experience - an additive amenity that might make downtown an even more appealing place to visit. 

Unfortunately, poor decisions were made at many levels. The Mayor actively prevented bike lanes from being incorporated into a major streetscape improvement project. The rationale? The lanes would require maintenance and create a liability – costs the City could ill afford. In another instance, the recently reconstructed sidewalks connecting downtown to the surrounding neighborhoods strangely dead ended at major intersections, and often did not connect with existing crosswalks. Where crossings did exist, the crossing light offered barely enough time to cross the street before the light turned green. Everywhere we turned, we saw decisions that made OTHER places easier to access. Was it really a surprise that the downtown was suffering in light of the decisions made over the years? The slow chip, chip, chipping away of accessibility could be likened to the chipping away at the foundation of a house. At some point, the foundation fails and the house collapses.

Why you need to know about location theory
When thinking about access, it is important to understand fundamental economic theory, specifically “location theory”. Location theory states that businesses choose locations that will maximize profit. This theory is the basis of retail site selection as well. Being located in a place that is accessible and appealing to customers is critical to the bottom line. It is why Dunkin Donuts prefers the “inbound” side of the street – people buy coffee in the morning on the way to work. Or restaurants prefer to be on the “outbound” side of the street – people buy food on the way home from work. We also know that customers, especially in this day and age when time is a commodity, prefer to cross-shop, accomplishing a few shopping errands during a single visit. This is why retailers also prefer malls and shopping centers. These are often places designed for the time strapped shopper in mind. The concentration of stores draws more customers than a single store will on its own. (And on an aside, it is also why on-line shopping is so popular. What is more convenient than making a purchase from your home computer or smart phone? But I digress….)

Today I’m only going to tackle pedestrian and bike access....

Tips for taking stock of pedestrian and bike accessibility
When considering how accessible your downtown is, take stock of the following:

Bike access – Bike share programs and bike infrastructure are blossoming throughout the country. And where they have, local businesses seem to benefit. In New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, an NYC DOT study found a 49% increase in retail sales for locally based businesses after bike lanes were introduced compared to a 3% increase borough-wide. As biking becomes more popular as a mode of transit, local business districts, which are more accessible, are in a better position to draw customers from a larger trade area. As you assess your “bike friendliness”, ask yourself these basic questions:

• Does your district offer safe passage for those biking to the district? And are the lanes safe for cyclists of all ages?  In New York for instance, only children under 12 are allowed to ride on sidewalks. As a mother of a 6 year old – I would be thrilled if I could craft an afternoon of bike riding with my son, stopping to eat here or there. But the bike lanes in my neighborhood are shared with the road – not ideal for a little boy still learning to steer properly. So instead we leave our bikes at home, or load them into a car and leave the neighborhood.
• Are there sufficient locations to secure a bike when you reach your destination? If people have concerns about where they are going to lock up their bikes, it could deter their decision to visit your district. Consider that a single parking spot can support 10+ bike parking spaces. Wouldn’t businesses prefer ten shoppers over one who arrive by car?

Pedestrian access – There are two kinds of pedestrian access to consider – one that involves simply getting there and another that involves what happens once you arrive. Those are two different things. Lifestyle centers, for example thrive on the latter. Most customers arrive at these glorified malls - many of which attempt to mimic the Main Street environment – by car. Once they arrive, the quality of the common areas or “Main Street” is what they are there to experience. Like any mall, the owner tries hard to ensure a continuity of retail and an attractive environment. These places try very hard to achieve walkability.

The other kind of pedestrian access is about tapping the built in residential demand from people who living within walking distance of the shopping area. Here is where the “walk appeal” of all the streets and connections to downtown start to make a difference. Why is that? Because walk appeal is often psychological. A five-minute walk through a parking lot feels substantively different than a five-minute walk along a vibrant city street or leafy attractive sidewalk. A short walk on a hot day feels is much less appealing when there is no shade. A resident or office worker will walk further if the downtown environment is more appealing, when there is window shopping to be done or a cool spot to enjoy a nice view. In City’s like New York or London, walking a mile to one’s destination – a 15-minute walk – is not uncommon.

As you consider the pedestrian environment, ask yourself these basic questions:

• Is your downtown environment riddled with gaps in the pedestrian environment? Did you know that even 50 feet of a “poor” environment can keep people from walking past? In 2006 I was working at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and as part of a rezoning along 125^th Street – which at that time was seeing lots of taking up ground floor retail space – creating dead zones in the evening. What we found was that even these minor breaks in continuity affected people’s perceptions and how far the were willing to walk. So take stock if your district. Is there a vacant lot that needs to be activated? A bank that shuts down at 5 pm? Retail that closes and pulls down roll down gates? All of these things make an environment less appealing to pedestrians. So the businesses located on the other side of that gap, whatever it is, will see fewer customers as a result. 
• Is the five-minute walk shed from your downtown comfortable to walk? Is it safe to walk? Is there proper lighting? Is there shade to protect pedestrians during hot days? I am working in a community right now with a great opportunity to connection a waterfront marina – with lots of visitors to downtown. The problem? A creek and bridge that are uncomfortable to cross lies between the marina and downtown. While most locals think the distance of ¼ mile is easy to walk, on a hot or even warm day, the is brutal.  The sidewalk is narrow and unprotected from car traffic.  Improving the bridge crossing for pedestrians, or even building a pedestrian only bridge across the river – not an insignificant undertaking – is necessary to seam these two assets together. 

Admittedly, every community is just a little bit different. Transportation habits and mores differ by location. Weather, land use patterns, income and demographics play a role in determining what these habits are in different places. While this mean that these principles should be tinkered with and customized for every place, at the end of the day a successful downtown will be easily accessible to as many people using as many forms of transportation as possible. The next time you look at your downtown - try looking at it from this new perspective.

The Abandoned Bike Dilemma

Are those pesky abandoned bikes causing an eyesore to your district and taking up valuable space?

We've all seen them. These abandoned bikes obviously have not seen their owner in a very long time and each time you see one its sad bike carcass has become more derelict. Lately, CDA came across the issue with a recent project so we thought we'd look into it.

We discovered that, especially in NYC, it is very difficult to get a bike removed and that both the process and the requirements are rigorous and inflexible.

In New York City for example, the bike must be affixed to public property and must meet 3 out of 5 of the following criteria:

• The appearance is crushed or not usable;
• Have parts missing from bicycle other than seat and front wheel;
• Have flat tires or missing both tires;
• Handlebars and pedals are damaged, or the fork, frame or rims are bent;
• 75 percent of bicycle is rusted.

But as WNYC noted the process to report abandoned bikes is solely by phone so there is no official online or digital submissions process and calling in a complaint "takes about 14 minutes and involves speaking with two operators." LA, on the other hand, has an online submission and appears to make the process more user friendly.

Most college campuses are very liberal with mass removals of abandoned bikes each summer. Bicycles are first tagged as abandoned and given two weeks to be moved before being impounded and then finally given away or salvaged 90 days later. The policy is similar in Toronto where even bikes that look operable but reported are tagged with a two week notice and removed if not relocated. According to Chicago's city code, an abandoned bike can be removed after being tagged for just a week.

Questioning how your city handles abandoned bikes?  It can be as simple as Google'ing "city of ____" + "bike removal." A little investigation, either by internet or 311, can get you on the way to clearing your commercial district of a long overdue abandoned bike.

Sometimes in the end you have to look at the problem and see it from a different angle. Adel Souto of New York has made this topic into an art form, check out his blog.

Roundup: Best Practices for Generating Pedestrian Activity, Cons of Mixed Use, Detroit's Two-wheel Culture, Abandonment of Suburban Office Parks, and Chicago's Riverwalk

Which Streetscape Features Best Generate Pedestrian Activity?
An academic publication by Reid Ewing et al, examined which features and elements most effectively encourage pedestrian activity. They found that three of twenty features had a significant impact on ped counts: the proportion of windows on the street, the proportion of active street frontage, and the number of pieces of street furniture.  Fascinating and good news for districts who want to know what kinds of street furniture they should invest in!  Direct link to publication here (accessible through Aug 31).

Big City Dreaming: The Sometimes Mixed Results of Mixed Use
As the pendulum has swung away from Euclidian zoning toward mixed use, there are some hazards that practitioners should be aware of. For example, too much vacant retail has become the unintended blight of mixed use in smaller urban/suburban areas - "too many cities are insisting on mixed uses in locations that are, at best, suitable for a single use."

Detroit Bike Culture Is Unstoppable
Two wheels are starting to dominate the scene in the city known for four wheels.  Despite the city dealing with bankruptcy and blight, the Motor City of Detroit continues to see a renaissance that expands year after year.  A weekly bike meetup, the Slow Roll, now has thousands of riders. The bike lane network will expand to 200 miles. The annual Tour de Troit will have an estimated 7,500 riders this fall. And new bike oriented businesses are sprouting up.

The old suburban office park is the new American ghost town

Suburban corporate campuses came on the American scene in the 1940's outside of Birmingham and spread thereafter, but have reached a tipping point especially in the suburbs of Washington DC where it is reported that there is enough vacant office square footage to fill the Mall of America four times over and fill most of the Pentagon. See what and why...

Celebrating Chicago's Must-See Public Realm 

Chicago continues its reputation as an architectural magnate with the addition of new public spaces on the Riverwalk. Chicago has tried before to create public space along the Riverwalk, this time however, with wonderful conceptualization, craftsmanship, design, and detailing, appears to be a public space that will connect the public to the water effortlessly for a long time to come.

Gil Penalosa inspires a discussion about communities that meet the needs of everyone from age 8 to age 80.

Making communities safe and welcoming to all people regardless of age, income, race or ethnicity was the topic of a panel I moderated at the ICSC Midwest Urban Forum in Detroit this past week. One panelist came from slightly further afield. Urban planner Gil Peñalosa, former Parks Commissioner for the City of Bogota, Colombia (where his brother Enrique served as Bogota's Mayor) offered a compelling vision and rationale for communities to meet the needs of people from the ages of 8 to 80 - which is why he founded a non-profit based out of Toronto called 8-80 Cities.

Gil Penalosa, former City of Bogota Parks Commissioner speaking at the IDA Midwest Urban Forum in Downtown Detroit. If you are wondering about the empty chairs in the background...it started raining and we improved beautifully by bringing everybody onto the stage with us! 

He succeeded in painting one of the more compelling visions of a walkable downtown that I've heard in a long time. He started by asking the audience to imagine an 8-year old child that they love. Then he asked them to imagine an 80-year old senior that they love. He finished by asking "would you feel comfortable with that person walking or crossing the street in your neighborhood? Would you send them along to the nearest store to grab a pint of milk and eggs?" By putting walkability and safety in these very personal and blunt terms, he said more in just a few sentences than most people can say with charts and graphs in a half hour. 

This challenge, making communities realize the importance of connectivity, walk-ability and bike-ability to local commercial districts, has been coming up for us more and more here at LOA, particularly when we deal with neighborhood commercial districts that are struggling to remain relevant as shopping destinations. When you talk to business and property owners in many of these districts - our most recent project in a small NJ town comes to mind - they complain about lack of parking. Yet in this case, the district is surrounded by fairly well off walkable neighborhoods. Unfortunately, over time the safe walkable/bikable connections between the commercial district and the neighborhood they serve have been eviscerated. Roads widened and sidewalks narrowed to accommodate vehicles moving at faster and faster speeds. So the impact of road expansion is two fold. Not only are cars encouraged to speed, but when people consider going to their local commercial district, they hop in their cars. And once they are in their cars, a few extra minutes takes them someplace with more parking, more retail offerings and more selection. In this environment, traditional commercial corridors struggle to compete. 

So what are the elements of a successful walkable, bikeable commercial district? Here are a few:

• Bike parking. Adequate,convenient places to safely park your bike. 



DO: Consider setting aside adequate parking for bikes.
One parking space can fit up to 12 bikes.

• Bike lanes. This is not just about bike lanes on the commercial street, it is also about outfitting connecting streets with bike lanes that offer safe and convenient access to the district from nearby neighborhoods. 

DO: Do your best to create safe, dedicated bike lanes.
In Long Island City, Queens the dedicated two-way bike paths
offer cyclists safety at a very busy intersection. 

• Sidewalks wide enough, safe enough, and comfortable enough for an 8 year old, or an 80 year old, to walk on.

DO: Even streets without trees can be comfortable for pedestrians.
In Great Barrington, MA awning provide much welcome shade during hot days. 

• Slow(er) moving vehicles. Consider traffic calming measures that prioritize pedestrians at crossings. 

  

  DO: Bump-outs are a way to give your road a diet...
  and narrow streets are a great way to slow down cars. 

• Pedestrian lighting. The traditional cobra head light does a great job of lighting streets at night, but what about sidewalks? Pedestrian lighting is scaled to offer light for those who use sidewalks. 

  

  DO: Pedestrian lighting is for pedestrians. Cobra heads are for cars. 

• Benches. Offer a reprieve for seniors and when placed in front of stores, are more likely to be monitored. 

  

  DO: Find out if your businesses can set out benches in front of their stores.
  If the regulatory powers that be allow it, it can be a great way to offer kids and elderly much needed reprieve between visits to stores. 

Commercial District News Round Up

What is Urban Decay? (And Why the Answer Matters)
Very interesting read regarding urban decay, how to define it, the legal battles over fighting urban decay, and how to resolve it.  This story mainly focuses on California and their development of urban decay laws that deal with environmental analysis for proposed projects, typically big box stores.

Image source: www.wifr.com/

Mall-centric no more: Aging suburb targeted for a sweeping makeover
An area in Fairfax, Virginia called Seven Corners, near Arlington, is being considered by city officials for a major overhaul that would include three new residential villages and roads over the next 40 years. The idea is to make a more livable environment, friendly to pedestrians, and oriented to nearby public transportation. The area used to be occupied by a mall, which is a question of our times, "How to retrofit former malls and surroundings to meet today's needs"?

Image source: Fairfax County Office of Community Revitalization

Are Cities Becoming Less Authentic?
In a quest to understand Millennials, Klaus Philipsen discusses the other most desirable attribute that Millennials seek: authenticity.  This desirable authenticity is also disappearing, as he documents, in many major American cities such as Baltimore and with it taking away important historical artifacts. Philipsen notes that in Baltimore this means that historically significant black sites are being replaced by Starbucks, Chipolte etc without sensitivity to the history and authentic fabric of the neighborhood.

Image source: sustainablecitiescollective.com

Detroit relights neighborhoods at blazing pace
The installation of nearly 40,000 LED streetlights, that are both brighter and more energy efficient than the previous lights, is expected to be completed by the end of July, about six months ahead of schedule.  Lights are going up in streets that have not had street lights for two decades in some cases. Statistics are already showing decreased burglaries, larcenies, vehicle theft and other property offenses - 18% decrease from the same time last year.

Image source: lighting-ledlight.com/

Meet the 606: Chicago's New Elevated Bikeway and Park
A time lapse video takes you through the new 606 in Chicago, an elevated bikeway and park similar to the highly popular High-Line in Manhattan.

Image source: www.the606.org