The Daley administration made a number of anti-pedestrian “dick moves” in a losing battle against auto congestion: fencing off crosswalks on Michigan Avenue, shortening walk-signal times and adding right-on-red arrows for cars. But the kicker was the 2005 removal of the stoplight and crosswalk at Queen’s Landing, where in 1959 the city rolled a red carpet across Lake Shore Drive so Queen Elizabeth II could stroll from the lakefront to Buckingham Fountain. While the removal saved motorists a minute or two of wait time, it forced walkers to take a ten-minute detour. As part of a wave of pedestrian improvements under Emanuel, the city reinstalled the crosswalk on Thanksgiving Day—definitely something to give thanks for.
500 South Lake Shore
Audience choice: He speaks coherently
Best audience comments: “Seeing Rahm’s ass on the Brown Line every morning with his security detail. Daley would NEVER have done that”; “He can’t have all his fingers in the pie, can he?”; “He was at the Adele concert at the Riv”; “That 50-0 budget approval vote. Oh, wait.”
