“Once I saw a kind of Day of the Dead altar with
a sun motif on it,” Helphand recalls. “You find lots of things up here. Caps from fire hydrants. ‘Danger: High Voltage’ signs. This used to be a place where you could live. Encampments—with electricity.” More than a decade has passed since the last trains
rumbled along this stretch of the Bloomingdale Line. And while trespassing here is both illegal and discouraged, people do come. Joggers, dog walkers, explorers, street artists—perhaps including very itinerant piano play- ers—routinely make their way up the 18-foot embankment, finding rare high ground in this flat, prairie city. And much more action is to come. If all goes as planned, the long-held dream of a three-
mile-long park and trail through the heart of the North Side will become a reality within the next few years.
The Trust for Public Land is raising funds, acquiring land for entry parks, providing technical assistance, and organizing community meetings to help plan the trail.
Currently known as “The Bloomingdale,” it will be the na- tion’s longest urban elevated rail park, with paths for cycling, jogging, and strolling and spaces to showcase art and culture from the diverse neighborhoods along the route. Street- level parks, some of them already built, will provide access to the trail while adding new neighborhood open space. Partners in the project include the City of Chicago, the
Chicago Park District—an independent sister agency that will own and operate the new park—the Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail and other community groups, and The Trust for Public Land, which is coordinating the project under an agreement with the park district. TPL is raising funds, acquiring land for entry parks, providing technical assistance, and organizing and running community meetings to help plan the trail. “TPL has been a huge partner,” says Gia Biagi, director of strategy and policy for the park district. “This is a major infrastructure project with multiple
funding sources that was shaped by many players,” says Beth White, director of TPL’s Chicago office, who has been working on the project for six years. Ideas and direc- tion for the effort have come from across Chicago’s vibrant parks and design communities, including the Chicago Architecture Club, Chicago Architecture Foundation, Friends of the Parks, Open Lands Institute, and Chicago Public Art Group. With funding for Phase One already in place, engineer-
ing studies underway, and designs being shared with the community, The Bloomingdale has become Chicago’s most talked-about green space effort since the much-publicized Millennium Park opened near downtown in 2009.
18 LAND&PEOPLE Fall/Winter 2012
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