Sidewalk-adjacent news: they have started clearing trees away for the “Michigan Avenue Rehabilitation” project, which is supposed to improve the Michigan Avenue corridor from Pennsylvania to 127 – in other words, the length of the east side – for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Fans of the blog know I’m inclined toward anything that improves sidewalks. I’m also in favor of bicycle lanes, especially when they mean cyclists won’t be risking collisions with pedestrians on the sidewalk. I get why they ride on the sidewalk, and when I rode my bike I would ride on the sidewalk on Michigan too since the alternative is worse, but I’d still rather not have them scare me by blowing past my shoulder inches away (often without warning as they should).

The trouble is that I’m also generally opposed to anything that involves removing mature trees. The honey locust trees on this stretch are pretty, making for nice shade and pleasant colors. They stand in dedicated little holes in the sidewalk that I’ve always found a bit fascinating. According to the official phasing map, the city is going to replace them one to one – actually better than one to one in some blocks – but a tree that has already had decades to grow is always better than a new planting. I wish they had tried harder to work around them, at least keeping the ones that could be kept.