Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail

Important public meeting this Thursday

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:32:37 GMT

One of the Bloomingdale Trail access points will be a park on the lot directly north of the Trail, between Albany Ave. and Whipple St. The Chicago Park District is applying for a grant that will help develop the park. They are holding a meeting this Thursday, June 26th, at 6:30 p.m. at Simons Park, 1640 N. Drake Ave., to present their proposed plans for the grant, and to take feedback about them.

This is a public meeting, and it’s a great opportunity for you to come out and show your support for the Bloomingdale Trail.

See you Thursday!

Park District capital improvement plan

Mon, 05 May 2008 16:52:56 GMT

The Chicago Park District has recently published its capital improvement plan for 2008 to 2012. These are the projects that the Park District will focus on in the next few years. The Bloomingdale Trail is listed among the acquisition and development projects.

FBT hears needs and desires of the disability community

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:22:33 GMT

Youth and adults with disabilities, their families, caretakers, teachers and providers are invited to give input into how they envision people with disabilities using the future Bloomingdale Trail. The visioning session is scheduled from 10am to 1pm on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at the Center for Neighborhood Technology, 2125 W. North Ave. The meeting is wheelchair accessible and will be sign language interpreted. There is no admission fee, but reservations are required as a lunch will be served. RSVP Lucy Gomez-Feliciano at (773) 384-4370 x43

Listen for the BT tomorrow on WBEZ

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:44:35 GMT

Listen to Chicago Public Radio (91.5 FM WBEZ) tomorrow at 7:20am during Morning Edition for a long-ish piece on the Bloomingdale Trail. It’ll play again during Eight Forty-Eight at 9am and 8pm.

UPDATE: Here’s the story.

Bloomingdale Trail Educators Open House

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:54:40 GMT

Attention, educators: mark your calendars. The Bloomingdale Trail educators open house is coming up. Join us and get the educational resource packet, see completed student work about the trail project, and enjoy light appetizers and beverages …

Bloomingdale Trail Educators Open House

April 24, 2008
4–6pm

Richard Yates Elementary School, 1839 N Richmond St

For more info, email Amber Kleeschulte Richard. A draft of the resource packet is available for download.

Show Your Love for the Bloomingdale Trail

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:55:48 GMT

We've been hearing rumors that its good luck for lovers to kiss beneath the Bloomingdale Trail. Sounds like a fine idea to us! To help embrace the romantic side of Bloomingdale we're inviting Friends of the Trail to a special event …

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
7-10pm
Weegee's Lounge
3659 W. Armitage Ave.

A $30 suggested donation gets you a ceramic tile to design with your own declarations of love and compimentary beer to enjoy while you create. Our hope is to one day mount the tiles on the trail itself!

Check out these terrific flyers Friend of the Bloomingdale Trail Melissa Dean crafted for the occasion:

For more information, contact Ben Helphand at helphand@gmail.com or 773-677-7970.

Land Donation to Spark New Park at Kimball Ave.

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:34:41 GMT

The City of Chicago introduced an ordinance on December 12th to accept a land donation from the Trust for Public Land "in connection with the establishment of the Bloomingdale Linear Park." TPL is set to receive a donation of the land from a local real estate developer who has been a long-time supporter of the trail and park plan. The City also owns several adjacent parcels of land that together with the donation equal 25,000+ square feet of future parkland, equivalent to 8 city lots. The Kimball Ave. site is the largest of all of the proposed access points for the future trail, due to the old railroad siding that used to exist there. The City's ordinance also authorizes the conveyance of the land to the Chicago Park District.

Mural project unveiling this weekend

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:13:13 GMT

You are invited to the Bloomingdale Mural Project unveiling party. Meet the artists of recently painted murals, this Saturday, October 6th. It’s from 3:00pm to 5:00pm at the Green Eye Lounge, 2403 W. Homer.

Add your voice to the Trail's future

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:19:24 GMT

This past March, Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail, along with many of you, started fleshing out a vision, from the community, of the future Trail. When we met at ACME Art Center that Saturday, we brainstormed with our neighbors and friends, drew on maps and sketched concepts with the help of some designers and architects, shared our hopes, concerns, and some nuts-and-bolts practicalities about building this new park. This activity was the beginning of a long-term effort by FBT to gather the community’s voices together, so that we can speak concretely about the kind of Trail we want.

Now is the time for us to step up and add those voices to an important process. We have an opportunity to write a report that will be used by the City as a basis for designing the trail. This is an exciting and real moment to have the community’s vision reflected in the future Trail. We want to ensure that the design of the park fully reflects the diverse needs and desires of all the communities that live near the Trail.

We’re asking you to participate in this report by telling us exactly what you want to see in the Trail. We’re going to use an online survey tool to hear what you have to say. Then, we’ll take the results of the survey, digest them, and write the report based on what the data tells us.

It’s in English and Spanish. Please feel free to forward the link on to any person or organization you think should have their say in the Trail.

Community Visioning Survey: http://www.bloomingdaletrail.org/survey/

This all needs to happen fairly quickly. We’d like to have everyone fill out the survey by October 21. The number crunching and report writing will start immediately after, and we expect it to be handed over to the City later this year.

Please take a few minutes and complete the survey, won’t you? And when you’ve finished, would you send the link on to a handful of your friends, family and neighbors?

Thank you for your time, your opinions, and your efforts. You can help make the Bloomingdale Trail Chicago’s next great park.

Trail featured in the Chicago Reader

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:07:44 GMT

This week’s Chicago Reader is a special issue on Logan Square, one in a series the Reader is doing about Chicago’s neighborhoods. The Bloomingdale Trail is featured as one of Logan Square’s highlights. Of course, it’s also a highlight of Humboldt Park, Wicker Park, and Bucktown, as well as the rest of the City, but we’re proud that people are starting to see the Trail as a prominent part of their neighborhood’s future.