Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail

Come join us this Saturday!

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:50:51 -0500

Don't forget to join us this Saturday, 10 A.M. at Churchill Park on Damen Ave. for a day of exploration, as we walk, bike, run the Bloomingdale Trail!

Bike the corridor. Run beneath its viaducts. Stroll along the mural-covered walls. Visit the new Albany-Whipple Park with its sod sofa and future trail access. Finish up with family friendly activities and a picnic back at Churchill Park. All ages are welcome. $5 suggested donation for adults benefits FBT.

Spread the word

We need your help getting the word out about the event. If you have a Twitter account, please tweet this message. If you have a Facebook account, please share this event.

Let's use the tag bloomingdaletrail on Flickr afterwards for any photos we take of the event. Also, check out our Flickr group and consider adding your pics to it.

One week to go!

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:33:31 -0500

We're just a week away from our big Walk, Bike, Run the Bloomingdale Trail! event, starting 10 A.M. next Saturday at Churchill Park.

We are looking for Friends of the Trail to help with set-up, check-in, water distribution, signage, and safety along the tour route. If you are interested in volunteering please contact Ben at helphand@gmail.com. To thank you, our friends over at Weegee’s Lounge (3659 W Armitage Ave) will have an open bar (draught beer and well drinks) from 3:00 to 5:00 for all event volunteers.

You can also download the flyer for the event by clicking here.

See you next Saturday!

Great Trib article on the Trail project

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:17:37 -0500

The Chicago Tribune featured the Bloomingdale Trail today on the front page of its Chicagoland Extra section.

The article touches on many important aspects of the project, including providing more green space to Logan Square, connecting Humboldt Park, Wicker Park, Bucktown, and Logan Square neighborhoods, addressing childhood obesity through greater outdoor activity and mobility, concerns about gentrification and crime, and the Trail’s context within the Burnham Plan Centennial.

Be sure to check out a print copy of the article which features photos of FBT’s own Ben Helphand and TPL’s Beth White.

The High Line opens!

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:30:52 -0500

What an exciting day. Congratulations to our friends to the northeast in New York City today on the opening of the High Line!

The High Line is a fantastic project that's already captured the imagination of New Yorkers and so many others. We at Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail commend Friends of the High Line for their diligent efforts over the past decade bringing this spectacular urban park to life.

BT on cover of Chicago Life

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:24:29 -0500

If you live in Chicago and get the Sunday edition of the New York Times, you get a copy of the local interest magazine Chicago Life as an insert with your paper.

The cover photo of this week’s issue delivered earlier today is a nighttime vista from up on top of the Bloomingdale Trail, taken by Chicago’s own David Schalliol. Some of you may already be familiar with David’s work through his acclaimed “Isolated Building Studies.” If you haven’t already, do check out that link to his Flickr set, it’s worth your time.

This is a good opportunity to remind everyone of the Bloomingdale Trail group on Flickr. It’s open to anyone, so if you’ve been up or around the Trail and have taken digital photos, you can share them easily with the community. There’s over 400 images there already, some terrific stuff. Feel free to add yours, and we’ll be featuring some of the best on this site coming soon.

Walk, Bike, Run the Bloomingdale Trail!

Mon, 25 May 2009 01:56:48 -0500

Save the date! Saturday, June 20^th, 10 A.M. to 2 P.M., starting at Churchill Park.

Join the Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail for a day of exploration. Bike the corridor. Run beneath its viaducts. Stroll along the mural-covered walls. Visit the new Albany-Whipple Park with its sod sofa and future trail access. Finish up with family friendly activities and a picnic back at Churchill Park. All ages are welcome. $5 suggested donation for adults benefits FBT.

Produced in partnership with the Trust for Public Land, Bucktown Community Organization, Chicago Area Runners Association, Wicker Park Bucktown SSA, Goose Island Brewery. For more information, contact Andrew Vesselinovitch, (312) 427-1979.

Albany/Whipple community meeting tomorrow night

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:33:54 -0500

Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail and The Trust for Public Land invite you join the committee for the Albany Whipple Park, just north of Bloomingdale Avenue (and future trail!). The next meeting will be Thursday, April 30th, at 6pm at the Atlas Cafe, 3028 W. Armitage Avenue (at the corner of Whipple Avenue). Anyone is welcome to participate, so please feel free to pass along this invitation. Please RSVP, so I can give Atlas some notice of how many people to expect (if you do not, come anyway).

The purpose of this committee is to be the stewards of the new park, helping to maintain and improve it in partnership with the Chicago Park District, the City, FBT, and TPL. The committee will also help advocate for the construction of the Bloomingdale Trail over the next several years and provide input to the city’s preliminary design process, which may begin in 2010.

The agenda for the first meeting includes:

How should the park be maintained and improved?
Who would like the chair/co-chair this committee?
What are our next actions?

If you have any questions about this meeting, please feel free to call me at (312) 427-1979.

Celebrate Earth Day with FBT

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:19:43 -0500

Here's another fun way to celebrate Earth Day today, Wednesday April 22nd.

FBT and Weegee's Lounge is partnering with the Ames Middle School staff in organizing a great Earth Day event to get the kids involved in the spirit of the day and clean up our neighborhood. Here's a quick snapshot of the day's events:

Volunteer activities:

Walk with the kids and their teachers from Ames Middle School along a route centered on the Bloomingdale Trail and help with a neighborhood clean up and "cheerlead" to spur the kids on. If you want to volunteer, arrive at 12:30 at Ames Middle School soccer field (1920 N. Hamlin at Armitage) and contact David Rodriguez with Ames to check-in.
Man debris collection sites at strategic positions along the Trail and help encourage the kids. If you want to volunteer, stop be the Albany/Whipple park up materials at 1:30 to pick up some bags and gloves prior to heading to the collection site.
Provide a strong showing from the community at the Albany/Whipple park to welcome the kids, finish the clean up and listen to a presentation about Earth Day and The Bloomingdale Trail. If you can join, try and join us at around 2:00

Thanks everyone and Happy Earth Day! Please forward this e-mail to anyone else you think may be interested in participating.

Wanted!

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:28:04 -0500

Seeking motivated individuals who are passionate about FBT and who would enjoy assisting in the communication and organization of educational opportunities for students.

Needs include:

speaking with local public and private schools and community organizations on the high interest activities students can complete while learning about the proposed trail and their communities;
follow-up with organizations to ensure participation in an Education Open House showcasing student generated work;
assistance in organizing a fall Education Open House.

For further details and questions, please contact Amber K. Richard.

Volunteer opportunity this Sunday

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:45:04 -0500

With spring here, more and more people are out and about exploring the Trail. To help them in their travels, we thought it’d be a good idea to do a fresh distribution of the FBT brochure and map.

As friends of the Trail, no doubt you’ve seen our beautiful brochure, which opens up into along, multi-paneled map highlighting planned access points, cultural institutions and parks. But we know there are thousands of future friends out there who haven’t had the opportunity to learn about Chicago’s next great park.

Join us this Sunday, April 5th from 3:00pm–6:00pm for an FBT brochure distribution day. We'll meet at the corner of Leavitt and Milwaukee (a future access point), divide into partners, give everyone a supply of brochures and then spread out in all directions. Our focus on this day will be to distribute brochures to businesses and to areas where FBT has fewer friends. Please rsvp to ben@bloomingdaletrail.org if you plan to attend.