Hoop house, helicopter ride, and the new building code

First new post from Chicago Cityscape in four weeks! The monthlong hiatus wasn’t on purpose, but a lot of important commitments came up:

• I’ve been studying the updated Chicago building code with my colleagues at MAP Strategies. I’m not an architect, and I don’t work on the permit management services that the majority of my colleagues at MAPS do, so I’m learning building codes for pretty much the first time. I’m excited about the new building code because it allows some lower-cost construction types for low-rise multi-family housing (2 and 3-flats) to a greater extent than the current code. I also helped design our seminar that we’ve started presenting to developers and architects (sign up here).
• I’ve spent most weekends since January building a hoop house on the West Side with my friend; we finished last Sunday.
• I went on a helicopter ride for the first time ever. What. A. Blast.

I didn’t get the window seat in the six-passenger helicopter, but Eric Allix Rogers did. It was neat to see many of my clients’ buildings and properties from the vantage point of being 1,700 feet up.

• City Open Workshop has needed attention since our whole season of workshops has been about Accessory Dwelling Units — I’ve learned what people want to know about ADUs and coach houses as their re-legalization happens this year. We’ve talked about data, mapping, policy, financing, and community engagement.
• I volunteered on one of Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot’s transition committees, for transportation & infrastructure. You can read my memo (amongst everyone else’s) about piloting more bus lanes downtown so people can have consistent commute times on the South Side express buses.

Derrick James, me, and Carlos Nelson — at our last transportation & infrastructure committee meeting, talking about Metra service on the South Side. State funding was finally released and Metra will build a new station on the Rock Island line at 79th Street and Wallace Avenue in Auburn Gresham, planned since 2013. Photo from the Transition Team’s staff photographer.

The most common destination for people who took Lyft, Via, and Uber from the part of the West Loop that contains the map marker was just ~1 mile to the western part of the Loop.

There’s been one new feature during this busy time: Ride hail (TNC) trip maps.

This one doesn’t really fit the mission of Chicago Cityscape to provide policy-oriented real estate information, but the Cityscape mapping platform made it the most appropriate place to stash it. Look up an Address Snapshot, scroll down, click “Load ride hail trips” and see a map that shows you where people who took Lyft, Via, and Uber went. (The data is only for November-December 2018 at this time. Just so you know, the most common trip is from the western part of River North to the western part of the Loop.)