Bikes
The Mayor Who Endorsed You Is Now Opposing Your Bill
It's a short statement, but it carries weight: the City of Chicago has filed an opposition slip to HB 2454, the bill that would make cyclists "intended users" of every road where biking is legal in Illinois.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who ran for office in 2023 on an explicit endorsement of the Bike Grid Now platform, is now the one telling Springfield to leave the legal status quo intact. The city's official argument: the bill would expose Chicago to "sweeping liability and potential changes to roadway standards," costing "millions of dollars in new annual costs."
Chicago Bike Grid Now! organizers Charna Albert and Nik Hunder pushed back in a Tribune op-ed last week, and their counterargument is worth sitting with. The city already paid roughly $666,000 in injury claims related to street conditions between January and September 2025. The Active Transportation Alliance estimates that bikes account for about 2% of Chicago trips versus 60% for vehicles. Scale that vehicle number down to bike proportions and you get something like $22,000 in potential annual claims — not millions. Either the city's road surfaces are so terrible that bike liability would be genuinely expensive, or the cost projections are manufactured. Neither is a strong advertisement for the status quo.
Illinois is, for the record, the only state in the country where cyclists remain "permitted but not intended" road users unless there's a bike lane or sign saying otherwise — a legacy of the 1998 Boub v. Township of Wayne Supreme Court ruling. HB 2454 would close that anomaly. It's in committee; the mayor can still reverse course.
Sunday Deadline: Portage Park Bike Network Survey
A reminder that the online survey for the proposed Portage Park Neighborhood Bike Network closes this Sunday, March 15. CDOT is proposing three new bike lanes (Central, Laramie, and Montrose) and five neighborhood greenways across the 30th, 38th, and 45th wards. The March 5 community meeting drew more than 200 people. The survey takes about three minutes and is available in English and Spanish at the CDOT project page.
Tuesday Reminder: March 17 Primary
The Illinois primary is four days away. Before you vote, the Active Transportation Alliance publishes candidate assessments by district — a useful filter for anyone who wants to know where state legislative candidates stand on HB 2454 and other bike infrastructure questions.
Wildlife
Rats on the Pill: Early Positive Signs
The Lincoln Park rat contraceptive pilot is showing what Ald. Timmy Knudsen (43rd) called a promising early arc: "[Y]ou start to see the impact, the rat population start to go down around months six through eight... and then they go down drastically after that." The program, which was launched in August 2025 and is being monitored by volunteers across eight blocks in partnership with the Chicago Bird Alliance and Lincoln Park Zoo, is now roughly at the six-to-eight month mark where that downward trend is expected to emerge. Full data is expected this summer.
The stakes are bigger than a single ward. Ald. Knudsen has said that if the pilot succeeds, he intends to introduce an ordinance making the contraceptive approach available to all 50 wards. Chicago has been named the nation's rattiest city ten consecutive years, and the standard alternative — anticoagulant rodenticide — is well-documented in its collateral damage: a 2024 Chicago study found 74% of tested brown rats and 100% of sampled raccoons, opossums, and skunks tested positive for anticoagulant rodenticide exposure. Owls and hawks that eat the poisoned rodents die of secondary poisoning. The Lincoln Park owls that died last spring were a high-profile example.
The Lake County Audubon Society weighed in this month with a useful summary of the ecology: the animals most harmed by rodenticides are also the animals that would most efficiently control rodents without chemicals. A single owl family can consume hundreds of rodents during breeding season. The practical case for letting them do their job is not merely sentimental.
Lead
IEPA Loan: Public Hearing Announced
The Department of Water Management has announced a public hearing on its intent to apply for $28 million in funding from the Illinois EPA's Public Water Supply Loan Program for lead service line replacement projects across targeted census tracts. The hearing represents a new tranche of state financing as the city works to deploy the remainder of its $325 million federal WIFIA loan before it expires at year's end.
Context from the broader picture: Chicago needs to replace roughly 20,000 lines per year to meet the federal Lead and Copper Rule Improvements timeline — nearly triple the city's 8,300-per-year pace and double the 10,000-line target for 2026. Contractor capacity and administrative throughput remain the binding constraints, not just money.
Free full lead service line replacement is available for households below 80% AMI ($83,350 for a family of four). Information: LeadSafeChicago.org.
Housing & Abundance
ADU Countdown: 19 Days
April 1 is 19 days out. Chicago's permanent citywide ADU ordinance takes effect that day, and permit applications open simultaneously. If you are planning to build a coach house or conversion unit, now is the time to confirm whether your alderperson has opted in (required for single-family zones), identify a contractor enrolled in a registered apprenticeship program (required for coach houses), and get your paperwork ready. Permit tracker: Chicago Cityscape. Questions: adu@cityofchicago.org.
Portage Park Bike Network survey closes Sunday, March 15 at chicago.gov. Illinois primary: Tuesday, March 17 — check Active Transportation Alliance's candidate assessments before you vote. City Council next meets March 18. ADU ordinance effective April 1 (19 days).