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Author Archives: Evan Jenkins
An Open Letter to the Chicago Maroon Editorial Board
To whom it may concern: As Americans head to the polls today to vote in the midterm elections, many University of Chicago students have either voted absentee in their home states or are not voting at all. And it’s hard … Continue reading
Posted in Hyde Park, University of Chicago
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Affluenza or Autoimmune Disease?
The lack of justice in cases of automobile violence has long gone unnoticed, but a recent case has finally provoked widespread outrage. 16-year-old Ethan Couch got loaded, got into a car, killed four people, and got off with a slap … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles
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The Golden Compromise
Let’s face it: compromise is rarely good. Whether it’s Congresspersons trying to agree on a “grand bargain” to restart the government, or an incompatible couple trying so hard to make things work between them, compromising tends to end up as … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles, Small Streets
3 Comments
A People-Oriented Plan for the Near South Loop
Looks like I have some competition. I recently stumbled across the Near South Loop Master Plan, a design for a mixed-use, people-oriented development by MGLM Architects. While they’ve somewhat ironically nestled their construction around the conspicuously people-hostile Roosevelt Collection, on … Continue reading
Posted in Midway Village, Small Streets
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The Big Transportation Disaster You’re Not Hearing About
CNN.com’s front page is abuzz with the latest gruesome details and tearful stories of the “death train” and the “haunting” plane crash. But the biggest transportation disaster story is the one they’re not telling. The Fourth of July is the … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles
1 Comment
Will Wilkinson on Climate Change
The Economist’s Will Wilkinson has written what is sure to be a controversial blog post on climate change. He argues for taking a wait-and-see approach, citing both a great deal of uncertainty in the actual economic costs of climate change … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles
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An Open Letter to Senator Durbin
The United States Senate will soon hold a vote to confirm Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx as Secretary of Transportation. As with past transportation secretaries, his nomination is not a controversial one. Since I have huge moral qualms with our government’s … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles
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Let’s End Our Nation’s Reliance on the Automobile
On a bit of a whim, I created a White House petition to urge the Obama administration to end our nation’s reliance on the automobile. Here is the text of the petition: In 1964, the Surgeon General released a report … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles
2 Comments
Fantasy vs. Reality
This morning’s episode of This American Life was rather coincidentally timed for me. It focuses on a county in Alabama in which a quarter of adults receive disability benefits and features an interview with a sympathetic town doctor who views … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles, Walkability
5 Comments
State Street, that Great Street, that… Small Street?
Over at Streetsblog Chicago (formerly Grid Chicago), John Greenfield has written a wonderful retrospective of the failed State Street pedestrian mall and asks if and how a pedestrian State Street could be made to work today. Chicago Tribune architecture critic … Continue reading
Posted in Infill, Small Streets, Walkability
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Let the Midway Bloom 