The 9^th Annual Windy City Rubber Ducky Derby is coming up on August 7, 2014 beginning at 10:00am in front of the Wrigley Building (400 N. Michigan Avenue). Thousands of spectators watch over 60,000 yellow rubber ducks splash into the Chicago River from the Columbus Drive bridge in downtown Chicago and race down river towards the finish line. There will be entertainment for the entire family – face painting, games, free food and appearances by several sports mascots. Splashdown for the Duck Derby is at 1pm. All proceeds benefit the nearly 21,500 Special Olympic athletes and over 18,500 Young Athletes across Illinois. Ducks are $5 for one, $25 for 6 and $100 for 24, and prizes include a 2014 Chevy Equinox and an all-inclusive Apple Vacation!

For more information in “adopting” a duck.

 Was this year’s RNRA Taste of River North bigger, yes, was it better, yes!

Thanks to all who attended, sponsored and supported our 13th annual Taste of River North 2014.  If you one of the tens of thousands who had fun and live in River North, we’d love to hear from you! info@rnrachicago.org or kjones@rnrachicago.org. The Taste is hosted by your River North Residents Association, a non-profit volunteer neighborhood association. We are always looking for new volunteers even for a 1/2 hour? Please consider helping us do what we do best and help our growing community.

Take the night off, bring your family and friends and celebrate National Night Out with the 18th District.  National Night Out celebrates police, community, partnerships and safe neighborhoods.  Meet your local Target team-games, prizes and give-a-ways! 

Tuesday, August 5th – 4pm-6pm

Family Style Barbeque

1160 N. Larrabbee –

18th District Parking Lot

Afterwards, join the 18th District Chicago Police for:

The Lego Movie

1000 N Crosby

Park Community Church Auditorium

6pm – 8pm

Beginning June 30th, The Chicago Department of Transportation plans to close the Division Street Bridge over the North Branch Canal to all traffic until the middle of October 2014 in order to demolish the structure and replace it with an interim bridge until a permanent one is constructed. Built in 1903, the bridge is past its useful life and is in need of a full replacement. During demolition and replacement, all vehicular and pedestrian traffic will be detoured.
Traffic Impact during Construction: Complete bridge closure to all vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic required for approximately 90 days.

42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly has issued an update on the proposed hotel development for 740 North Rush Street Project:

On April 7th, the River North Residents Association and I co-hosted a community meeting to review the development proposal. The meeting was very well attended and I am grateful to those who took time out of their busy schedules to participate.

Following the community meeting, I received a tremendous amount of constituent feedback regarding the proposal and the resounding overall sentiment was serious concern regarding the overall density of the proposal and the major traffic impacts and loading challenges associated with it.

After spending the past two months reviewing the proposal and associated traffic analyses to determine whether changes could properly address these challenges – I have concluded that the proposed 620 hotel keys, split across separate hotel flags, is simply far too ambitious for this location already surrounded by failing intersections (from a traffic engineering perspective) and high-density buildings.

I did not reach this conclusion quickly. In fact, I met with the development team on several occasions to explore potential changes or other development options to help make the proposal a better fit for this location. Unfortunately, at the end of that process, it became clear that this proposal simply could not proceed.

As a result, the proposed 620 key hotel development for 740 North Rush Street will not be moving forward. I have encouraged the property owners to carefully consider the limitations posed by the infrastructure around their site and existing traffic conditions, as they contemplate future development concepts.

I am grateful to the River North Residents Association (RNRA) and Streeterville Organization of Active Residents (SOAR) for helping me gather public input regarding this proposal and I appreciate the hundreds of neighbors who donated their time to help support our transparent public process.

 I value my partnership with downtown stakeholders and residents. I am proud of our success transforming dozens of large-scale development proposals into more compatible, contextual projects. I look forward to working with you to build upon that track record as we review future projects proposed for the 42nd Ward.

Sincerely,

Brendan Reilly

Alderman, 42nd Ward

The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) will close the Dearborn Street Bridge over the Chicago River to vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic on Tuesday, June 24.  To complete the Riverwalk Construction project, the contractor must raise the Dearborn Street Bridge for an extended period of time to construct a pedestrian underbridge to connect the path below.  The bridge will re-open at 8 p.m. on Monday, June 30.

  The Dearborn Street Bridge Closure begins at 7:00am on Tuesday, June 24th and lasts through 8:00pm on Monday, June 30.

 For the Dearborn Bridge closure, all vehicles including CTA buses, will be detoured west on Wacker Drive, north on Lasalle Street, east on Illinois Street to Dearborn.  Northbound bicycles on Dearborn will detour east on Lake Street, north on State Street, west on Kinzie Street, then back to Dearborn. Southbound bikes on will detour west on Kinzie Street, south on Clark Street, then return to Dearborn via Lake Street. Click here (LINK) to download the detour map.  The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) will also be rerouting buses as needed and will post signs at bus stops.   

The State Street Bridge closure will occur in mid-July.

Project Overview:

The Chicago Riverwalk project will create a continuous pedestrian path along the south bank of the Main Branch of the Chicago River from State Street to Lake Street. Construction of the underbridge connections will require lifting and closing the bridges for a period of several days each.

The bridges over the river establish a boundary between each Riverwalk block, which will allow each to have a unique identity and landscaping, linked by the continuous walkway along the river, beneath each bridge. The Riverwalk design plans include the build out of six blocks from State to Lake, with an extension of 25 feet from the current configuration into the river,