Armitage Avenue seriously needs some stop signs

First, welcome to this blog. It's about all things Bucktown, which is the Chicago neighborhood between Fullerton Ave. to the north, North Ave. to the south (wait, what?), Western Ave. to the west (much simpler), and the Kennedy expressway on the east. I'll also be writing about Chicago happenings in general, but the focus should be on Bucktown, its bars and restaurants and galleries and so forth.

First order of business - Armitage Avenue. It's the main east-west street in Bucktown, and while its great restaurants and bars generate tons of pedestrian traffic, it's largely uncontrolled between Western and Damen, which results in some fast-moving vehicle traffic barrelling down on the throngs of cheerfully inebriated pedestrians shuffling between Cleo's, LaGuardia, and the Map Room. Seriously, it's just a matter of time before multiple people are killed.

Moreover, think of the children! What about the CHILDREN! Every morning sees dozens of kids playing chicken with traffic trying to get to elementary school. This is, frankly, nuts. The city supplies crossing guards at the Armitage/Hoyne and Armitage/Oakley intersections, but they can't guard the entire stretch of road, can they?

We just elected a new alderman, Scott Waguespack. I'm going to write his office about this issue, and I'd recommend that everyone else in Bucktown do the same. A stop sign at, say, the Armitage/Hoyne intersection would benefit the neighborhood in several ways - obviously and primarily for safety purposes, but also to help out the area businesses. Who can enjoy dining al fresco at Cafe LaGuardia with noisy trucks shooting past at 50 MPH?!