Voters Slam Governor, Mayor for Wanting to Spend $15 Million to Endanger Bicyclists & Pedestrians on Illinois Prairie Path
Press Conference & 15-Minute Bus Tour of Illinois Prairie Path in Hillside
Asian Media USA ©
Hillside IL: Voters are outraged that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Hillside Mayor Joe Tamburino want to spend about $15 million state taxes to make the Illinois Prairie Path more dangerous for bicyclists and pedestrians than it is today! Instead, voters want far safer and less costly solutions to fix the Path, possibly saving Illinois taxpayers $14 million. Read the Hillside Neighbors “Prairie Path Plan“ at www.hillsideneighbors.com.
Also, voters want Pritzker to build a Prairie Path bridge over Mannheim Rd. at Warren Ave. between Hillside and Bellwood for maximum safety. Other villages have built bridges like this over busy roads for pathways. To pay for the bridge, voters want Pritzker to shut down a controversial state project in Hillside that was never built and reassign its $2 million state grant.
The Illinois Prairie Path was created in 1963 as the first rails-to-trails conversion in North America. A recreational path for walking and bicycling, the Path extends 60 miles from Maywood (east) to Geneva (west.) Where the Path crosses Mannheim Rd. at either the Mannheim Rd./Washington St. or Mannheim Rd./Madison St. intersections, users face dangerous, fast-moving trucks and vehicles turning from all directions.
The Hillside Neighbors plan solves the Mannheim danger by putting traffic signals at the T-intersection of Mannheim Rd./Warren Ave. and allow Path users to cross Mannheim without dangerous left turns or right turns coming at them. Their plan also shortens the Path by keeping it on Warren Ave. in Hillside, which is a mostly residential street.
By contrast, Pritzker and Tamburino want to rip the Path off Warren, construct almost a mile of costly new pathways, purchase and demolish private buildings, force Path users across dangerous Mannheim Rd. intersections, force users across 13 dangerous business driveways and make the Path longer than it is today. For everyone taking the Path – – especially seniors, children and people with disabilities – – these changes would make the Path far more dangerous than it is today.
Plus, Pritzker and Tamburino are violating the Illinois Transportation Department’s requirement to hold a public hearing before IDOT issues a grant for their proposed project. In May 2021, Pritzker pledged a $17 million grant for Path improvements and for other work on Butterfield Rd. in Hillside. After this grant was allocated, Pritzker and Tamburino changed their Prairie Path plan without holding any public meeting. When voters contacted IDOT and demanded a public meeting, IDOT said no.
Hillside Neighbors also wants a Prairie Path bridge over Mannheim Rd. They’re asking Pritzker to reassign a $2 million state grant away from one of the most dangerous proposals in Illinois history: Building a 1,000-foot-long recreational bridge over 9 lanes of Eisenhower Expressway traffic in Hillside, with the bridge running along Mannheim Rd. Tamburino told the Chicago Tribune that the bridge would be built in 2019, but nothing has happened. Now, Pritzker must terminate this dangerous project and reassign the $2 million grant to a Prairie Path bridge over Mannheim Rd.
Photographs and Press release by: Asian Media USA
Suresh Bodiwala
Chairman
Asian Media USA
Cell: 847-420-4789
E-Mail: bodiwalasuresh@gmail.com
Copyrights ©: Asian Media USA
No one shall download or otherwise duplicate the graphics, images, press release and written content from the PDF without our express written permission. Likewise, no one shall reuse the aforesaid things, as the same are the intellectual property of the Company, we hereby reserve all rights
Disclaimer: Asian Media USA
Asian Media USA press releases are event oriented and published after careful review and examination of the contents without bias or without being influenced by race, color, nationality or religious persuasion. In other words we are completely neutral according to generally accepted journalistic principles and long established conventions governing Newspaper reporting. Any use or disclosure of the contents of either is unauthorized and may be unlawful. All liability for viruses is excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender states them, with requisite authority, to be those of the Asian Media USA. If for any reason including but not limited to prior written authorization, Newspaper or similar entity do not give the credit for the content and photographs, Asian Media USA reserve right to take legal action to prosecute for violating copy right law to the fullest extent of the law.