Just be straight with me

when it comes to Harrison Street

08/29/2011 11:42 PM

By Bonnie McGrath

2 Comments - Add Your Comment


How this one got by me I don't know. Summer distractions that had me not thinking straight?


A few weeks ago, I bellyached about the old Jones High School being torn down in order to make way for straightening out Harrison Street where it zig-zags around State Street, creating a hazard for students--and all the other pedestrians who have to cross there in any direction. I like the old Jones High School. But Jones and the University Center somewhat overlap at the intersection creating quite a zig and a zag.

I just realized what would happen at Dearborn if Jones is torn down, thereby letting Harrison Street go straight through, to and from State. The Transportation Building is right there. (Not to mention the buildings west of it.) At one time the building housed railroad-related offices, and the office of Eliot Ness--and today it's a thriving and expensive condo building.

How would tearing down Jones straighten Harrison if the Transportation Building at 600 S. Dearborn is right behind it? Wouldn't there then have to be another jog at Dearborn around the Transportation Building--and yet another crossing hazard? Can any of you engineers out there explain how tearing down Jones would solve the problem of Harrison jogging around a building? Is the idea that there would have to be a gradual swing of traffic to and from State and Dearborn, utilizing the space where Jones now stands?

That would be quite the scenic drive, I would think--and very unusual for downtown. Have the powers that be thought this through? Or is straightening Harrison just a good excuse to tear down Jones? And then, oh my!--use the land for something less popular than a school or a straight street.


2 Comments - Add Your Comment



By mnjoe
Posted: 08/31/2011 2:33 PM

The extreme literalness with which you're taking straightening out the street makes me not sure if this article is serious or a satire. They would probably add a couple extra lanes to the south and turn the current lanes into left turn lanes.


By Anonymous
Posted: 08/30/2011 11:12 PM

My god Bonnie, you \"bellyache\"(as you put it) about everything. I think its time for you to grab your walker and move out to the burbs The 1% tax for restaurants, what do we get? We get the midwest\'s most popular tourist destination within biking distance. McCormick\'s conventions and the hotel guests bring foot traffic to our neighborhood, and help us to have more retail and dining options within walking distance Harrison can be angled after the trans without a \"jog\" Please stop whining