Excellent news. The signs have been up for evah!
First step for city riverwalk A five-block stretch of a Wacker Drive riverwalk that Mayor Daley hopes will someday rival San Antonio's will be open to the public next month, thanks to $800,000 worth of basic amenities now being installed.“This stretch between State and Franklin -- there's no other space like it downtown. We really want to maximize public use of it,” said Transportation Department spokesman Brian Steele.
With paving, fencing, railing, benches, and garbage and recycling bins going in along the stretch, Chicagoans will be able to enjoy the first major chunk of a riverwalk closed to the public since the $200 million reconstruction of Wacker Drive.
also some competition for the Metramarket
Later this summer, City Hall also hopes to open a temporary urban market in an enclosed and finished, 10,000-square-foot space at Wacker and Wabash on the lower level of Chicago's new Vietnam War memorial.The interim market is expected to open long before August, when boats participating in the Tall Ships Festival are displayed along the Chicago River's main branch. Last year the Tall Ships were at Navy Pier.
“It could be fruit or produce. It could be crafts or wares -- similar to some of the markets held on Daley Plaza. We just have to make sure it'll be of interest to the public and something we'll be able to manage throughout the summer,” Steele said.
Daley's original plan for a riverwalk he calls Chicago's “second lakefront” called for the city to spend $40 million to $50 million in yet-to-be-secured federal transportation funds to build a river-level boardwalk from Michigan to Lake that would include 35,500 square feet of retail and restaurant space along with docks for tour boats and water taxis.
