Milwaukee Avenue's Pedestrian Plans Are Waiting on Hardware

"If we prove that out, then I can see moving towards a more frequent cadence in the future," 1st Ward Ald. Daniel La Spata told Block Club Chicago in July. He wasn't talking about whether people want more car-free Sundays on Milwaukee Avenue. He was talking about where to store the barricades.

The Milwaukee Avenue pedestrian projects all follow that pattern. The car-free Sundays, the all-pedestrian crossing at North, Damen and Milwaukee, and Chicago's first automated public restroom at the Polish Triangle have each won public support already, through foot-traffic counts, participatory budgeting votes or a budget allocation. What each one is waiting on now is equipment.

• Car-free Sundays: barricades, staff and volunteers
• The six-corner crossing: accessible pedestrian signals that the intersection doesn't have yet
• The Polish Triangle restroom: a utility connection

The barricade problem on car-free Sundays

Meet Me On Milwaukee closes Milwaukee Avenue to cars and buses between the Damen and North intersection and Ashland Avenue. The 1st Ward describes it as a pilot series of "pedestrianization" events run by La Spata's office, the Wicker Park-Bucktown Chamber of Commerce and the Chicago Department of Transportation. The 2026 season was scheduled for the last Sunday of August, September and October: Aug. 30 and Sept. 27 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Oct. 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Demand was clear after the first season. Chamber director Pamela Maass told Block Club Chicago that Placer AI foot-traffic data showed roughly triple the usual number of people on the closed stretch during the August 2025 event, compared with the same day a year earlier. Counts were about double the norm at the September and October 2025 events. Mayor Brandon Johnson visited the August 2025 event and called it a "model and an example" for business corridors, and some attendees told Block Club they wanted the closures monthly through the summer or even every Sunday.

That support didn't produce more dates in 2026. La Spata said he favors expanding the series, but he described each closure as a heavy lift that takes coordination with city departments plus work from staff and volunteers. One fix organizers were considering was storing the barricades at nearby businesses so they're easier to reach. The ward's event page shows the same constraint: it asks for volunteers to work three-hour shifts on setup, takedown and staffing the entrances.

Businesses on the street signed up in larger numbers. The Chamber's August roster listed Wandering Willow Books, Buffalo Exchange, The Den Theatre, Transit Tees, BODEGA VINTAGE, The Mahjong Society, Same Sip Coffee, Olga's Aguas Frescas, StretchLab Wicker Park, Ravenswood Music Academy and others, along with free bike checkups from West Town Bikes and a free yoga class from 105F Hot Yoga & Pilates. For the Oct. 25 finale, the 1st Ward's last scheduled closure of 2026, the Chamber's listing advertised a Halloween theme with costumes, trick-or-treating, pumpkin decorating, mini putt-putt, a bouncy house, live entertainment, sidewalk sales and a community food drive. That builds on the October 2025 event, when shops along the strip handed out candy to trick-or-treaters.

If the series grows past three Sundays in 2027, the deciding factor will probably be the barricades and volunteers more than the crowd sizes.

The six-corner crossing is waiting on signals

The same pattern shows up at the north end of the closure, at the intersection where Milwaukee, North and Damen meet.

La Spata's proposed Pedestrian Priority Pilot would add a fourth phase to the light cycle. As he described it to Block Club Chicago: "Milwaukee Avenue, everyone crosses. North Avenue, everyone crosses. Damen, everyone crosses, and then a fourth phase that is just pedestrian crossing for 20 seconds." More than 1,000 1st Ward residents voted for it in the ward's 2025 participatory budgeting process.

The crossing can't go in until the intersection gets accessible pedestrian signals, which give signal timing through audible tones, speech messages and vibrating surfaces. The city is working through a court-ordered plan to install more than 1,700 of these signals, which came out of a 2019 class action lawsuit. CDOT spokesperson Erica Schroeder wrote that the Damen/Milwaukee/North intersection "is not currently equipped with APS, so those upgrades must be completed first." She added that given the intersection's size and complexity, "an exclusive pedestrian phase would not be able to be installed this year."

La Spata has pointed out that CDOT already installed these signals at Halsted, Fullerton and Lincoln, another six-corner intersection, and said he would push to get the crossing in this year if possible. As of July, the city's APS installation request tracker showed two requests for the intersection: one in design and one under review. No new schedule has been announced since then. For anyone crossing North Avenue at Damen this winter, the light cycle will stay the same.

At the Polish Triangle, the restroom is built but not connected

The restroom at the south end of the corridor is the furthest along of the three projects. It's also waiting on equipment, in this case a utility hookup.

The city's first standalone, automated restroom sits in the Polish Triangle, at the center of the Milwaukee, Ashland and Division intersection above the Division Blue Line station. JCDecaux, which already supplies Chicago's bus shelters and other street furniture, is providing the unit. According to Block Club, the restroom itself is free under the city's existing contract with the company, while installation and related costs come out of the 1st Ward's menu funds. La Spata allocated $315,659 from the 2025 menu program, and some 2026 funds will go toward it as well.

In March, La Spata's newsletter said it would be operational "by the end of the year." The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Oct. 3 that the unit had "popped up" that week but was "just not open for use yet." La Spata's office said the foundation work was done and contractors were connecting utilities, with restoration of the surrounding area to follow. The office gave no estimated completion date.

The ward office expects the location to get heavy use. Nicholas Zettel, the 1st Ward chief of staff, told Block Club Chicago the area is well trafficked by people "on the way to any number of shops in Wicker Park, a CTA transfer, a walk home, an emergency." The same Block Club report noted that some neighbors had raised sanitation and safety concerns about the plan.

New shops between the two ends

The two new storefronts on this stretch are both on Milwaukee itself, inside the car-free zone.

Sheep Cult Comics opened its first brick-and-mortar shop in mid-March at 1632 N. Milwaukee. It sells independent comics, zines and art books and has planned events such as workshops and comedy shows. A few blocks south, Blundstone, the Australian boot brand known for its Chelsea boots, announced a store at 1563 N. Milwaukee for this fall. When Block Club reported it on Sept. 24, there was no opening date yet.

These shops matter to the car-free series because sidewalk sales and storefront programming are what the closures run on. La Spata said in July that he expected more business participation in 2026 because shops and restaurants now knew what to expect.

Where each project stands in late October

All three projects have their approvals, budgets or votes in place. What comes next on Milwaukee Avenue depends on how quickly CDOT works through the signal requests, how fast contractors finish the restroom hookup at the Polish Triangle, and whether organizers find a simpler way to put up and take down the car-free Sunday barricades.

When the street around a building changes, the question for owners and buyers is how it affects that particular address: a unit near the six-corner intersection, an entrance on the closed stretch, or a short walk to the Division Blue Line. Hudson Parker tracks these changes at the building level. Request a Building-Specific Market Plan for your Wicker Park address.