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I read this article yesterday about how Mayor Rahm is handing over a chunk of land in Bucktown to the park district and how it will be developed into a public access point to the Bloomingdale Trail. The Bloomingdale Trail is an abandoned railroad that is going to be developed into a park, kind of like how the High Line was done in New York. (Highline before, Highline after.)

Last night I walked past this parcel of land and took the photo above. It’s very lush and green. There were people throwing balls and letting their dogs run. Nice improvement. As I recall, the land before this improvement was just a busted up vacant area. Here’s a screen grab from Google Maps that shows how this area used to look.

Quite an improvement, huh? This is the second park that has been created to serve the Bloomingdale Trail. The first is Albany-Whipple Park in Humboldt Park (some say Logan Square, but I consider this Humboldt – south of Armitage and west of Humboldt?). A few years ago this was just an empty lot:

via Google Maps

In 2009, I took this photo of the park as it was being developed:

The Bucktown park looks a lot like Albany Whipple Park did in 2009. Grass. A fence. I need to get back over to this Albany Whipple Park because they’ve since added a playground and have developed the park more.

Anyway, I’m excited for the Bloomingdale Trail to be developed. I can’t wait til they start work on the trail itself! Read more on the Bloomingdale Trail.

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