Loyola Takes Over Maintenance of Traffic Triangle

Loyola has assumed responsibility for maintaining the neighborhood Traffic Triangle at North Broadway, West Sheridan Road and West Devon Avenue as part of a local beautification effort supported by Special Service Area (SSA) #54. SSA #54 is represented by Associate Vice President of Neighborhood Initiatives Jennifer Clark.

Special Service Areas are hyperlocal taxes for businesses in the area to support the streets in their section through maintenance, street banners and aesthetics, according to the Rogers Park Business Alliance. 

The Chicago Department of Transportation is currently fixing the irrigation system which runs under the median as the old pipes had been stolen since the area has been neglected for years, Clark said. Loyola will add fall plants, including mums, and trees which comply with a list by Chicago when they are done which comply with Chicago standards and recommendations. Clark and Gonzalez said the goal is to have the area finished by Thanksgiving, but weather could delay the project.

Clark said Loyola sent out a Community Engagement Survey in 2024 to get community feedback. The planter was a common issue cited by Rogers Park and Edgewater residents.

Results were shared in the Campus Plan Community Engagement Report, according to their website. The questionnaire asked visitors about desired improvements and spaces, the report said. There were 5,464 total visits and 243 comments for the interactive map, according to the report.

Director of Neighborhood Initiatives for the Lake Shore and Health Science Campuses Summur Lawson presented the project at a Sept. 4 Town Hall covering the Campus Plan and received positive feedback from those in attendance, The Phoenix previously reported.

“I felt really good that Loyola was part of something that was really resonating with people,” Lawson said.

Associate Vice President of Facilities Hamlet Gonzalez, who has helped oversee the project, said although the city of Chicago owns the property, Loyola often received complaints about the planter. He said it had become overrun with rats, littered with trash and dead trees falling onto nearby sidewalks.

“It wasn’t going to get any better,” Gonzalez said. “So we needed to take action before it got worse.”

Loyola’s Office of Neighborhood Initiatives shared a mock up and explanation of the plan on their website Sept. 23. Gonzalez said the mockup depiction won’t be identical to the final product because plants will be changed for different seasons.

Part of the project involved expanding the beauty of Loyola’s campus to better connect with and serve the surrounding community, according to Clark.

“It’s not just about being a good neighbor,” Clark said. “It’s about being like an anchor in the community and showing that you want to live in Rogers Park and Edgewater because proximity to Loyola makes better neighborhoods.”

Clark said they hope this project will extend some of the beauty of Lake Shore Campus into the area near West Sheridan Road.

“I think it’s a step in the direction that the community wants us to go, which is Loyola helping to bring the campus feel out into the neighborhood a little more,” Clark said.

Lawon said her department tabled and placed paper versions of the survey with receptacle boxes throughout the community.

“The things that Loyola does absolutely impact those that are not students, staff or faculty,” Lawson said. “It’s important that we recognize that, and we value our place in these communities, and we respect that there is a whole ecosystem here in addition to our own internal ecosystem.”

One concern described in the Community Report was the safety for pedestrians walking and crossing the sidewalks around the planter.

“We, Loyola, are very much committed to working with the city, working with CDOT on a longer term plan to address pedestrian safety, not just there, but starting all the way at Kenmore and Sheridan, all the way around the curve, all the way north to Loyola Avenue,” Lawson said.

The project is expected to cost Loyola about $80,000, according to Clark.

“I’m very pleased that given the city’s funding constraints, even the university’s funding constraints with everything that’s going on with the federal government, that everything aligned and we were able to do this because the alternative would have been a barren space,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said he wants to continue to improve the area in the spring.

“I think it’d be nice to have something there to provide shelter for insects, especially like I said, everything surrounding that area is very much urban,” Gonzalez said. “I think having that little island there to provide some shelter would be nice.”

Second-year environmental policy and English major Tessa Ferrara said she had to walk through the area around the Traffic Triangle when there was a rainstorm over the summer and water was overflowing. She said she’s excited to see what plants are going to be going into the green space. 

“I’m in Restoration Club, so we’re a big proponent of hopefully native plants going in there,” Ferrara said. “Winning all around.”

First-year public health major Sonja Lindstrom said she remembers touring Loyola last year and noticed the removal of the trees this year.

“I think that’s a really high traffic area that a lot of people have to walk through,” Lindstrom said. “Making it look nice and cleaning it up will be really good for people that are pedestrians, especially college students.”

Fourth-year biochemistry major Mikayla Doyle said she’s glad Loyola is taking care of the area since the city wasn’t, but she has mixed feelings about the project.

“I’m glad to see this, if it’s something that actually wants up with the community,” Doyle said. “I feel like,  just hearing that number for the first time, it sounds like a lot.”