• Mozart Campus Park was completed this spring and Drummond’s Campus Park is underway.
   
• After an intensive community planning process for Palmer Square the Chicago Park District (CPD) is implementing a design that targets the most historically degraded section of the square for an innovative playground for children between the ages of 2 to 5. This playground will contain original sculpted play features integrated with standard playground equipment depicting scenes from the “the Velveteen Rabbit,” which was popularized during the community’s early growth. The playground will be slightly recessed into the ground to minimize the disturbance of the existing landscape.
   
• Two new parks are being planned at a prominent access point into the community. The first one being constructed is a skate park in an I-90/94 underpass at Western Avenue. Skate elements include “fun boxes”, a half bowl and quarter pipe/bank combo. The CPD has worked very closely with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to provide IDOT with access under bridge for maintenance. The second site is located south of Logan Boulevard between Western and Artesian Avenues. The site, acquired by Chicago Department of Planning and Development (DPD) from IDOT in 2005, will host a passive walkway that will meander through green space and connect Logan Boulevard with Western Avenue and several open lawn areas will provide space for neighbors to recreate.
   
• New Market Plaza: DPD is in the process of acquiring a gravel parking lot from the CTA for use as a weekly farmers market to be hosted by the Logan Square Chamber of Commerce. The market has grown from a bi-weekly pilot in 2005 to a successful weekly market in 2006 with an average of 10 vendors and 800 shoppers passing through each week. Once acquired, DPD will work with the chamber to design the space as a plaza and to accommodate the relocated market.
   
• New Community-Managed Open Space: At the start of the planning process, DPD and CPD encouraged the residents living near the city-owned vacant lot at Whipple and Dickens to pursue a community managed open space. Since then, residents have developed the site, DPD funded the installation of a water source and is transferring the land to NeighborSpace (a Chicago land trust) for long-term protection and management by the community.
   
• Working with the community, CPD has replaced the old playground with a new state-of-the-art playground at Kosciusko Park.
   
• Work is being completed on a new playground and spray pool at Haas Park that are replacing an old playground and basketball court. Working with the Trust for Public Lands (TPL), CPD purchased and demolished the building to the west adding an additional 0.47 acres to the park. Future plans call for closing Fairfield Avenue to connect the existing park with the new parcel and constructing a new field house with clubrooms and a gymnasium.
   
• DPD received a state matching grant to move an off-site playground to the Brentano School grounds, to relocate parking to an off-site location, and to add artificial turf to a heavily used ball field. Construction begins this spring.
   
• The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) has installed 3.4 miles of additional marked, on-street bikeways and 9.25 miles of signed bike routes in order to provide bicyclists safe and convenient connections throughout Logan Square. In 2007, CDOT plans to install an additional 1.9 miles of signed bike routes and 0.25 mile of mark, on-street bikeways.

Bloomingdale Linear Park
While most people are truly excited about turning two miles of the 100-year old elevated railroad structure into the Bloomingdale Linear Park, it has not been done in Chicago before. The first task - an environmental assessment – has been completed and the line will be granted a No Further Remediation (NFR) letter from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

CDOT’s current estimate for the entire park project is $30 to $50 million. CDOT has conducted initial studies of the 37 viaducts and has applied for a federal transportation grant to develop engineering drawings and specifications. The City and Park District estimate that the Bloomingdale Linear Park project will take five to 10 years to develop using local, state and federal funds. Meanwhile, DPD and CPD are concentrating on acquiring and securing vacant lots and public rights-of-way that abut the structure for future access points. DPD, with assistance from TPL is finalizing acquisition of six vacant parcels on the north side of the Bloomingdale between Whipple and Albany. Once acquired, CPD intends to develop a neighborhood park on the land that will be able to incorporate a future access ramp. This site lies in an area with 5,000 children that are not served by a nearby park. CPD will initiate a community design process for the land in the fall with construction to begin in 2008. At Milwaukee and Leavitt, DPD is acquiring a site for a regional access point. With these two acquisitions, the two existing CPD parks that currently abut the line and several other public rights-of-way sites, access points will be available every .3 to .4 miles.