606 Trail Officially Opens
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The ribbon was cut this morning on the nearly three-mile long trail known as the 606, reports WBBM's Mike Krauser.
The $95 million 606 is officially open after a decade of planning and construction converting an old elevated railroad into Chicago's newest park.
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"It's an alternative transportation corridor, a park and a living work of art," said project manager Beth White of the Trust for Public Land. "That's a pretty tall order but I think we pulled it off."
The 606 connects four neighborhoods: Bucktown, Wicker Park, Logan Square and Humboldt Park.
"You see your community all the way around you with new eyes and it is incredibly exciting," said Ben Helphand with the group Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail.
Six ground-level parks are connected to the trail from stretching between Ashland Avenue and Ridgeway at Bloomingdale Avenue.
"We think it's fantastic," said Carrie Goesel. "We live in Lakeview and we've never actually been to this part of a Chicago. The 606 brought us here."
Kariman Diab took a stroll on the trail with her four children.
"It's amazing," Diab said. "We've seen it being built in the past few years, we've seen it coming together."
Senator Dick Durbin noted the federal government kicked in $50 million from gas taxes, "Which is going to transform neighborhoods and build communities and that is what this is all about."
And that has some concerned, especially on the western end of the trail about gentrification and getting priced out of the neighborhood.
"I saw in the paper today, 65 percent of dwelling units in Wicker Park and in Logan Square are rental, so rents will go up, significantly," said bicyclist Allan Slobodin. "At the same time those kinds of things are inevitable."
In response, Beth White said in a statement: "Parks add value to communities. We want to see those living in the community enjoying the parks."
For more information, visit www.the606.org.
