D-o ** I-t ** O-u-r-s-e-l-v-e-s

This is a do-it-ourselves project. Well, sort of. Most major projects that affect a city take big bucks and big planning. This one takes far less...but the pay-off is tremendous. And we, on the Chicago board, could actually plan it out here and present it to the city. It is someting more than do-able to plan here, in fact. What is it (ALREADY!)? I had read elsewhere on the internet something I found fascinating that shockingly was being developed in Lower Manhattan. Old, elevated rail road right-of-ways are to be redeveloped as bike and pedestrian paths across the swath(s) of Manhattan where located. I had no idea they even existed in such a crowded setting. So easily putting 2 and 2 together, I came up with: WHY NOT CHICAGO? Think about it: we have enough elevated r.r. tracks in our city, some fairly close to downtown. Think of the view for a walk or a bike ride on these structures if they were refurbished? long stretches with no traffic crossings and the view changing constantly!Think of the bang you could get for the buck from this relative inexpensive project. So, two questions: 1. good idea or bad? 2. if good, should we try to use this thread as aplace to iron out what it might look like and try to find a way to present this to the city?>