Lincoln Square Ald. Andre Vasquez Directs Traffic Himself at Western and Argyle After Crash

On a humid weekday morning last week, Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" blared from a speaker on the corner of Western Avenue and Argyle Street in Lincoln Square. The music wasn't for a block party. It was keeping Ald. Andre Vasquez awake as he stood in gridlocked traffic at 7:30 a.m., waving cars through an intersection that isn't part of his job to manage.

Vasquez, who represents the 40th Ward, started directing traffic himself after a car crashed into a nearby garage following a jam that backed up onto Argyle, a one-way street that empties into Western. The gridlock had gotten worse because of water maintenance work on Ainslie and Oakley streets, which was pushing cars onto Argyle and Western at the same time drivers were trying to drop kids off at St. Mathias school.

Before the crash, Vasquez had already contacted the city, the Chicago Police Department, the Chicago Department of Transportation, the Department of Water Management and the Office of Emergency Management Communications, warning that the maintenance work was creating a dangerous bottleneck. He said the Department of Water Management could only send flaggers to its own work site at Ainslie and Oakley, not to Western. CDOT couldn't send anyone either, he said. Police could respond, but any officer stationed there would have to leave if called to an emergency elsewhere.

With no one available from any agency, Vasquez put on a yellow vest and started directing traffic himself. He now does it for about an hour on many mornings, timed to the school dropoff rush at St. Mathias.

"Somebody's gonna get in a fight if it gets clogged up on Western like that," Vasquez said on Sept. 3. "If your kid gets hit on my watch because it's something that was preventable, even if it's just having somebody here for a couple hours until the long-term fixes happen, I couldn't have that on my conscience."

Philip Rodrigues, a parent at St. Mathias, said he appreciates the effort but worries about Vasquez's safety standing in an intersection with two lanes of fast-moving traffic. "I don't think it's the safest thing," Rodrigues said. "You have two lanes of traffic coming, speeding down Western constantly. That's a little dangerous for yourself."

Vasquez has also posted videos of himself directing traffic on social media as part of a campaign he's calling "Stop the Bull$HI+," aimed at pressuring city departments to send help. "How long will it take for city departments to have someone out here to direct traffic? Let's see, shall we?" he wrote in an Instagram post. "It's not an alder problem, I know that much!"

CDOT spokesperson Erica Schroeder said the agency has been in contact with Vasquez's office and sent staff to observe conditions during rush hour. This week, CDOT sent Vasquez a cost estimate for a "paint and post" treatment north of Argyle on Western intended to give left-turning drivers better visibility. "Traffic appears to be moving normally and congestion issues appear to have been resolved," Schroeder said, adding that the department will keep monitoring the area as construction and utility work continues.

The mayor's office, the Chicago Police Department and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications did not respond to requests for comment.

Mahdi Hemingway, whose garage was destroyed in the crash, said drivers routinely try to cut down the alley across from his house despite clear dead-end signage, and the water main work made the confusion worse. CDOT had already installed bump-outs on Argyle and Western to narrow traffic to one lane and put in concrete medians on Western to stop cars from waiting in the middle of the road. Hemingway said those changes fixed one problem but created another: drivers can no longer pull into the median to make a left turn, so cars are backing up on Argyle instead.

"The benefit is that you don't have people speeding up the middle of the street. It was pretty bad. That was very unsafe," Hemingway said. "With that said, if you were trying to make a nice, modest left turn, you can't because the median is there."

Vasquez wants a formal traffic study of the intersection, but in the meantime he's pushing the city to assign someone, from any department, to handle the corner during rush hour. "CPD should have a specific traffic unit. We've got bike cops, we have folks who are on horses," he said. "I literally just need two people with a sign and a vest."

Ward resident Tricia Schweska, who was walking down Western when Vasquez was out directing cars, said she'd like to see a permanent crossing guard or traffic officer posted at the intersection rather than relying on Vasquez to keep showing up.

For now, CDOT's paint-and-post estimate is the only concrete change on the table. Vasquez said he'll keep directing traffic himself on mornings when the backup gets bad, until the city sends someone to do it instead.