Leveraging the power of established community organizations and City agencies active in the Austin, East and West Garfield Park, and North Lawndale neighborhoods, MUSE led innovative and tactile engagement to build safer communities. We brought our hands-on “Design A Street” activity out to community events, created a pop-up runners’ lounge during a 5K, and experimented with creating sidewalk bumpouts. 

We developed a social media strategy to bolster visibility and engagement, and created stickers and other swag to hand out in the neighborhoods to help locals voice their traffic concerns. 

The engagement and plan development process resulted in community-supported short-, medium-, and long-term recommendations to make streets on Chicago’s West Side safer. In 2019, Mayor Lightfoot committed $6 million to implement the recommendations put forth in the plan.