606 trail to open Monday — though some aren’t waiting

Officially, the 606 trail on Chicago’s Northwest Side reopens Monday.

Unofficially, it’s already being used.

Despite the city order shutting it down in March, warm weather — and plenty of opportunity — has been too tempting for some.

Several cyclists, runners and stroller-pushers were on the trail Thursday morning. Traffic barriers meant to block a trail entrance at California and Bloomingdale lay on the pavement. Police tape serving the same purpose had been shorn.

The Lakefront Trail also reopens Monday. On both, there will be restrictions, including hours of use (6 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and reasons for use (only exercise or transit). Both will have “social distance ambassadors” — Park District volunteers — enforcing proper spacing.

The 2.7-mile 606, also known as the Bloomingdale Trail, has been closed since March. It has been popular and often crowded since it opened in 2016 on a former rail right-of-way.

But crowding is not an option, for now.

“We want the public to enjoy these iconic opportunities and the outdoors. But we want everyone to do this safely. And we must make sure that we are mobile and moving along the lakefront, along the 606, along the Riverwalk and other activities,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday at a news conference on the south lakefront.

“It is critically important that we not congregate,” she added, because COVID-19 “still is very much in our present.”

Lightfoot is “watching with great concern” other states that have experienced “huge surges in cases — in some instances, the highest [rate of] infections at any point in the arc of this virus” — after reopening without caution.

“We will not allow that to be the narrative of Chicago. But that really depends on each of you being smart, being careful, wearing masks when you’re out in public. Making sure you’re adhering to social distancing and continuing to do the hand hygiene,” she said.

“I don’t want to be in a position where I have to stand in front of Chicago and say, ‘We failed and we have to scale back our reopening.’ That would be devastating to everyone.”

Social ambassadors will “educate people into compliance” along both trails, the mayor said. “We don’t want to fine people. We don’t want to lock people up.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Courtney Cimo, 26, a wedding photographer, was sitting in Wicker Park with a friend Thursday, a few blocks south of the 606.

“It’s exciting and heartwarming to see things open up slowly, it feels a little more normal,” she said.

“Last week I walked into a furniture store just to browse,” she added. “I’m also just thankful it’s summer and we can be outside.”

Louie Abellera, a friend and fellow photographer, said seeing people out and about is a joy.

“It’s just nice to see things open and people eating outside,” said Abellera, 30, of Logan Square.

One reason for reopening the Lakefront Trail, Lightfoot acknowledged, is that, like the 606, there has been “a little bit of leakage” — meaning, people are using them anyway.

Still, while the trails will officially open, the beaches are not, because Lightfoot remains concerned about large groups congregating on beaches.

Naturally, that also means no one in Lake Michigan. “We’re not allowing that. ...We’re not sanctioning that,” Lightfoot said.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

In other reopening news:

• Chicago harbors and the South Shore and Sydney R. Marovitz golf courses also open Monday.

• Still not open: playgrounds in city parks. “We are not devoting resources to repeatedly cleaning the playgrounds and I would urge parents not to use them. ... You’re putting yourself and your children at risk,” Lightfoot said.

• Restaurants still remain closed to indoor dining, but are poised to reopen on June 27, if Illinois graduates to Phase 4 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan. Lightfoot wanted them open already.

“I do think we can open up indoor dining and do it safely. And I think sooner rather than later. This is something I’ve been advocating for for some time, but we have not been able to make progress with the state, which is unfortunate,” Lightfoot said.

“Restaurateurs who have been absolutely devastated and crushed by the stay-at-home order can’t depend ... on whether or not the weather is nice on a particular day. We are opening up indoor activities in other areas. It’s way past time that we open up indoor dining.”

• Those who do flock to the Lakefront Trail may notice repairs made possible by a $4.75 million donation from billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin. Parts of the trail were damaged by storms and high water levels over the winter. The money also will go toward additional work to fortify parts of the trail, especially on the South Side, to better protect them in the future.

Griffin had donated $12 million in 2016 to help complete separate bike and walking paths long the 18-mile pathway.

Recent protection efforts along the lakefront also include a project from at 49th Street by the Chicago Department of Transportation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps added more than 2,000 tons of rip rap and concrete blocks along the shore starting at 49th, south to 50th Streets. That area had eroded severely over the fall and winter, according to the city. The Lakefront Trail also is still being rebuilt in that area; that project will take about three months.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times