Lightfoot slammed on social media for allowing security to park in the bike lane while buying donuts

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is taking a beating on social media, from cycling enthusiasts and City Council champions, for allowing her bodyguard and pace car to park both SUVs in a bike lane so she could race to a North Side donut shop.

During the pandemic, Lightfoot was accused of doing what I say, not what I do hypocrisy for cutting her hair at a time when hair salons were closed. The mayor defended him after photos surfaced on social media showing her cutting her hair without wearing a mask.

It happened again on November 9, when the activist group Bike Lane Uprising posted a couple of photos.

The first showed a mayoral SUV parked in the North Avenue bike lane outside Roeser’s Bakery, 3216 W. North Ave. The other showed Lightfoot waiting in line inside the bakery.

“Coincidentally, I was at the Roeser house at the same time as Lori Lightfoot. She watched her entourage (2 XL SUVs) park in the North Ave bike lane for 10 minutes. For some fucking donuts. Unreal,” cycling enthusiast Sara Brammeier wrote between the two photos she apparently took that day.

The Bike Lane Uprising tweet, first reported by Block Club Chicago, reads: “Hey @chicagosmayor, parking in bike lanes so you can get donuts means you value donuts over life for cyclists. A RECORD NUMBER OF CYCLISTS HAVE DIED DURING HIS TERM. We need a mayor who leads by example. This is not everything.

Ald from the north side. Andre Vasquez (40^the) was equally outraged.

Earlier this year, Vasquez proposed cracking down on bike lane obstructions with sign requirements and stepping up ticketing and towing to prevent a repeat of the tragic accident that killed 3-year-old Lily Grace Shambrook. .

On June 9, the little girl was riding in a bike rack attached to her mother’s bike when a truck struck and killed her. Her mother was maneuvering around a ComEd truck that was blocking the bike lane.

The traffic accident, one of three fatal incidents in June involving children beaten and killed on the streets of Chicago, occurred on a busy Uptown block that prompted an outpouring of complaints from local residents.

“Even when we’ve been trying to get legislation moving through the Transportation Committee, the administration has been blocking us left and right,” Vasquez told the Chicago Sun-Times.

“I’m trying to figure out what else it does besides block because that’s what it feels like. Between block this. Anjanette Young ordinance blocking. Bring Chicago home lockdown. Looks like that’s her move. She doesn’t deliver. She blocks.

Lightfoot announced earlier this year that Chicago would add 25 miles of concrete-protected bike lanes by December 31 and convert all plastic-post-protected bike lanes to concrete separation by the end of 2023.

At the time, the mayor called it the “largest expansion and improvement of low-stress bike routes” in Chicago history.

After the donut shop episode, Vasquez said, “I am concerned about how seriously this administration is taking infrastructure and transportation knowing that we have more cyclists. And it’s really not the best thing to send a signal to Chicago that they should, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’”

Retiring Transportation Committee Chairman Howard Brookins (21^st) questioned why Lightfoot would allow his detail to defy the law that prohibits motorists from stopping and standing in bike lanes, particularly when “the bodyguards could have dropped her off at the bakery, gone around the block, and come back to pick her up.”

“The message is a message of duplicity. He doesn’t set the right example as a leader of this city and especially as someone who believes in the Green Revolution,” Brookins said.

“As someone who has grown up in the public eye understanding that people are always watching you seems like a foolish move. Especially when you have bodyguards and the means to do things differently. … I just don’t understand why you would risk someone calling you out for doing those things and damaging your brand. Has no sense. Those will be things that will be discussed in depth at the next election and she will have to answer for it.”

Brookins said Vasquez’s proposed crackdown has stalled in his committee because Chicago Department of Transportation officials “had some objections to the language,” even though they agree with the thrust of the legislation.

“I intend to continue with that soon if it looks like they can’t get it done,” the president said.