Joliet man fighting for rights of pedestrians amid local obstacles
By Bob Okon bokon@stmedianetwork.com February 2, 2012 7:44PM
Joliet resident Ike Ivanich talks about the lack of crosswalks and sidewalks at Larkin Avenue and Theodore Street on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012, in Joliet. | Matthew Grotto~Sun-Times Media
Updated: March 4, 2012 8:16AM
JOLIET — Ike Ivanich walks instead of driving.
He does it because he has to, but walking around in the modern world can be challenge.
He, too, has heard the advice that a walk to the store is good for you.
“The person who said that, I want to see him walking in the next snowstorm to get what he has to get,” Ivanich said while sipping coffee at the Crest Hill McDonald’s, a daily destination a mile from his Joliet apartment.
Ivanich had to give up his car two years ago after losing his job. He has been walking ever since, and it’s kind of like entering a new world — one that really does not fit into an automobile-driven society.
“Once I started walking, you see a lot more when you’re walking than when you’re driving,” he said. “You get new respect for people who are walking.”
Snow, signals and mud
Snow left unshoveled on sidewalks is just one issue a regular walker faces each winter day in his travels, Ivanich said.
Last winter, he saw old people struggling through deep snow on sidewalks and a woman pushing a baby carriage on Larkin Avenue because the snow on the sidewalk was too thick.
He unsuccessfully tried to convince the Joliet City Council to pass a law requiring people to shovel their sidewalks.
But even during the unusually balmy winter weather of late, Ivanich can point to several obstacles that stand between a walker and his destination.
There are tree branches that hang low over sidewalks. Ivanich said the city will trim them when he calls, but he has cut a few himself after “I got tired of bumping my head.”
There are intersections without crosswalks or pedestrian walk signals.
Ivanich’s latest cause is to convince the city of Crest Hill to do something about the intersection at Larkin Avenue and Theodore Street.
A crosswalk and pedestrian signals are needed there, he said.
“I almost got hit here three of four times,” Ivanich said at the intersection during a walk with a Herald-News reporter and photographer this week. “I always walk with the (traffic) light. “(The drivers) were on the cell phone. They turned the corner and just weren’t paying attention.”
Worse than that, he said, many motorists see pedestrians as pests that get in their way.
Some edge their cars dangerously close to him, he said, to show their annoyance.
A crosswalk and pedestrian walk signal would reinforce his rights as a pedestrian, he said.
Then, there’s the fact that once he leaves the Joliet side of Larkin Avenue, the sidewalk ends. Ivanich pointed across Theodore to the muddy grass in front of the Hillcrest Shopping Center in Crest Hill. There’s no sidewalk.
As Ivanich explained this, Melissa Polchlopek of New Lenox came strolling through the intersection.
“I dropped my car off (at nearby Thomas Motors) to get an oil change, and I thought I’d go shopping,” she said.
Did she find any challenges during her walk?
“Look at my boots. That’s my answer,” she said, glancing down to show the mud coating her boots. “I was weaving my way between muddy parts, trying to stay on the grass.”
What about the lack of a crosswalk?
“I noticed that, too,” she said.
Two businesses step up
Jamel Wren, a senior at Joliet West High School, also was walking along Larkin Avenue that day and was asked if he thought it was easy to get around as a pedestrian.
“No,” Wren answered flatly. “I’ll be trying to go to school, and they barely shovel the sidewalks. … Some people are good citizens and they clean the sidewalks. But mostly, you have to walk through some deep snow.”
Two businesses, however, get gold stars from Ivanich for regularly shoveling the sidewalks between their parking lots and Larkin Avenue: Jewel-Osco and First Midwest Bank.
“Jewel actually throws salt on their sidewalk,” Ivanich said.
But then there are a couple of other business on Larkin Avenue that plow the snow from their parking lot onto the sidewalk, making pedestrians’ lives more difficult.
Ivanich goes into those places to tell them what he thinks.
Does it do any good?
“No, but at least I get it off my chest,” he said.
Ivanich does agree that walking is good for your health — if you don’t get hit by a car. He’s lost 15 pounds since he began walking at least two miles a day. But he only weighed 135 pounds when he started.
“It keeps you in shape,” he noted. But then he added, “Like I need to lose weight.”
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