Open Streets returns to the O-Fo

Verdant Oak Forest, Ill. turns the rest of Chicagoland—which means you too, Chicago—green with envy as it shuts down IL-50/Cicero Avenue—a state designated Strategic Regional Arterial, 5-lanes, 40 MPH traffic—to motorized vehicles on March 12, the second time it's closed down Cicero Avenue in two years.

There ain't any road too big for a Southland town to shut down. At least not for a party.

The 2nd annual Open Streets Oak Forest, is a charming hour of biking/walking/running/skating/cartwheeling fun between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., just before the Oak Forest Irish parade, which itself is a feature of what might be the biggest pub crawl in the region, the all-day-into-the-night Oak Forest Fleadh (pronounced "flah").

Come out to Cicero Avenue from 151st Street to 159th Street any time between 10 and 11 a.m. Play however you’d like! Find the Active Trans leprechauns at our tent just north of the viaduct at Waverly Avenue and Cicero Avenue to sign up for the season’s bicycle rides and races. Buy or renew a membership, and we will jig for you.

More information: http://www.oak-forest.org/community/OakForestFleadh.asp or contact Steve Buchtel, [email protected] or 708.365.9365.

(How does Oak Forest pull this off? It isn't that hard; you just aren't Irish enough! Okay, it's got nothing to do with that—see our Open Streets How-To guide.)